Resource efficiency and waste

The global environmental problems we face today are largely the result of human overexploitation of natural resources, including (fossil) fuels, minerals, ... next previous items Dosomethingforourplanet,printthispageonlyifneeded.Evenasmallactioncanmakeanenormousdifferencewhenmillionsofpeopledoit! Togglenavigation Skiptocontent.| Skiptonavigation Advancedsearch A-ZGlossary Sections EuropeanEnvironmentAgency Topics Countries Dataandmaps Indicators Publications Media Aboutus EN LogintoCMS Search TheEEAisanagencyoftheEuropeanUnion Albanian(sq) Български(bg) Bosnian(bs) čeština(cs) Hrvatski(hr) dansk(da) Nederlands(nl) ελληνικά(el) English(en) eesti(et) Suomi(fi) Français(fr) Deutsch(de) magyar(hu) Íslenska(is) italiano(it) Latviešu(lv) lietuvių(lt) Macedonian(mk) Malti(mt) Norsk(no) polski(pl) Português(pt) Română(ro) Serbo-Croatian(sh) slovenčina(sk) Slovenščina(sl) Español(es) Svenska(sv) Türkçe(tr) Advancedsearch A-ZGlossary Error Cookiesarenotenabled.Youmustenablecookiesbeforeyoucanlogin. TheEEAWebCMSworksbestwithfollowingbrowsers: GoogleChrome(recommended) Firefox InternetExplorerisnotrecommendedfortheCMSarea. LoginName Password Forgotyourpassword? Ifyouhaveforgottenyourpassword, wecansendyouanewone. Personaltools Youarehere: Topicsandsubtopics Resourceefficiencyandwaste Resourceefficiencyandwaste Info Resourceefficiencyandwaste PDF Changelanguage Bulgarian(bg) Czech(cs) Danish(da) German(de) Greek(el) English(en) Spanish(es) Estonian(et) Finnish(fi) French(fr) IrishGaelic(ga) Croatian(hr) Hungarian(hu) Icelandic(is) Italian(it) Lithuanian(lt) Latvian(lv) Maltese(mt) Dutch(nl) Norwegian(no) Polish(pl) Portuguese(pt) Romanian(ro) Slovak(sk) Slovenian(sl) Swedish(sv) Turkish(tr) Page Lastmodified17Jun2019 3 minread Topics: Resourceefficiencyandwaste Theglobalenvironmentalproblemswefacetodayarelargelytheresultofhumanoverexploitationofnaturalresources,including(fossil)fuels,minerals,water,landandbiodiversity.IthasbecomeincreasinglyclearthatEurope'sprevailingmodelofeconomicdevelopment—basedonhighresourceuse,wastegenerationandpollution—cannotbesustainedinthelongterm.Today,theEuropeanUnion(EU)isheavilyreliantonimports.Manyoftheresourcesareonlyinuseforashortperiodoftime,ortheyarelosttotheeconomythroughbeinglandfilledordowncycled(involvingadecreaseinqualityduringrecoveryoperations). Resourceefficiencyandwaste Menu Resourceefficiencyandwaste News Articles Publications Multimedia Externallinks BriefingsfromthelatestEuropeanstateandoutlookreport Dataservices Dataandmaps Indicators Countriesdatareporting Dataservicesoverview Subtopics Wasteprevention Resourceefficiency Wastemanagement MeasuringEurope'scirculareconomy Resourceefficiencyandwaste dataservice Introduction Europe'seconomydependsonanuninterruptedflowofnaturalresourcesandmaterials,includingwater,crops,timber,metals,mineralsandenergycarriers.Importsprovideasubstantialproportionofthesematerials.Increasingly,thisdependencecouldbeasourceofvulnerability,asglobalcompetitionfornaturalresourcesincreases. Inrecentyears,theconceptofthecirculareconomyandrelatedpolicieshavetackledresourceuse,production,consumptionandwasteatahighlevel.Thisconceptaimstoclosematerialloopsbymaintainingthevalueofproducts,materialsandresourcesintheeconomyforaslongaspossible.Thiseffectivelyreduceswastegenerationandtheuseofvirginmaterial,hencealsoreducingassociatedpressures. Theuseofresources,andthegenerationandtreatmentofwasteresultinsignificantenvironmentalpressuresduringtheextraction,production,useandend-of-lifestages.Assuch,environmentalpolicygoalsincludereducingtheamountofmaterialsusedintheeconomy,improvingresourceefficiency,loweringthegenerationofwasteandturningwasteintoaresource.  ResourceuseinEuropehasdeclinedoverthelastdecade.Thisislargelyrelatedtotrendsineconomicgrowthandstructuralchangesintheeconomyfollowingthefinancialcrisis.Today,theresourceuseandresourceefficiencyofcountriesvaries greatlyandsomeoftherelatedpressurestakeplaceoutsideEurope’sbordersbecauseofglobaltrade. Inrecentyears,thefocushasbeenonthesecurityofsupplyofcriticalrawmaterials.However,thepreventionofwasteandwastemanagementisnowakeyaspectofthecirculareconomy. Europestillgeneratesalargeamountofwaste,althoughtrendsinwastegenerationareratherstableandthetendencyisforwastegenerationtobecomedecoupledfromeconomicdevelopment.Atthesametime,wasteismoreandmoreperceivedasavaluableresourcefortheEuropeaneconomy.Theshareofwastethatisrecycledisslowlyincreasing,whiletheamountofwastegoingtolandfillisdecreasing.Differencesinperformancebetweencountriesare,however,stillhigh. ComprehensiveEUwastelegislationisakeydriverofbetterwastemanagement.   EUpolicies  The7thEAP identifiessteppingupresourceefficiencyasoneofitsthreekeyobjectivestomeetthe2050visionof‘livingwell,withinthelimitsoftheplanet’: toprotect,conserveandenhancetheUnion’snaturalcapital; toturntheUnionintoaresource-efficient,greenandcompetitivelow-carboneconomy; tosafeguardtheUnion'scitizensfromenvironment-relatedpressuresandriskstohealthandwell-being.   Thebroadobjectivesofthe7thEAParesupportedbyaseriesofmorespecificpolicyinstruments.Resourceefficiency,andwasteandsecondaryresourcesarekeycomponentsoftheso-calledCircularEconomypolicy.TheEUActionPlanfortheCircularEconomyestablishedaconcreteandambitiousprogrammeofaction,withmeasurescoveringthewholecycle. SpecificpoliciesaddressthevariouselementsoftheCircularEconomyparadigm.Inthecaseofresourceefficiency,theyincludethe RoadmaptoaResourceEfficientEurope andthe Roadmapformovingtoalow-carboneconomy. Anotherclusterofpoliciesaimstoshiftawayfromthelinear'take-make-consume-dispose'patternofgrowth,towardsacircularmodelthatreliesonmaintainingtheutilityofproducts,componentsandmaterials,andretainingtheirvalueintheeconomy.AsnotedintheEU ActionPlanfortheCircularEconomy,thiswillrequirechangesacrosssupplychains,includinginproductdesign,businessmodels,consumptionchoices,andthepreventionandmanagementofwaste. EUWastelegislationisoneitsmainpolicydrivers.KeyEUwastedirectiveswererevisedin2018.ThesearetheWasteFrameworkDirective,PackagingandPackagingWasteDirective,LandfillDirective,BatteriesandAccumulatorsDirective,WasteElectricalandElectronicEquipmentDirective,andEnd-of-life-vehiclesDirective. Thereviseddirectivesincreasetheambitionlevelfortherecyclingofmunicipalandpackagingwaste,whilelandfillofmunicipalwasteneedstobefurtherreduced.Foodwasteshouldbehalvedby2030,andhazardouswasteandbio-wastefromhouseholdswillhavetobecollectedseparately.Moreover,thenewrulesforeseegreateruseofeffectiveeconomicinstrumentssuchasextendedproducerresponsibilityschemes.   EEAactivities TheEEAcontinuouslyinvestsinstrengtheningtheknowledgebaseonresourceefficiencyandthecirculareconomyincludingwaste,aswellasincapacitybuildingandexperiencetransferwithintheEuropeanEnvironmentInformationandObservationNetwork(Eionet). TheEEAanalysesmaterialflowsaswellasdataandinformationonwasteandproducesrelatedindicatorsandassessments.Policyprogressisanalysedinthreeparallelreportingseriesonwastepreventionandresourceefficiency/circulareconomy.Anoverarchingperspectiveisprovidedincirculareconomyreportsandcontributionstointegratedassessments,suchastheEEA’sEuropeanEnvironment—StateandOutlookreport(SOER)series. Detailedanalysesofselectedaspectsofresourceefficiencyandcirculareconomypoliciesareproducedonaregularbasis,lookingatsuchtopicsasmonitoring,targets,market-basedinstrumentsandotherinterventionstrategies. Stakeholderinteractionandcapacitybuildingrelatedtotheseassessmentsisanimportantelementofthework,withregularEionetoutreachandworkshopswiththeNationalReferenceCentresonwasteandonresourceefficiencyandcirculareconomy.   Outlook Currentworkisprimarilygearedtowardsimprovingtheevidencebaseonresourceefficiency,circulareconomyandwaste.ContributionstotheSOERseriesareforeseen,withanemphasisonthematicinformation(wasteandresourceuse)aswellassystemicanalysisofthetransitiontoacirculareconomy.  Intherevisedwastedirectives,theEEAhasbeengiventhetaskofsupportingtheimplementationofwastelegislationinEUMemberStates.Every2years,theEEAwillreviewcountries’wastepreventionprogrammesandassessprogresstowardswastepreventionandthetransitiontothecirculareconomy. Regardingwastemanagement,theEEAwillsupporttheEuropeanCommissioninassessingEUMemberStates’performancetowardsnewlydefinedtargetsontherecyclingandlandfillofmunicipalwaste,andtherecyclingofpackagingwaste.Thiswillprovideinputtoan‘earlywarning’mechanism.   Relatedcontent Sortby: Publishingdate Title Seealso Folder TheEuropeanenvironment—stateandoutlook WelcometotheEuropeanStateoftheEnvironmentwebsite.TheEuropeanenvironment–stateandoutlookispublishedbytheEEAeveryfiveyearsasmandatedinitsregulation. Folder AboutEionet Permalinks Permalinktothisversion fa1895c409d9ec6354e5654cb7578447 Permalinktolatestversion U5JAZB26NO Geographiccoverage Europe Forreferences,pleasegotohttps://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/waste/introorscantheQRcode. PDFgeneratedon10Apr2022,04:55PM Topics Topics: Resourceefficiencyandwaste Tags Filedunder: waste materialresources Filedunder: waste, materialresources DocumentActions Sharewithothers Eionet EuropeanEnvironmentInformationandObservationNetwork(Eionet) TheEEAalsocontributesto BISE BiodiversityInformationSystemforEurope Climate-ADAPT ClimateAdaptationPlatform Climate-Energy ClimateandEnergyintheEU CopernicusInSitu Copernicusinsitucomponent CopernicusLand Copernicuslandmonitoring EuropeanIndustrialEmissionsPortal EIEP ForestInformationSystemforEurope FISE InformationPlatformforChemicalMonitoring IPCHEM MarineWaterInformationSystemforEurope WISE-Marine FreshWaterInformationSystemforEurope WISE-FreshWater Followus Signuptoreceiveournewsnotifications andourquarterlye-newsletter Contactus KongensNytorv61050CopenhagenK Phonenumber: (+45)33367100 Askyourquestion Mediaenquiries TheEEAisanagencyoftheEuropeanUnion Engineeredby: EEAWebTeam Softwareupdatedon 15March202207:46 fromversion22.2.24 Softwareversion: EEAPloneKGS22.3.14 Codefordevelopers SystemsStatus Legalnotice Creativecommonslicense CMSlogin