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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 09:43

EU recycles 43% of waste; Baltic States – until 21%

BC, Riga, 27.03.2015.Print version
The European Union (EU) on the average recycles 43% of its total waste, however, Latvia only recycles 17%, according to a study by Eurostat, taking into account data from 2013, cites LETA.

31% of the EU's total waste ended up in landfills in 2013, 26% was burned, 24% was recycled, while 15% was turned into compost.

 

83% of Latvia's total waste ended up in landfills in 2013.

 

On the average, one person in Latvia produces less garbage than other Europeans.

 

In 2013, one Latvian resident on average produced 312 kilograms of garbage. In contrast, the EU average is 481 kilograms.

 

In Estonia, one resident on the average produced 293 kilograms of garbage in 2013, while in Lithuania – 433 kilograms.

 

Residents of Denmark produced the most garbage in 2013 – 747 kilograms per person.

 

In 2013, a total of 433 kg of municipal waste per person was generated in Lithuania, of which 421 kg per person were treated: 21% was recycled, 8% – composted, 7% – incinerated and 64% was landfilled.

 

In the EU, the amount of municipal waste generated per person in 2013 amounted to 481 kg, down by 8.7% compared with its peak of 527 kg per person in 2002. Since 2007, the generation of municipal waste per person has constantly decreased in the EU to below its mid-1990s level.

 

Of the 481 kg of municipal waste generated per person in the EU in 2013, 470 kg per person were treated. This treatment followed different methods: 31% was landfilled, 28% recycled, 26% incinerated and 15% composted. The share of municipal waste recycled or composted in the EU has steadily increased over the time period, from18% in 1995 to 43% in 2013. The amount of municipal waste generated varies significantly across the EU member-states.

 

With less than 300 kg per person, Romania, Estonia and Poland had the lowest amount of waste generated in 2013, followed by Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Latvia (all just over 300 kg per person). At the opposite end of the scale, Denmark (747 kg per person) had the highest amount of waste generated in 2013, well ahead of Luxembourg, Cyprus and Germany with lower amounts but above 600 kg per person, and Ireland, Austria, Malta, France, the Netherlands and Greece with values between 500 and 600 kg per person. It should be noted that different coverage of municipal waste explains part of the differences between Member States.

 

The treatment methods differ substantially between member-states. In 2013, a third or more of municipal waste was recycled in Slovenia (55%), Germany (47%), Belgium and Ireland (both 34%) and Sweden (33%).Composting was most common in Austria (35%), followed by the Netherlands (26%), Belgium (21%) and Luxembourg (20%). At least half of the municipal waste treated in 2013 was incinerated in Estonia (64%), Denmark (54%) and Sweden (50%), while the highest shares of municipal waste landfilled were recorded in Romania (97%), Malta (88%), Croatia (85%), Latvia (83%) and Greece (81%).Recycling and composting together accounted in 2013 for nearly two-thirds (65%) of waste treatment in Germany and for more than half in Slovenia (61%), Austria (59%) and Belgium (55%).






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