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Environmental information systems
The indicator shows the share of material recovered and fed back into the economy – and thus saving extraction of primary raw materials – in overall material use.
Iceland’s economy was measured to be 8.5% circular in 2019, but the estimate could range from 6.5% to 11%. This is the first measurement of the circular material use rate in Iceland. There are no baseline data from 1990, so the figure reported is a nominal measurement and is not relative to a baseline.
High consumption, linear economic business models and the use of fossil fuels are the main hindrances to circularity, while focusing on recycling offers limited opportunities going forward. Suggested strategies to increase circularity centre around increasing the circularity of construction materials, reducing consumption in general, increasing the role of the sharing economy, increasing the circular use of biomass and reducing the impact of fossil fuels.
The recycling rate for municipal solid waste was 23% in Iceland in 2022, while its construction and demolition waste recovery rate was 97%. With the new source separation act, the recycling rate is forecast to rise significantly. Positive developments have also been noted in waste prevention. For example, the consumption of single use plastic carrier bags has halved between 2018 and 2023, and each person in Iceland reuses around 20 kg of items that would otherwise be disposed of as waste each year.