In 2024, the European Union generated 765 million tonnes of waste, excluding mining and construction waste. This means that, on average, each EU resident accounted for 1,697 kg of waste. The total mass of all waste categories was 2,196 million tonnes. Around 42% of the waste was recycled, while 37.8% was simply landfilled.
This is according to Eurostat data.
Back in 2004, the weight of all waste, excluding mineral waste, reached 779.5 million tonnes. This shows that over 20 years, waste generation has decreased by 1.9%.
A huge gap in waste generation
The countries with the highest amount of waste per capita were:
- Estonia – 4,703 kg. Eurostat links these figures to the use of oil shale as an energy source;
- Belgium – 3,157 kg;
- Bulgaria – 2,881 kg.
At the same time, the least waste per resident was generated in:
- Malta – 1,092 kg;
- Ireland – 1,199 kg;
- Slovenia – 1,254 kg.
Source: Eurostat
Recycling and landfill statistics
On average, 61.8% of European waste was treated in one way or another in 2024. In particular, recycling accounted for 42%, backfilling for 13.3%, and incineration with energy recovery for 6.5%.
However, 37.8% of waste was landfilled without any treatment. Another 0.4% was incinerated without energy recovery.
Eurostat stresses, however, that treatment methods vary significantly between countries. For example, in 12 countries more than 50% of waste was recycled. The largest shares were recorded in Italy (87.3%), Hungary (77.1%) and Slovakia (69.8%).
Backfilling is another method, in which waste is used to fill in excavated areas for engineering or landscaping purposes. Slovenia used 67.8% of its waste in this way, and Ireland 45.2%.
In some countries, waste was mostly landfilled. In Bulgaria, the share of waste disposed of in this way was 91.4%, in Finland 84.4%, and in Sweden 75.1%.
Source: Eurostat
Incineration with energy recovery proved to be the least common method. It had the largest share in Denmark (27%) and Lithuania (19.4%).
EcoPolitic previously reported that the average European throws away around 36 kg of plastic packaging waste alone per year, and 12.3 kg of electronic waste.
