Europe needs to step up circular economy efforts, including on waste prevention
The EEA briefing ‘How far is Europe from reaching its ambition to double the circular use of materials?’ shows that, in 2021, about 11.7% of all materials used in the EU came from recycled waste, up from 8.3% in 2004.
Enhanced recycling will speed up this progress but it needs to be complemented with reducing the overall material inputs to meet the target of doubling the share of recycled waste in the use of materials by 2030. Getting closer to the target could, for example, be achieved by increasing the recycling rate of all treated waste from current 40% to 70%, decreasing overall material inputs by 15%, and reducing the amount of fossil fuels used by 34%.
