The European Court of Auditors is preparing to release a report in late autumn assessing municipal waste management progress across EU member states. The audit focuses on how countries are advancing toward the EU’s circular economy goals, which aim to treat waste as a resource rather than discard it.
In 2023, each EU citizen generated an average of 511 kg of municipal waste, though this figure varied widely among member states—from about 300 kg to nearly 800 kg per person. Factors influencing these differences include levels of wealth, urbanization, and the prevalence of packaged goods.
Citizen participation in sorting waste remains a key factor for successful recycling. However, even when waste is properly sorted, challenges persist if there is no market for recycled materials; in such cases, recyclable materials may still be incinerated or sent to landfills.
The EU has set targets for reducing landfill use and increasing recycling rates. According to the European Commission’s early warning report from 2023, ten member states risk missing both the 2025 targets for preparing municipal waste for reuse and recycling packaging waste. Eight additional countries may not meet the target specifically for reusing and recycling municipal waste. Furthermore, thirteen countries are far from achieving the goal of limiting landfill use to 10% by 2035. Only nine nations—Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia—are currently on track to meet these core objectives.
These issues are not new; a special report published by the auditors in 2012 highlighted problems such as poor sorting at source, overloaded treatment plants, inadequate pre-treatment before landfill disposal and weaknesses in prevention-focused policies.
The forthcoming audit examines whether similar shortcomings persist more than a decade later despite significant investment from EU funds—including cohesion policy and the Recovery and Resilience Facility—into improving municipal waste management systems.
Auditors have evaluated actions taken by both the European Commission and individual member states from 2014 to 2024. Their analysis includes sixteen EU-funded projects in Greece, Poland, Portugal and Romania. The final report will be available on the European Court of Auditors’ website by December.
“Our upcoming report will answer this and other questions,” according to information provided by the auditors.