Latest statistics on waste generation and treatment – Reaching targets of the WFD?

Posted on Thursday 29 September 2011

The statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat) has published new data on the generation and treatment of waste in Europe in 2008. This is the latest official waste generation statistics available.

The level of waste produced in 2008 in the EU (2.6 billion tonnes), which is similar to the amount produced previous years. There are however big differences among Member States in the generation of waste, according to the report probably due to the differences in their economic structure.

In 2008, households generated 8.4% of the total amount of waste.
Disposal of waste is still the predominant waste treatment option, even if it declined by 5%. Incineration and recovery of waste increased by about 20%. Therefore, of the total waste treated in 2008: 49% was disposed, 46% was recovered and 5% was incinerated in the European Union as a whole. Eurostat explains that the recovery rate of recyclable materials had only a modest growth due to the increasing volumes of recyclable waste exported outside Europe.

Read the summary statistics released by Eurostat here