30/03/2012 - Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has published data on municipal waste for 2010. In the EU27, 502 kg of municipal waste was generated per person. Landfill is still the most common way of treatment, accounting for nearly 40% of municipal waste treated. Other forms are recycling (25%), composting (25%) and incineration (22%).

The treatment methods differ substantially between Member States. While almost 100% of municipal waste in Bulgaria and Romania end up in landfills, Germany and Sweden have abandoned this practice. Recycling and composting of municipal waste together accounted for 50% of waste treated or more in Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. On the other hand, in five Member States less than 10% of waste was recycled or composted.

These data show that there is still plenty of room for action in the field of waste prevention, in particular at local and regional level. By reducing the amount of waste generated in the first place, treating it will automatically become simpler. As waste management practices still differ fundamentally across Europe, cooperation between the responsible authorities, knowledge transfer and the exchange of good practices such as exemplified by Pre-waste are key to achieve this goal.