Europe identifies nations unlikely to meet 2025 recycling target

An early-June report published by the European Commission says 18 of 27 EU countries, known as member states, are at risk of not meeting 2025 targets tied to the reuse and recycling of municipal solid waste (MSW) and discarded packaging. The same countries also are at risk of not meeting a 2035 landfill diversion target.

The EC has concluded just nine of its member states—Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Slovenia—are on track to meet the MSW and packaging 2025 targets.

The remaining 18 countries are at risk of missing one or both of the 2025 targets, the commission says. Those 18 countries are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia Spain and Sweden.

“Some countries also continue to landfill most of their municipal waste and will probably fail to meet the 2035 landfilling target," the EC says.

The commission has presented recommendations to the 18 member states and says it is building on continuous financial and technical support provided for improving performance on waste management.

“The report shows that there are significant differences in waste management performance across the EU," the EC says. "For some countries, there is still a long way to go to meet the targets agreed in EU legislation and more reforms are needed, notably: to ensure biowaste treatment, which represents a third of municipal waste; separate collection of [recyclable materials]—a prerequisite to recycling; and improving data quality.”

On the positive side, the commission says most EU countries have or are in the process of putting in place waste reforms to improve recycling rates, some of which should yield results in the coming years.

In terms of EU averages, the EC says research leading to the report found Europeans generate 30 kilograms (1,168 pounds) of MSW per person per year. In the EU, about 50 percent of MSW is recycled or composted, and 23 percent is landfilled.

Between 2013 and 2020, the amount of discarded packaging grew by 15 percent in the EU, reaching nearly 80 million metric tons, the report found. Around 64 percent of discarded packaging is now recycled, though varies by material.

More than 75 percent of paperboard and metal packaging is recycled in the EU, the commission says, compared with less than 40 percent of plastics.

The full EC report can be found here.