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International Municipal Waste Management
There are large variations across Europe in terms of how it deals with its waste. The United Kingdom has one of the highest levels of landfill, whereas the Netherlands and Denmark dispose of almost no municipal waste to landfill.
In Denmark and Sweden incineration is the single main method of disposal and over half of Denmark’s municipal waste is treated in that way. Highest levels of recycling/composting were in the Netherlands, German and Austria, with around half of all waste treated in that way.
Across Europe landfill remains the dominant method of disposal, though this is declining through the targets set by the European Landfill Directive.
The official source of EU-wide data on waste management is Eurostat, the statistics section of the European Commission. Eurostat collates waste and recycling data for the whole of the EU. The most recent available data is for 2002/03, and can be seen in the chart above. This shows the UK as having a combined recycling/composting rate for municipal waste of 15%, as compared to 52% for Germany, 53% for Belgium, and 54% for the Netherlands. The EU average was 31%.
Since this data was collated by Eurostat things have moved on in the UK and elsewhere. Data from respective environment ministries for 2005/06 shows the UK on 27%, Germany on 60% and the Netherlands on 64%.
Source: Link to Eurostat data
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