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E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

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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'.

One of the central pillars of a circular economy is feeding material back into the economy and avoiding waste being sent to landfill or incinerated, thereby capturing the value of materials as far as possible and reducing losses.

The indicator is used to monitor progress towards the 55% packaging recycling target set for 2008 and the proposed 65% and 70% targets by 2025 and 2030 respectively.

The EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy also specifically targets particular priority area, of which plastic and bio-based materials such as wood. In this plan, the Commission has proposed an EU-wide target of 55% on recycling plastic packaging (by 2025), this indicator will allow monitoring progress towards this target. Regarding wooden packaging, the Commission has proposed an EU-wide 2030 target of 75% on preparation for reuse and recycling of wood packaging.

The indicator is defined as the share of recycled packaging waste in all generated packaging waste. Packaging waste covers wasted material that was used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods, from raw materials to processed goods, from the producer to the user or the consumer, excluding production residues.

Packaging waste is broken down into 'paper and cardboard packaging', 'plastic packaging', 'wooden packaging', 'metallic packaging' and 'glass packaging'.

The ratio is expressed in percent (%) as both terms are measured in the same unit, namely tonnes.

The source data set 'Recycling rates of packaging waste for monitoring compliance with policy targets, by type of packaging (env_waspacr)' includes for two types of waste material (plastic and wood) an 'adjusted recycling rate'. That means the recycling rates adjusted for monitoring compliance with policy targets in accordance with Article 6 of Directive 94/62/EC and Article 6b(1) of Decision 2005/270. The relevant rates for those materials are:

• Recycling rate of plastic packaging waste counts exclusively material that is recycled back into plastic (material recycling / generation).
• Recycling rate of wooden packaging waste is calculated including repair (recycling + repair of wooden packaging waste / generation + repair of wooden packaging waste).

Percentage.

Calendar year.

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”).

Ministries of Environment

Data source: Ministries of Environment

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) based on data reported by the countries.

Recycling rates of packaging waste for monitoring compliance with policy targets, by type of packaging (env_waspacr) and Packaging waste by waste operations (env_waspac), collected on the basis of the European Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste, as last amended. The reporting details are laid down in Commission Decision 2005/270/EC of 22 March 2005 establishing the formats relating to the database system pursuant to Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste.

'Packaging waste' means any packaging or packaging material covered by the definition of waste in Directive 2008/98/EC, excluding production residues.

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, Liechtenstein and Norway. The United Kingdom until 2018 (included) and North Ireland from 2019.

The EU aggregate is also available.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States.

> 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: Packaging waste statistics

See table cei_wm020

Eurostat dedicated section on Circular Economy.

Eurostat dedicated section on Waste Statistics.

DG ENV: EU Circular Economy Action Plan

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