Materials and waste

Developing a circular economy requires transformation of material flows to reduce the use of virgin raw materials by keeping products in use for longer and recycling materials from end-of-life items.

Assessment

• Waste generation continues to increase despite a recent dip during the COVID19 pandemic. This increasing trend follows growth in GDP, albeit with evidence of partial decoupling. Management of waste has improved, and the landfill rate is reducing. However, recycling rates have stagnated in recent years.

• The EU’s total material footprint is well above the global average and exceeds the planet’s so-called ‘safe operating space’. The data indicate that if the whole world were to consume resources at the level of the EU, the capacity of the planet to provide these resources would be exceeded.

Waste generation

5 tonnes

of waste was generated per capita in the EU in 2022

Circular material use rate

11.8%

of EU material use is supplied by recycling waste materials.

Waste recycling

44%

of overall waste in the EU is recycled.

Renewable energy

24%

of EU energy consumption is met from renewable sources.

Europe's material footprint

14 t/per capita

of materials are extracted from nature to provide the goods and services consumed by EU citizens.

Disposal of waste in landfill

306kg

of waste per person landfilled in the EU in 2022

Residual waste generation

774 Mtonnes

of Europe's waste was considered as residual and so was sent to sent to landfill or incineration in 2020.

Resource productivity

2.7€/kg

worth of production activity is generated for every kilogramme of material consumed in the EU economy.

Material stock growth

2.6%

is the average annual growth rate from 2010-2022 by which the EU’s physical economy has been growing, leading to additional material extraction, energy use, and emissions.