Environmental Data Centre on Waste

Recycling materials from the waste stream has many benefits. Some of these include:

• reduced carbon dioxide emissions associated with the offsetting of virgin materials used in manufacturing;
• reduced carbon dioxide emissions associated with landfilling or incineration; and
• financial savings for industry that use cheaper recycled materials.

The European Commission has prioritised improvement in recycling and disposal for the following waste streams:

• packaging;
• ELVs;
• batteries; and
• WEEE.

The price of secondary materials (waste materials) is highly influenced by the price of raw materials and thus by the overall economic development.
 
The revenues from secondary materials pay for a substantial part of the waste management schemes.

 

Some waste materials - such as glass, paper and plastic - are covered by the Foreign Trade Statistics (FTS) in volume (tonnes) and in value (Euro). 
 
For each material the FTS offers several positions - from lower value post-consumer waste to higher priced and well defined residues from manufacturing processes.

The indicator presents the specific prices (Euro/tonne) over the total volume of glass, paper and plastic for all related FTS codes.

As an additional indicator the total volume (import and export) of the 3 traded waste materials is shown. This indicator (tonnes/month) shows the activity of the market and covers intra- and extra-trade in EU-27.


Foreign Trade Statistics are published monthly, with a delay of approx. 3.5 months. Reliable data is available from the year 2000 onwards, which was chosen as the starting point for the price indicators. 

 

 

Glass

 

 • Table: Annual and monthly price indicator (Price developments and traded volume) EU-27  until January 2012 (updated 27 April 2012) 

 • Chart: Price developments and traded volume, EU 27  until January  2012 (updated 27 April  2012)

 

Paper

 • Table: Annual and monthly price indicator (Price developments and traded volume) EU-27 until January 2012 (updated 27 April  2012)

 • Chart: Price developments and traded volume, EU-27  until January  2012 (updated 27 April 2012)

 

Plastics

 

 • Table: Annual and monthly price indicator (Price developments and traded volume), EU-27 until  January 2012 (updated on 27 April 2012)

 • Chart: Price developments and traded volume, EU-27 until January  2012  (updated on 27 April 2012)

 

Biowaste recycling

 

ELV recycling

 

Packaging recycling

 

WEEE recycling

See the specific waste streams or sector pages for relevant recycling targets.

 

Recycling targets often include biowaste which can be managed in facilities generating some form of compost output. However, due to the nature of the process, composting type facilities that manage biowaste can also be referred to as a 'treatment plant'. Any statistics or data relating to composting can be found on this page, and not the 'treatement' page, as this just includes processes that don't generate any form of recycled product, i.e. incineration.

 Optimising Markets for Recycling

 

 EC Thematic Strategy on Prevention and Recycling of Waste

 

 The Road from Landfilling to Recycling: Common Destination, Different Routes