Waste Statistics

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Waste statistics Statistics Explained

Data extracted in July 2020.


Planned article update: October 2020.

This article gives an overview on waste generation and treatment in the European Union (EU) and several non-
member countries. It draws exclusively on data collected in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 of
the European Parliament and Council on 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’, potentially represents an enormous loss of resources in the form of both
materials and energy. In addition, the management and disposal of waste can have serious environmental im-
pacts. Landfill , for example, takes up land space and may cause air, water and soil pollution, while incineration
may result in emissions of air pollutants.

EU waste management policies therefore aim to reduce the environmental and health impacts of waste and
to improve the EU’s resource efficiency . The long-term aim of these policies is to reduce the amount of waste
generated and when waste generation is unavoidable to promote it as a resource and achieve higher levels of
recycling and the safe disposal of waste .

Total waste generation


In 2016, the total waste generated in the EU by all economic activities and households amounted to 2 261
million tonnes.

As might be expected, the overall amount of waste generated is related to some extent to the population
and economic size of a country. In Table 1, the smallest EU Member States generally reported the lowest
levels of waste generation and the larger ones the highest. Nevertheless, relatively high quantities of waste were
generated in Bulgaria and Romania and a relatively low quantity in Italy.

Source : Statistics Explained (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/) - 14/07/2020 1


Table 1: Waste generation by economic activities and households, 2016 (% share in tonnes)Source:
Eurostat (env_wasgen)

The share of different economic activities and of households in total waste generation in 2016 is presented in
Figure 1. In the EU, construction contributed 34.8 % of the total in 2016 and was followed by mining and
quarrying (27.6 %), manufacturing (11.1 %), waste and water services (9.5 %) and households (8.3 %); the
remaining 8.7 % was waste generated from other economic activities, mainly services (3.9 %) and energy (3.4
%).

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Figure 1: Waste generation by economic activities and households, EU-27, 2016(% share in
tonnes)Source: Eurostat (env_wasgen)

Figure 2 shows an analysis of the amount of waste generated in a standardised form, in relation to population
size. The high levels of total waste generated in some of the smaller EU Member States can be clearly seen,
with a particularly high value recorded for Finland where on average 22.4 tonnes of waste were generated per
inhabitant in 2016, more than four times the 5.1 tonnes per inhabitant average across the EU. Several of the
Member States with particularly high levels of waste generated per inhabitant reported very high shares of
waste from mining and quarrying, while elsewhere construction and demolition often contributed to the high
shares.

A lot of the waste from mining and quarrying and from construction and demolition is classified as major
mineral waste: the analysis presented in Figure 2 distinguishes major mineral waste from all other wastes.
Almost two thirds (65 % or 3.3 tonnes per inhabitant) of the total waste generated in the EU in 2016 was major
mineral waste. The relative share of major mineral waste in the total waste generated varied considerably be-
tween EU Member States, which may reflect, at least to some degree, different economic structures. In general,
those EU Member States that had higher shares of major mineral waste were those that were characterised
as having relatively sizeable mining and quarrying activities, such as Bulgaria, Sweden, Romania and Finland,
and/or construction and demolition activities, such as Luxembourg; in these Member States, major mineral

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waste accounted 85 % or more of all waste generated, as was also the case in Liechtenstein (91 %).

Figure 2: Waste generation, 2016(kg per capita)Source: Eurostat (env_wasgen)

Waste generation excluding major mineral waste


In the EU, 786 million tonnes of waste excluding major mineral waste were generated in 2016, equivalent to 35
% of the total waste generated. When expressed in relation to population size, the EU generated, on average,
1.8 tonnes per inhabitant of waste excluding major mineral waste in 2016 (Figure 3).

Across the EU Member States, waste generation excluding major mineral waste ranged, in 2016, from an
average of 9.0 tonnes per inhabitant in Estonia to 0.8 tonnes per inhabitant in Cyprus and Croatia. The large
quantity of waste generated in Estonia is related to energy production based on oil shale.

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Figure 3: Waste generation, excluding major mineral waste, 2006 and 2016(kg per capita)Source:
Eurostat (env_wasgen)

Table 2 shows the development of EU waste generation excluding major mineral waste analysed by economic
activity. In 2016, the highest levels of waste generation were recorded for waste and water services, for house-
holds and for manufacturing activities (196 million tonnes, 181 million tonnes and 180 million tonnes). Their
developments followed different patterns over time: between 2004 and 2016 waste generation (excluding major
mineral waste) by waste and water services and by households increased by 160.0 % and +4.2 %, respectively,
and by manufacturing activities diminished quite considerably, down by 25.0 %.

Table 2: Waste generation, excluding major mineral waste, EU-28, 2004-2016(million


tonnes)Source: Eurostat (env_wasgen)

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Hazardous waste generation
Hazardous waste may pose an elevated risk to human health and to the environment if not managed and dis-
posed of safely. Among the waste generated in the EU in 2016, 94.7 million tonnes (4.2 % of the total) were
classified as hazardous waste.

Compared with 2010, 4.2 % more hazardous waste was generated in 2016 in the EU which is an increase
in quantity terms from 90.8 to 94.7 million tonnes. In 2016, the share of hazardous waste in total waste gen-
eration was below 10.0 % in all of the EU Member States except for Estonia and Bulgaria, where it made
up, respectively, a 39.9 % and a 11.1 % share of the total (see Figure 4). The very high share for Estonia was
principally due to energy production from oil shale. Among the non-member countries shown in Figure 4, Serbia
recorded the highest share of hazardous waste in total waste generation (35.2 %) due to intensive activity in
mining and quarrying, and was followed by Montenegro (19.4 %) and Norway (14.6 %).

Figure 4: Hazardous waste generated, 2010 and 2016(% share of total waste in tonnes)Source:
Eurostat (env_wasgen)

Waste treatment
In 2016, some 2 097 million tonnes of waste were treated in the EU. This doesn’t include exported waste but
includes the treatment of waste imported into the EU. The reported amounts are therefore not directly compa-
rable with those on waste generation.

Figure 5 shows the development of waste treatment in the EU for total and the two main treatment cate-
gories – recovery and disposal – during the period 2004-2016. The quantity of waste recovered , in other words
recycled, used for backfilling (the use of waste in excavated areas for the purpose of slope reclamation or safety
or for engineering purposes in landscaping) or incinerated with energy recovery grew by 26.7 % from 870 million
tonnes in 2004 to 1 103 million tonnes in 2016; as a result, the share of such recovery in total waste treatment
rose from 45.9 % in 2004 to 52.6 % in 2016. The quantity of waste subject to disposal decreased from 1 027
million tonnes in 2004 to 995 million tonnes in 2016, which was a decrease of 3.1 %. The share of disposal in
total waste treatment decreased from 54.1 % in 2004 to 47.4 % in 2016.

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Figure 5: Waste treatment, EU-27, 2004-2016(Index 2004 = 100)Source: Eurostat (env_wastrt)

As stated above, in the EU in 2016, slightly more than a half (52.6 %) of the waste was treated in recovery
operations: recycling (36.7 % of the total treated waste), backfilling (10.1 %) or energy recovery (5.8 %). The
remaining 47.4 % was either landfilled (40.3 %), incinerated without energy recovery (0.8 %) or disposed of
otherwise (6.3 %). Significant differences could be observed among the EU Member States concerning the use
they made of these various treatment methods. For instance, some Member States had very high recycling
rates (Italy and Belgium), while others favoured landfill (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland and Sweden) (see
Figure 6).

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Figure 6: Waste treatment by type of recovery and disposal, 2016(% share in tonnes)Source:
Eurostat (env_wastrt)

Hazardous waste treatment


In total, 74.8 million tonnes of hazardous waste were treated in the EU in 2016, with more than half of this
treated in just three EU Member States, Germany (28.7 %), Bulgaria (17.6 %) and Estonia (12.8 %) (Figure
7).

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Figure 7: Hazardous waste treatment, 2016(thousand tonnes)Source: Eurostat (env_wastrt)

In 2016, 33.9 % of the hazardous waste treated in the EU was landfilled, in other words deposited into or onto
land or through land treatment and release into water bodies, equivalent to 57 kg per inhabitant (Figure 8).
6.0 % of all hazardous waste was incinerated without energy recovery (9 kg per inhabitant). Energy recovery
was the treatment for further 7.7 % (13 kg per inhabitant). More than one third (35.1 %) of hazardous waste
in the EU was recovered by recycling or backfilling in 2016, equivalent to 59 kg per inhabitant.

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Figure 8: Hazardous waste treatment, 2016(kg per capita)Source: Eurostat (env_wastrt)

Source data for tables and graphs


• Waste statistics: tables and figures

Data sources
In order to monitor the implementation of waste policy, in particular compliance with the principles of recovery
and safe disposal, reliable statistics on the production and management of waste from businesses and private
households are required. In 2002, Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 on waste statistics was adopted, creating a
framework for harmonised Community statistics in this field.

Starting with reference year 2004, the Regulation requires EU Member States to provide data on the gen-
eration, recovery and disposal of waste every two years. Data on waste generation and treatment are currently
available for even reference years from 2004 to 2016.

Context
EU waste management policies aim to reduce the environmental and health impacts of waste and improve
Europe’s resource efficiency. The long-term goal is to turn Europe into a recycling society, avoiding waste and
using unavoidable waste as a resource wherever possible. The aim is to achieve much higher levels of recycling
and to minimise the extraction of additional natural resources. Proper waste management is a key element in
ensuring resource efficiency and the sustainable growth of European economies. For more information see the
Europe 2020 strategy .

Accordingly, the revised Waste Framework Directive of 2008 introduced a five-step waste hierarchy where
prevention is the best option, followed by re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery, with disposal such as
landfill as the last resort. In line with this hierarchy, the 7th Environment Action Programme sets the following
priority objectives for waste policy in the EU:
• reduce the amount of waste generated;
• maximise recycling and re-use;

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• limit incineration to non-recyclable materials;
• phase out landfilling to non-recyclable and non-recoverable waste;
• ensure full implementation of the waste policy targets in all EU Member States.

Other articles
• End-of-life vehicle statistics
• Environmental economy – statistics on employment and growth
• Municipal waste statistics

• Packaging waste statistics


• Recycling — secondary material price indicator
• Waste shipment statistics
• Waste statistics — electrical and electronic equipment

Publications
• Energy, transport and environment indicators — 2019 edition
• Environmental statistics and accounts in Europe (2010)

Main tables
• Waste (env_was), see:

Waste generation and treatment (env_wasgt)

Database
• Waste (env_was), see:

Waste generation and treatment (env_wasgt)

Dedicated section
• Waste

• Environmental Data Centre on Waste

Methodology
• Manual on waste statistics
• Waste generation and treatment (ESMS metadata file — env_wasgt_esms)

Legislation
• Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 of 25 November 2002 on waste statistics
• Regulation (EU) No 849/2010 of 27 September 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 of the
European Parliament and of the Council on waste statistics

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External links
• Being wise with waste: the EU’s approach to waste management
• European Commission — DG Environment — Waste in the EU

• European Environment Agency — Waste and material resources


• Thematic strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste

View this article online at http: // ec. europa. eu/ eurostat/ statistics-explained/ index. php/ Waste_
statistics

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