Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

e-mail contact: ESTAT-CIRCULAR-ECONOMY@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the Circular Economy indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards a circular economy on the thematic area of 'waste management'.

Recycling rate of municipal waste gives an indication of how waste from final consumers is used as a resource in the circular economy. Municipal waste reflects mainly waste generated by the final consumers as it includes waste from households and waste from other sources that is similar in nature and composition to household waste. Although it accounts for around 10% of total waste generated in the EU, because of its heterogeneous composition the sound management of municipal waste is challenging. The recycling rate of municipal waste provides a good indication of the quality of the overall waste management system. 

This indicator can be used to monitor compliance with the target included in the article 11.2 of the Waste Framework Directive. "In order to comply with the objectives of this Directive, and move to a European circular economy with a high level of resource efficiency, Member States shall take the necessary measures designed to achieve the following targets: (a) by 2020, the preparing for re-use and the recycling of waste materials such as at least paper, metal, plastic and glass from households and possibly from other origins as far as these waste streams are similar to waste from households, shall be increased to a minimum of overall 50 % by weight;"

The indicator measures the share of recycled municipal waste in the total municipal waste generation. The ratio is expressed in percent (%) as both terms are measured in the same unit, namely tonnes.

According to Article 7.4 of the Commission Implementing Decision 2019/1004, the European Commission must publish the data reported by the Member States concerning the implementation of points (a) to (e) of Article 11 (2) of Directive 2008/98/EC. Therefore, since the entry into force of this Decision, preparing for re-use is also included in recycling. Previously, the indicator only included material recycling, composting and anaerobic digestion.

Percentage.

Calendar year.

The indicator is produced according to the high-level quality standards of European Statistics. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link in "Related metadata").

ESS

Data source: European Statistical System (ESS)

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) based on data reported by the countries: Municipal waste by waste operations (env_wasmun) collected via a subset of the OECD/Eurostat Joint Questionnaire, section waste. Data are provided under a so-called gentlemen's agreement.

Every year

Indicator is updated annually.

T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The EU aggregate is also available.

> 75% EU MS

The comparability across countries is considered relatively high as all countries apply the same definition and have high quality data sources.

> 10 years

Presented time series starts in 2000.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Commission Staff Working Document.

Eurostat, Statistics Explained: Municipal waste statistics.

See table cei_wm011

Eurostat dedicated section on Circular Economy.

Eurostat dedicated section on Waste Statistics.

DG ENV, Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan.

Copyrights:
Eurostat Copyright/Licence Policy is applicable.