Overall, water abstraction and economic growth in the EU showed absolute decoupling over the period 2000–2017. Total water abstraction declined by 17 %, while total gross value added generated from all economic sectors increased by 59 %. However, water scarcity conditions and drought events continue to cause significant risks in southern Europe, as well as in specific areas of other European regions.
Agriculture remained the sector exerting the highest pressure on renewable freshwater resources overall, being responsible for 59 % of total water use in Europe in 2017. This is mainly because of agriculture levels in southern Europe.
In 2017, 64 % of total water abstraction was from rivers and 24 % from groundwater.
Annual renewable freshwater resources per inhabitant showed a decreasing trend across all regions except eastern Europe over the period 1990-2017. Large decreases were observed in Spain (-65 %), Malta (-54 %) and Cyprus (-32 %). Climate change and population increase exerted high pressures on renewable freshwater resources in Europe over this period.
The increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme droughts and floods enhance the risk of there being reduced volumes of renewable freshwater resources in the future.
Crop production in Europe became 12% less water intensive between 2005 and 2016. The total water input to crops under rainfed and irrigated conditions for each unit of gross value added generated from crop production, excluding subsidies, decreased from 5 m 3 to 4.4 m 3 over the period.
Western Europe demonstrated the lowest water intensity of crop production over the period, with 3.5 m 3 of total water input for each unit of gross value added generated. However, there was no significant change in the trend between 2005 and 2016.
In eastern Europe, crop production became 31 % less water intensive between 2005 and 2016. The total water input to crops fell from 7.3 m 3 to 5.0 m 3 for each unit of gross value added generated over the period.
Crop production also became 13 % and 11% less water intensive in northern Europe and southern Europe, respectively between 2005 and 2016. In northern Europe, total water input to crops fell from 11.2 m 3 to 9.7 m 3 over the period, while in southern Europe it fell from 4.2 m 3 to 3.8 m 3 .
• Landfilling has negative impacts on the environment and economy and therefore should be avoided if at all possible.
• European countries have made relatively good progress in diverting waste from landfill in recent years for almost all waste streams, particularly for household and similar waste.
• During the period 2010-2016, the share of total waste (excluding major mineral waste) disposed of by landfilling decreased from 29 % to 25 % in the 28 EU Member States, Iceland, Norway and Serbia. The proportion of household and similar waste and other waste disposed of by landfilling decreased by 47.2 % and 19 %, respectively. However, the landfilling of combustion waste increased by 20.6 % and of sorting residues by 40.1 %.
• According to the Landfill Directive, the proportion of municipal waste disposed of by landfilling should be reduced to 10 % or less of the total amount of municipal waste generated by 2035. By 2017, the proportion of municipal waste entering landfill had been reduced to 21.0 %, and, of 37 European countries, 11 had reduced municipal waste landfilling rates by more than 40.0 % and 10 landfilled less than 10 % of their municipal waste; however, 15 still had municipal waste landfilling rates of more than 50.0 %.
• Trends in waste management have also changed. During the period 2008-2017, the rate of municipal waste landfilling decreased by 43.0 %, while energy recovery from municipal waste increased by 72.1 %, material recycling increased by 22.5 % and composting and digestion increased by 18.6 %.
Recycling rates of municipal waste, packaging waste and waste electrical and electronic equipment — which represent significant sources of secondary materials and critical raw materials — are increasing in Europe, indicating a move towards using waste as a resource and a more circular economy.
•Recycling rates for both municipal waste and packaging waste have increased substantially: by 16 percentage points between 2004 and 2017 for municipal waste and by 13 percentage points between 2005 and 2016 for packaging waste. In 2017, 46 % of the municipal waste generated in the EU-28 and Iceland, Norway and Switzerland was recycled; in 2016, 67 % of packaging waste generated in the EU-28 and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway was recycled.
• Municipal waste recycling rates differ widely between European countries, ranging from 68 % in Germany to 0.3 % in Serbia in 2017. In 2017, three countries recycled already 55 % or more of their municipal waste. In 2017, 28 countries recycled 55 % or more of their packaging waste and 15 countries recycled 65 % or more of their packaging waste.
• These improvements have been partly driven by EU targets introduced in 1994 and 2008 and later by the circular economy packages (2015).
More and more waste is being generated. Between 2010 and 2016, total waste generation increased by 3.0 % (almost 74.7 million tonnes) in the EU-28 countries. Absolute total waste (excluding major mineral wastes) increased by 6.0 % (48.1 million tonnes) and generation per capita went up by 70 kg per capita.
In 2016 the water and waste (28.0 %), households (23.0 %) and manufacturing (21.0 %) sectors generated the largest shares of waste, excluding major mineral wastes. These three sectors together produce almost 72 % of all waste, excluding major mineral wastes.
Between 2010 and 2016, waste generation in the water and waste sector increased by 56 % ( almost 82 million tonnes). This significant growth was driven mainly by secondary waste generation from the development of waste management systems in countries with growing waste treatment operations. In other sectors, the trend was gradually decreasing.
Waste, excluding major mineral wastes, generated by all economic sectors followed growth in economic development between 2010 and 2016, with only very slight decoupling.
Total annual quantities of waste generation across industry remained generally static over the period 2010-2016. Taking the reported industry gross value added (GVA) into consideration, waste generation per unit of industrial output may be showing limited signs of decreasing.
Data on E-PRTR waste movements (off-site transfers) from industrial sites does not indicate any significant downward trends in industrial waste transfers for hazardous or non-hazardous waste over the period 2007-2016.
Based on E-PRTR data, the overall percentage of waste being transferred for recovery was actually lower in 2016 than in 2007. The recovery trend within different industry sectors is variable, but the data do not suggest substantial progress in increasing the fraction of waste recovery.
Land recycling is still low in all European countries: on average, land recycling accounted for only 13.5 % of total land consumption in European cities in the 2006-2012 period.
The land use densification process, i.e. when land development makes maximum use of existing infrastructure, accounts for the largest proportion of land recycling (10 % of total land consumption). However, in most countries, land take dominates over densification in total land management with the exception of Finland and France.
Grey recycling, i.e. internal conversions between residential and/or non-residential land cover types, is secondary to densification, ranging from 14 % to less than 1 % of total land consumption. Land take predominates over grey recycling in total land management in all countries.
Green recycling, i.e. the development of green urban areas using previously built-up areas, is an important trend that reverses soil sealing, but it is a marginal process in all countries and, on average, it accounts for only 0.2 % of total land consumption.
The per-person total animal protein consumption in the EU remained relatively stable between 2000 and 2013. It increased modestly up to 2007 and reduced slightly after that year. EU citizens, on average, covered more of their protein needs with fish and seafood, and cheese in 2013 than in 2000. Meat consumption shifted from beef to poultry. Bovine meat and cheese have a higher environmental footprint per kg than poultry meat, so the trend in related environmental impact is less clear.
Between 1996 and 2012, trends in household spending patterns were mixed. The trend, however, is towards an increasing share of consumption categories with reduced environmental pressures per Euro spent. In addition, almost all consumption categories have also seen reductions in environmental pressure intensities. Together, these two developments are likely to have caused a relative decoupling of environmental pressures from growth in household consumption expenditure.
Absolute decoupling of nutrient emissions from domestic sector and the population growth over the period of almost two decades (1990-2009) is observed in thirteen countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Turkey). The actual extent of decoupling, and the differences in trends among countries, may be partially explained by different levels of numbers of inhabitants connected to tertiary wastewater treatment technologies
When making the EU wide comparison of the extend of decoupling of nutrient emissions from population growth, the actual rate of population connected to different types of treatment (elaborated in the CSI 024) should be taken into consideration, and completeness of the data available on population connected to collecting systems without treatment. The status of the implementation of the UWWTD which protects the water environment from the adverse effects of discharges of urban waste water, the level of investment in the water and wastewater management ,as well as the status of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Groundwater Directive may have an impact. Furthermore household patterns as well as the household income level affecting the production and composition of waste water should be considered as well.
It is assumed that the use of actual data on loads discharged from wastewater treatment plants combined with the load values calculated for population not connected to the waste water treatment would add value to the decoupling indicator, as it would better reflect the real situation..
The number of organisations registered under the EMAS standard rose by 50% during the period 2003-2010, while organisations from EU countries certified according to the international ISO 14001 standard more than quadrupled in the period 2001-2009. This indicates that private companies and public institutions in the EU are increasingly engaging in environmental management.
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