The EU Commission submitted a report identifying Member States at risk of not meeting the 2025 preparing for re-use and recycling target for municipal waste, the 2025 recycling target for packaging waste and the 2035 municipal waste landfilling reduction target.
The analysis of Member States’ performance identified the general trends in waste management and showed the likelihood of achieving waste preparing for re-use and recycling targets by 2025.
The report found that the majority of Member States have recently carried out or are in the process of implementing waste reforms that will result in increased recycling rates in the years leading to 2025 and beyond. The implementation of the 2018 waste package and the recommendations issued in the 2018 Early Warning Report played a relevant role in achieving progress. However, in some cases delays in their application are affecting national recycling performances.
There are still significant differences in waste management performance across Member States. For some countries, the distance from the targets is very large and greater efforts will be needed to implement reforms on the ground (e.g. as regards biowaste treatment, separate collection, data quality, etc.). There is also evidence that external factors influenced performance, for instance during the COVID pandemic separate collection in some Member States was reduced or halted. There are also indications that the recent spike in energy prices is adversely affecting recycling activities.
Overall, according to the assessment carried out by the European Environment Agency, the majority of Member States are at risk of missing the municipal waste preparing for re-use and recycling targets for 2025.
More specifically, with regard to the target of 55% preparing for re-use and recycling of municipal waste and 65% recycling of all packaging waste to be achieved by 2025:
- 9 Member States are on track to meet both targets – Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia;
- 8 Member States are at risk of missing the municipal waste target only, but not at risk for the target on all packaging waste – Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Spain and Sweden;
- 10 Member States are at risk of missing both the targets for municipal and all packaging waste for 2025 – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
