Table of Contents

All data -> Tables on EU policy -> Circular economy indicators ->

Production and consumption ->
EU self-sufficiency for raw materials,
Material footprint,
Resource productivity,
Generation of municipal waste per capita,
Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes per GDP unit, Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes per domestic material consumption,
Generation of packaging waste per capita,
Generation of plastic packaging waste per capita.

Waste management ->
Recycling rate of municipal waste,
Recycling rate of all waste excluding major mineral waste,
Recycling rate of packaging waste by type of packaging,
Recycling rate of e-waste,
Recycling of biowaste,
Recovery rate of construction and demolition waste.

Secondary raw materials ->
Contribution of recycled materials to raw materials demand - end-of-life recycling input rates (EOL-RIR),
Circular material use rate,
Trade in recyclable raw materials

Competitiveness and innovation ->
Private investments, jobs and gross value added related to circular economy sectors,
Patents related to recycling and secondary raw materials.

Environment and energy ->
Waste -> Waste generation and treatment
Generation of waste by waste category, hazardousness and NACE Rev. 2 activity
Treatment of waste by waste category, hazardousness and waste management operations

Explanatory texts

Statistics explained - Waste statistics

Waste, defined by Directive 2008/98/EC Article 3(1) as ‘any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard‘.

The share of different economic activities and of households in total waste generation in 2018 is presented in Figure 1. In the EU, construction contributed 35.9 % of the total in 2018 and was followed by mining and quarrying (26.6 %), manufacturing (10.6 %), waste and water services (9.8 %) and households (8.2 %); the remaining 9.1 % was waste generated from other economic activities, mainly services (4.2 %) and energy (3.4 %).

Major mineral waste

Major mineral waste are excluded because weight of total waste generation and treatment is mainly driven by mineral waste from construction/demolition and from mining activities, and the latter widely varies in importance across Member States. Excluding major mineral wastes reflects more accurately general trends than the total waste and improves comparability across countries.

Generation of municipal waste per capita

The indicator measures the waste collected by or on behalf of municipal authorities and disposed of through the waste management system. It consists to a large extent of waste generated by households, though similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions may be included.

Interpretation of the indicator
Reducing municipal waste generation is an indication of the effectiveness of waste prevention measures and changing patterns of consumption on the part of the citizens. Concentrating on municipal waste rather than on industrial waste has the advantage that it reflects the consumption side and is not affected by the presence or lack of strong manufacturing sectors in a country.

This indicator focuses on municipal waste. Even though municipal waste only represents about 10%of the total waste generated or about 30% of the generated amount of waste excluding major mineral waste, following up on its evolution can give a good indication of changing consumption patterns and of Member States’ waste prevention performance and where citizens’ actions and involvement is most relevant.