Belgium ranked among EU leaders in recycling in 2024
According to Eurostat data released on Wednesday, Belgium was the second-highest user of recycled materials in the European Union in 2024, behind the Netherlands. Across the EU, 12.2 per cent of all materials used last year came from recycling.
Eurostat measures what it calls the 'circularity rate', defined as the proportion of recycled materials in total material consumption. The EU-wide circularity rate reached 12.2 per cent in 2024, which is an increase of 0.1 percentage points compared to 2023, and 4.7 percentage points higher than in 2015.
Belgium recorded a circularity rate of 22.7 per cent, up by 0.9 percentage points year-on-year and 4.7 points over the past decade. The Netherlands topped the rankings with a circularity rate of 32.7 per cent, marking a 5.3-percentage-point improvement since 2015. Italy followed in third place with 21.6 per cent.
Romania (1.3 per cent), Finland (2 per cent) and Ireland (also 2 per cent) were at the bottom of the table, having seen their recycling performance decline over the past ten years.
Over the same period, Malta posted the largest gain, increasing by 14 percentage points to reach 18.6 per cent. Estonia followed with an increase of 9.1 percentage points to reach 20.5 per cent. The Czech Republic was another country to improve its recycling efforts, increasing its rate by 7.2 percentage points to reach 14.8 per cent.
Poland and Finland recorded the steepest drops, falling 4.2 and 3.2 percentage points to 7.7 and 2 per cent, respectively.
The most recycled material category in 2024 was metal ores (23.4 per cent), followed by non-metallic minerals (14.3 per cent), biomass (9.9 per cent), and fossil-fuel-based materials (3.8 per cent).
© BELGA PHOTO JONAS D'HOLLANDER
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