Energy Market & Energy Statistics

Aenert news. Energy Market & Energy Statistics

Recently presented Eurostat statistics on municipal waste show that the trend of recent years towards an increase in household waste has continued in 2021.

527 kg of municipal waste per capita were generated in the EU in 2021, up from 505 kg in 2020. It should be noted that municipal waste only account for about 10% of the total waste generated in the EU.

As can be seen from the graph, the waste situation in individual EU countries has changed compared to 2006. 




15 out of 27 EU members have seen an increase in municipal waste generation per capita over the time period under consideration. In the figure above, the countries are arranged in order of increasing waste levels in 2021. As the year before, Austria with 835 kg per capita is well above average in 2021. Also unchanged are the countries following Austria – Luxembourg (793 kg), Denmark (769 kg), and Belgium (755 kg). As in 2020, Romania (302 kg), Poland (362 kg) and Estonia (395 kg) have the lowest amount of household waste in the EU.



The graph above shows the different ways of municipal waste treatment – landfill, incineration, recycling and composting – and their volumes. According to the statistics, 49% of municipal waste in the EU was recycled in 2021. This includes recycling and composting. Since 1995, there has been a downward trend in landfilling and an increase in other methods of waste management. The landfilling rate dropped from 61% in 1995 to about 22% in 2021.

By the Editorial Board