Circular economy indicators, 2023

Five sections of circular economy indicators

The set of circular economy indicators covers five themes: production and consumption, waste management, secondary raw materials, competitiveness and innovation, and global sustainability and resilience. 

Presented below are the values of selected indicators, which, if not stated otherwise, refer to 2023.

Generation of packaging waste is increasing

The amount of generated municipal waste increased to 518 kg per capita, which is 22 kg more than in 2022. At the same time, this is the largest amount – it was exactly the same in 2021. The amount of food waste was 78 kg per capita, which is 6 kg more than in the previous year. In 2022, 142.3 kg of packaging waste per capita and 26.9 kg of plastic packaging waste per capita was generated. The amount of the former increased by 8.2 kg and of the latter by 0.7 kg. Both values were the highest so far.

The recycling rate of municipal waste lower, of packaging waste higher

The recycling rate of municipal waste decreased by 3.8 percentage points to 59.6%. The recycling rate of all waste excluding major mineral wastes also decreased, by 5.2 percentage points to 74.2%. Recycling of biowaste in kg per capita decreased compared to the previous year by 1.1 kg to 77.2 kg per capita. In 2022, the recycling rate of packaging waste went up by 7.4 percentage points to 62.6%. In the same year, the recycling rate of plastic packaging waste went up by 0.9 of a percentage point to 50.9%. The recycling rate of separately collected e-waste was 80.8% in 2022, which is 6.3 percentage points less than the year before.

Imports of recyclable raw materials almost the same, circular material use rate down

Imports of recyclable raw materials (waste and by-products) increased by 0.1% to 1,083,902 tonnes. Imports from EU Member States went up by 1.3% to 1,009,441 tonnes, while imports from non-EU countries went down by 14.1% to 74,461 tonnes. Exports to non-EU countries decreased by 19.9% to 109,618 tonnes. The circular material use rate decreased by 0.8 of a percentage point to 9.2%.

Again less greenhouse gas emissions 

Greenhouse gas emissions from production activities amounted to 5,306.5 kilograms of CO₂ equivalent per capita, which is 2.6% less than the year before. They decreased for the fifth consecutive year. The material import dependency indicator was 45.5%, one percentage point lower than the year before. The share of persons employed in circular economy sectors was 1.88%. This is a 0.02 of a percentage point decrease compared to the previous year.

Tables with the latest data are available in the SiStat Database.