Total waste generation

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The 2000 edition of 'Environmental Signals' reported that the EU generates around 1.3 billion tonnes of waste every year. The data also show that waste generation is still coupled to economic growth, making it impossible to pursue economic growth without generating increasingly serious waste management problems.

There is a particularly close link between economic growth and waste from the construction industry. As the Figure shows, this sector is responsible for around a fifth of all waste, while the largest sources are the manufacturing and mining/quarrying sectors.