(EUN) EU RAW MATERIAL RECYCLING RATE

Raw material recycling rates have been stalling... Will the EU reach its 2030 target? Progress on recycling materials across the European Union hasn't been outstanding in the past decade.

Between 2015 and 2024, the rate of recycling across the bloc increased by only one percentage point: From 11.2% to 12.2%, according to the latest Eurostat data. When it comes to avoiding the extraction of new raw materials, one country, the Netherlands, stands out among all others, with a rate of nearly 33%.

Neighbouring Belgium comes in second place with 22.7%, followed by Italy in third place with almost 22%. At the bottom of the table, with the lowest recycling rate, is Romania, with just 1.3%, followed by Finland and Ireland, both at 2%.

The EU's Circular Economy Plan has set a target of 23.2% for material recycling by 2030. "Circularity is an essential part of a wider transformation of industry towards climate-neutrality and long-term competitiveness", said EU authorities. "It can deliver substantial material savings throughout value chains and production processes, generate extra value and unlock economic opportunities."

However, the goal now seems out of reach, given the slow growth rate in the past 10 years. "The use of primary materials tends to increase more than secondary materials, hampering a proper increase in the circularity rate", Zero Waste's Chemical Recycling officer Lauriane Veillard told Europe in Motion. "While we recycle more tonnes in (absolute) numbers, production goes up quicker, so the resulting percentage is not looking great, resulting in 1% in the last 10 years," she said.

The European Environmental Agency added that "one of the reasons is that in the EU, we have many pieces of legislation targeting the recycling of specific, environmentally relevant waste streams like packaging or electronic waste, but we don't have that for the larger waste streams like mining waste".

On Wednesday, EU industrial strategy chief Stéphane Séjourné said that recycling is going to be crucial to reducing the bloc's dependency on critical raw materials imports from China. more of this article (Euro News) - link - more like this (best at recycling) - link - more like this (Netherlands) - link