Diversion of waste from landfill in Europe (Indicator)

The EU’s approach to waste management is based on the waste hierarchy. This prioritises the prevention of waste alongside strategies that extend the value of products and materials, such as reuse, recycling and other types of recovery. Landfilling is the least-preferred option since it poses environmental risks, and might impact groundwater and surface water quality. Therefore, EU rules aim to limit the amount of waste sent to landfill to a minimum.

The Landfill Directive aims to a) progressively reduce waste landfilling and b) restrict it where waste can be recycled or recovered in another way. More specifically, it sets the target to limit the share of generated municipal waste that can be landfilled by 2035 to 10% in each EU Member State. In addition, the EU aims to transition to a circular economy, which will minimise waste generation and landfilling.

The volume of household and household-like waste sent to landfill decreased between 2010 and 2022 by 20%, from 173 million tonnes to 137 million tonnes. After reaching the lowest value around the Covid-19 pandemic (2020), the value increased between 2020 and 2022 (by 2.4%). Over the whole period, the overall landfill rate (the share of total waste generated that is sent to landfill) decreased from 23% to 17%. This is partly due to efforts to increase recycling.

The most common types of landfilled waste are household and similar waste, sorting residues and combustion waste. Household and similar waste landfilling decreased by 61% over the whole period 2010-2022, combustion waste by 2.6% and other waste by 28%. On the contrary, residues from sorting operations sent to landfill increased by 107%, indicating a shift towards material recovery and higher recycling rates.

Of the 137 million tonnes sent to landfill, 52 million tonnes are municipal waste (largely household and similar waste), with an average landfill rate of 23% in the EU. Therefore, many Member States must speed up their efforts to meet the 10% target by 2035 (EEA, 2023).

Increasing waste generation (see indicator Waste generation in Europe), over-reliance on incineration where energy is generated and limited recycling capacity might challenge the EU’s ability to reduce its reliance on landfilling. This may also make it difficult for the EU to meet its goals for recycling 55% of municipal by 2035.

Please consult the relevant indicators and signals below for a more comprehensive overview on the topic.