In 2023, 11.8% of materials used in the EU came from recycled materials. This indicator is known as ‘circular material use rate’ or ‘circularity rate’, and it measures the contribution of recycled materials in the overall use of materials.
Compared with 2022, the circularity rate increased by 0.3 percentage points (pp), making it the highest share recorded so far.
This information comes from data on circular material use rate published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on circular economy.
In 2023, the circularity rate was highest in the Netherlands (30.6%), followed by Italy (20.8%) and Malta (19.8%).
The lowest rate was recorded in Romania (1.3%), Ireland (2.3%) and Finland (2.4%).
Source dataset: env_ac_cur
When assessing the types of materials, the circularity rate at EU level was highest for metal ores with 24.7% (+2.2 pp compared with 2022), followed by non-metallic minerals with 13.6% (+0.3 pp), biomass 10.1% (+0.7 pp) and fossil energy materials/carriers with 3.4% (+0.6 pp).
The Circular economy action plan from 2020 aims to double the EU’s circular material use rate by 2030 to reach 23.2%.
This article marks the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, taking place 11-22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Source: Eurostat, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=ddn-20241113-1
