4.3 Waste recycling

This briefing assesses Europe’s progress towards turning waste into a resource. It uses reported recycling data for different waste streams as a proxy and assumes that the recycled amounts replace new materials that would otherwise have come from virgin sources. The extent to which recycled materials can contribute to Europe’s material demand is assessed in briefing 4.4 Circular economy financing and strategies.

Key policies

EU waste legislation is setting targets for increasing the separate collection and/or recycling of certain waste (such as packaging, municipal waste and e-waste). Moreover, policies increasingly set requirements for products’ recyclability (e.g. packaging), extended producer responsibility and recycled content for certain materials (e.g. single-use plastics). The Waste Framework Directive calls for a high quality of recycling; for example, through efficient separate collection systems.

Past trends (10-15 years)

Improving trends/developments dominate

The waste recycling rate (excluding major mineral waste) — that is, the proportion of waste generated that is recycled — has been growing in the EU-27, driven by legally-binding recycling targets (Figure 1). This indicates progress towards a circular economy by using more waste as a resource. Recently, however, progress has been stagnating and, in some cases, has reversed. Packaging and e-waste recycling rates have decreased in the past 5 years, mainly due to the introduction of more ambitious reporting rules and an increase in electronics sales, respectively. In 2022, more than half of the total generated waste was still sent to incineration or landfill. For a selection of 30 critical raw materials, recycled materials' contribution to raw material demand shows mixed trends.

Outlook (10-15 years)

Improving trends/developments expected to dominate

Driven by both environmental considerations and concerns over access to raw materials, the EU has set more than 35 legally-binding targets for the collection and recycling of certain waste streams, to be met in the coming years. These targets are likely to further increase recycling rates. However, there are no targets for other, voluminous waste streams such as waste from industrial production and mining.

Recently introduced and planned ecodesign requirements on the recyclability of certain products (e.g. packaging, batteries and textiles) and recycled content (batteries and plastic bottles) can be expected to help promote using waste as a resource. The Critical Raw Materials Act foresees the setting of recycled content targets and an increase in the EU’s capacity for recycling certain materials. The revised Construction Products Regulation sets the framework for placing ecodesign requirements on construction products. Still, progress will require strong focus on a properly and ambitiously implementing the new provisions, and removing current barriers to the secondary raw materials market's functioning. The planned Circular Economy Act aims to address such barriers to promote reuse and recycling.

Hazardous substances in waste streams will need continuous attention as they can hinder recycling or make it more expensive. Recycling systems will need to focus more on recycling quality.

Prospects of meeting policy targets 2030/2050

2030: Partially on track to meet targets/highly uncertain

On average, EU Member States are progressing towards the binding 2025 recycling targets for municipal waste and total packaging waste, but only nine Member States are on track to meet both targets while the others will have to intensify their efforts. By 2022, only three EU Member States reached the overdue 2019 e-waste collection target. Recent recycling target revisions have increasingly considered losses during recycling processes, thereby indirectly addressing recycling quality.

2050: No specific policy targets

Robustness

Information on waste management is quite robust due to regular statistic collation. However, data are lacking on the actual quantity and quality of secondary raw materials being fed back into the economy and which primary materials they substitute. Trend data are partly influenced by the gradual introduction of more stringent and harmonised reporting rules for some waste streams. These new rules bring the data on recycling closer to the actual recycled amounts, as sorting residues have to be deducted. Outlook information is sparse, but country-level assessments exist for some targets. Accordingly, the assessment of outlooks and prospects of meeting policy targets/objectives is largely based on expert judgement.

Charts/maps

Figure 1. Recycling rates in Europe by waste stream