Waste recycling (i61)
- 29/11/2024
- objective
- assessment assessment
In 2020, 54% of municipal waste was recycled in Belgium (households only). To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, this figure must increase. Between 2000 and 2020, the trend is undetermined (assessment of November 2024).
Waste recycling - Belgium and international comparison
percentage of municipal waste
| 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2020//1995 | 2020//2015 | 2022//2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 51.0 | 54.6 | 51.8 | -- | -- | 0.8 |
| Belgium (only households) | 19.1 | 49.7 | 55.6 | 54.8 | 53.4 | 54.3 | -- | -- | 4.3 | 0.3 | -- |
| EU27 (only households) | 18.6 | 27.3 | 32.4 | 38.0 | 45.0 | 48.2 | 49.2 | 48.5 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 0.4 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||||
Statbel; Eurostat (2024), Municipal waste by waste operations [env_wasmun], https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 16/9/2024).
Waste recycling by region - Belgium
percentage of municipal waste
| 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2020//1995 | 2020//2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brussels-Capital Region (only households) | 3.7 | 13.6 | 18.3 | 26.1 | 39.9 | 39.0 | 9.9 | -0.4 |
| Flemish Region (only households) | 26.2 | 60.1 | 63.7 | 64.7 | 61.5 | 62.3 | 3.5 | 0.3 |
| Walloon Region (only households) | 11.9 | 42.1 | 53.6 | 43.7 | 42.8 | 43.6 | 5.3 | 0.4 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||||||
Statbel (2022), Direct communication, 28/04/2022.
Definition: the share of municipal waste recycled and composted/fermented. This indicator must be put in parallel with the indicator on municipal waste collection. Municipal waste is household waste collected by municipal collection services, container parks, street sweepers, etc., but does not include construction materials. This waste can be treated in four ways: landfilling, incineration (with or without energy recovery), recycling and composting/fermentation. From 2020, similar waste from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions are included in this indicator. This change has been applied from 2020 in Belgium, but has not yet been implemented in all European countries. For this reason, two time series are presented, depending on the definition used. Statistics Belgium organises this data collection in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. The data used here for the FPB calculations come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results between EU Member States.
Goal: recycling of waste must increase.
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 12.5: “By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.”
International comparison: the rate of waste recycling in Belgium is above the European average and stabilises, while it still increases in the EU27. In 2019, only four countries perform better than Belgium (Germany, Slovenia, Austria and the Netherlands) but Belgium has lost two places in the ranking since 2014. In that year, Germany ranked first with 67% and Malta last with 9%.
UN Indicator: the selected indicator is related to indicator 12.5.1 - National recycling rate, tons of material recycled.
Sources
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SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.
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Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.
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UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).
- UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).
At www.indicators.be the Federal Planning Bureau presents sustainable development indicators.
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