The European Union has been actively working to reduce waste generation per capita as part of its sustainability goals. But this has had little impact because annual waste generation per capita is still at 2004 levels of about 5,000 kilograms per capita. Some countries have made progress such as Spain, Portugal, Romania and Bulgaria were waste generation decreased about 40% since 2004. Other countries, perhaps those we do not expect it from, have in fact seen waste generation increase such as Finland (+57% since 2004), Sweden (+44%), Denmark (+48%) and the Netherlands (+26%). Finland and Sweden have particularly high waste generation of about 21,000 and 15,000 kilograms per capita per annum. However, this is mainly due to industrial waste as municipal waste per capita of those countries is around the European Union average of 500 kilograms per capita per year. To reduce waste generation substantially the European Union would be helped by focusing more on industrial waste instead of household waste.
Source: Eurostat, May 2023.