Bio-waste in Europe — turning challenges into opportunities
Resource efficiency and waste
An average of 5.2 tonnes of waste from all sources was generated per person in the EU-27 in 2018
We need to fundamentally transform the way we produce, consume and live in order to preserve nature’s ability to provide for us. Let’s produce more with fewer inputs and see waste as a resource.
While awareness, concern and action over how we dispose of plastics in the marine environment and elsewhere have grown enormously in recent years, there are many other and less known impacts of plastics, including its contribution to climate change and new challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the EEA report ‘Plastics, the circular economy and Europe′s environment — A priority for action’.
Country profiles on resource efficiency and waste
This map contains information on countries’ performance and policies around municipal waste management, waste prevention, and resource efficiency and circular economy. Select one of the EEA member or cooperating countries in order to view its country profile for each of these policy areas.
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A moody shot of a windswept lighthouse in an approaching storm on the Dutch coast, which won the Public Choice Award, headlines this year’s winners of the EEA’s ‘Well with Nature’ photo competition announced today. The 2022 competition was the EEA’s largest ever, drawing a record 5236 entries from across Europe.
Building renovation is a key contributor to improving energy efficiency and to achieving a climate neutral European Union (EU) by 2050. A European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing, published today, investigates how circular economy principles can enhance the benefits of building renovation. It finds that, through 2050, circularity can significantly reduce the use of materials and contribute significant additional reductions in the CO2 emissions embedded in Europe’s buildings.
Published: 26 Apr 2022
Municipal waste, if not managed properly, is a source of pollution. However, it also contains valuable materials that can be recycled. As in the EU, in the Western Balkan countries municipal waste has been the target of waste policies for several years, mainly aimed at improving waste management. This briefing reviews current waste issues across the region, key initiatives being implemented, and remaining obstacles to preventing municipal waste generation and to its appropriate management.
Published: 26 Apr 2022
Municipal waste accounts for 27 % of the total waste generated in the EU (excluding mineral waste). Due to its complex composition and ubiquity, it can have significant negative impacts on human health and on the environment if not managed properly. The 2020 EU Circular Economy Action Plan has established an objective of halving the quantity of municipal waste that is not recycled or prepared for reuse by 2030. At the same time, all EU member states will have to recycle or prepare for reuse at least 60% of generated municipal waste by 2030. This briefing explores how these two targets are linked and how more ambitious waste prevention actions will be key for achieving them simultaneously.
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A moody shot of a windswept lighthouse in an approaching storm on the Dutch coast, which won the Public Choice Award, headlines this year’s winners of the EEA’s ‘Well with Nature’ photo competition announced today. The 2022 competition was the EEA’s largest ever, drawing a record 5236 entries from across Europe.
Circularity can enhance greenhouse gas emission savings when renovating Europe's buildings
News 07 Jul 2022Building renovation is a key contributor to improving energy efficiency and to achieving a climate neutral European Union (EU) by 2050. A European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing, published today, investigates how circular economy principles can enhance the benefits of building renovation. It finds that, through 2050, circularity can significantly reduce the use of materials and contribute significant additional reductions in the CO2 emissions embedded in Europe’s buildings.
Making Europe’s sewage treatment plants more efficient and circular can help meet zero-pollution targets
News 05 Jul 2022Sewage treatment can play a key role in Europe’s shift to a zero-pollution future by becoming more resource efficient and contributing to the circular economy, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) report published today.
While companies have huge influence in framing and shaping demand for products, consumers play a key role in raising demand for goods and services that have adopted circular economy principles, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing published today.
Besides providing trusted information on our environment and climate, the European Environment Agency (EEA) is working to improve its own environmental performance as an organisation. We interviewed Melanie Sporer who coordinates these efforts at the EEA, using the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
Living in a state of multiple crises: health, nature, climate, economy, or simply systemic unsustainability?
Article 15 Jun 2021From policy corridors to academic platforms, the world has been talking about global crises: a health crisis, an economic and financial crisis, a climate crisis and a nature crisis. Ultimately, they are all symptoms of the same problem: our unsustainable production and consumption. The COVID-19 shock has only revealed the systemic frailty of our global economy and society with all their inequalities.
Municipal waste, if not managed properly, is a source of pollution. However, it also contains valuable materials that can be recycled. As in the EU, in the Western Balkan countries municipal waste has been the target of waste policies for several years, mainly aimed at improving waste management. This briefing reviews current waste issues across the region, key initiatives being implemented, and remaining obstacles to preventing municipal waste generation and to its appropriate management.
Reaching 2030’s residual municipal waste target – why recycling is not enough
Publication 26 Apr 2022Municipal waste accounts for 27 % of the total waste generated in the EU (excluding mineral waste). Due to its complex composition and ubiquity, it can have significant negative impacts on human health and on the environment if not managed properly. The 2020 EU Circular Economy Action Plan has established an objective of halving the quantity of municipal waste that is not recycled or prepared for reuse by 2030. At the same time, all EU member states will have to recycle or prepare for reuse at least 60% of generated municipal waste by 2030. This briefing explores how these two targets are linked and how more ambitious waste prevention actions will be key for achieving them simultaneously.
Resource nexus assessments analyse the direct and indirect interconnections between different natural resources, their management, use and governance, as well as the synergies and trade-offs that can be generated through policy interventions. By building on the insights provided by a growing body of knowledge and selected case studies, this briefing reflects on the role of the resource nexus in supporting policy coherence and integration in the context of the European Green Deal.
Textiles and the environment: the role of design in Europe’s circular economy
Publication 15 Feb 2022From the perspective of European consumption, textiles have on average the fourth highest negative life cycle impact on the environment and climate change, after food, housing and mobility. A shift to a circular textile production and consumption system with longer use, and more reuse and recycling could reduce those impacts along with reductions in overall consumption. One important measure is circular design of textiles to improve product durability, repairability and recyclability and to ensure the uptake of secondary raw materials in new products.
