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Objectives

Waste statistics help to measure general trends in waste generation and treatments. Also, they can be used to monitor the effects of the implementation of the EU’s waste policy.

According to the waste hierarchy, as laid out in the waste framework directive, preventing waste is the best option, followed by re-use, recycling, and other forms of recovery, with disposal, such as landfilling, as the last resort.

Data on specific waste streams are collected to monitor EU countries’ compliance with quantitative targets, such as recycling and recovery rates, set out in EU waste legislation.

Specific policies

The circular economy monitoring framework includes waste-related indicators, some of which are also used for measuring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The policies mentioned above use in their indicator sets the following waste statistics-related indicators:

  • generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes
  • management of waste excluding major mineral wastes (pilot data)
  • material prices for recyclates
  • municipal waste generation and treatment, by treatment method
  • recycling rate of e-waste
  • recycling rate of packaging waste by type of packaging
  • recovery rate of construction and demolition waste.