Beyond the recovery rate
Every European country that treats more than 100 kt of mineral construction and demolition waste meets the 70% recovery target. The rate does not distinguish recycling from backfilling, and the two pathways differ widely between countries. An interactive companion to the study.
One target, many recovery mixes
All 30 countries are above 70%, yet recycling ranges from 1% to 100% of treated tonnage. Colour the map by recycling, backfilling, recovery or archetype.
Four archetypes
Recycling led, backfilling led, disposal reliant and transition to recycling. Compare the 2022 mix of every country and follow any trajectory since 2010.
Convergence on the target, divergence in the mix
EU27 recycling held at 80% from 2014 to 2022 while recovery rose from 87% to 91%. The gain came through backfilling.
The construction system
Type of construction and building stock age do not separate the archetypes. Primary aggregate abundance does.
Instruments in cross section and over time
Coded national instruments do not separate the groups across countries, while landfill taxes introduced within countries coincided with landfill falling.
Europe in the world
Only 89 of 217 countries report a CDW tonnage, and three of them account for 77% of the reported 5.5 Gt.
Data and code
Every dataset behind the site with its Eurostat or World Bank code, and the archived analysis code and inputs on Zenodo.
Country profile
Pick a country and a comparator and see the recovery mix, ranks, intensities, instruments and aggregate supply side by side.
The European recovery landscape
Colour the map by recycling share, backfilling share, recovery rate, archetype or the number of coded instruments in force, then click a country for its recovery mix. Countries outside the 30 country sample are grey.
Shares refer to treated non hazardous mineral CDW (Eurostat W121) in 2022, or 2020 for Sweden. Malta is drawn as a marker because it is smaller than the base map resolves.
The recovery mix of 30 countries
Each bar is the treated mineral CDW of one country in 2022, split into recycling, backfilling, energy recovery and landfill or other disposal. Countries are grouped by archetype and sorted by recycling share; the dashed line marks the 70% recovery target, which recycling and backfilling meet alike.
Trajectory of one country, 2010 to 2022
Recovery is recycling plus backfilling. Backfilling shares before 2014 are partly inferred from the difference between reported recovery and recycling.
Convergence on the target, divergence in how it is met
At EU27 level the recycling share was 80% in 2014 and 80% in 2022 while the recovery rate rose from 87% to 91%: the headline gain since 2014 came through backfilling, which grew from 7% to 11% as landfill fell from 13% to 8%. Across countries the spread of landfill shares collapsed while the spread of backfilling shares widened.
EU27 recovery mix, 2010 to 2022
Cross country standard deviation by wave
Standard deviations are across the 30 core countries in each wave. From 2010 to 2022 the SD of recycling fell from 33 to 25 points, landfill from 35 to 7 and backfilling rose from 10 to 24.
The construction system behind the mix
The EU27 construction sector generated 862 Mt of waste in 2022, 14% more than in 2010: soils and dredging spoils make up 54%, mineral CDW 35%, and wood, plastics, glass and mixed fractions less than 2% together. Treated tonnage scales one for one with construction value added (elasticity .97). Type of construction, measured as the civil engineering share of turnover, and the age of the building stock do not separate the archetypes. The abundance of primary aggregates does.
EU27 construction sector waste by material, 2010 to 2022
Secondary aggregate share by archetype
Backfilling share vs primary aggregate extraction
Recycled mineral CDW supplied 8% of EU27 aggregates in 2022 (7% in 2010). The median secondary share is 7% in recycling led countries and 1% in backfilling led countries (Kruskal Wallis p = .02); extraction per capita correlates with the backfilling share (Spearman .37). One point per country, 29 countries with material flow accounts.
National instruments
Six coded instruments (landfill tax in 23 of 30 countries, sorting obligation 12, recycled aggregate regulation 9, pre demolition audit 7, CDW landfill restriction 7, aggregates levy 3) do not separate recycling led from backfilling led countries once income and regulatory quality are held constant, across 432 specifications. The median recycling share is lower, not higher, in countries that have each instrument. Within countries, the record reads differently: the five landfill taxes introduced between 2011 and 2019 coincided with landfill falling by 33 points and material moving to recycling.
Median recycling share with and without each instrument
Recycling share vs 2021 landfill tax rate
Around the start of a landfill tax
Left: countries without a landfill tax in 2021 sit in the untaxed column. Right: mean shares by wave relative to the first wave with a tax in force, for the countries that switched during the panel (Bulgaria 2011, Hungary 2013, Greece 2014, Lithuania 2016, Romania 2019); Portugal and Slovakia enter the later waves. Waves with fewer than three countries are omitted; hover to see who contributes.
Europe in the world
Only 89 of the 217 countries in the World Bank What a Waste 3.0 database report a CDW tonnage. China, the United States and Germany account for 77% of the reported 5.5 Gt. Per capita CDW rises steeply with income (elasticity to GDP per capita 2.25). Bubble area is national tonnage; colour is World Bank region.
Viet Nam is in the database but its CDW field is blank, so it does not appear. Reported definitions differ between countries; the European figures here are the database entries, not the Eurostat W121 series used elsewhere on this site.
Data and code
All inputs are public. Waste quantities are Eurostat reference years 2010 to 2022 at two-year intervals; the site uses the 30 countries that treat more than 100 kt of mineral construction and demolition waste. The analysis code, the coded instrument table and the assembled raw inputs are archived at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22563996 (the record is versioned; this link always resolves to the latest version).
| Dataset | Provider and code | Used for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Treatment of waste by operation, mineral CDW (W121) | Eurostat env_wastrt | Recovery rate, recycling, backfilling and disposal shares, treated tonnage | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/env_wastrt/default/table |
| Generation of waste by NACE activity and material | Eurostat env_wasgen | Construction sector waste by material (mineral, soils, wood, plastics, glass, mixed) | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/env_wasgen/default/table |
| Production in construction, volume index | Eurostat sts_copr_a | Construction cycle analyses | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sts_copr_a/default/table |
| Building permits, useful floor area | Eurostat sts_cobp_a | Alternative activity measure | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sts_cobp_a/default/table |
| Gross value added, NACE F | Eurostat nama_10_a64 | Normalisation by construction output, elasticity | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/nama_10_a64/default/table |
| GDP and GDP per capita | Eurostat nama_10_gdp | Income control | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/nama_10_gdp/default/table |
| Population on 1 January | Eurostat demo_pjan | Per capita intensities | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/demo_pjan/default/table |
| Structural business statistics, turnover of NACE F41, F42, F43 | Eurostat sbs_na_con_r2, sbs_ovw_act | Civil engineering share of construction | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table |
| Census 2021, dwellings by period of construction | Eurostat cens_21dwop_r3 | Building stock age | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/cens_21dwop_r3/default/table |
| Material flow accounts, domestic extraction of non-metallic minerals | Eurostat env_ac_mfa | Primary aggregate extraction, secondary aggregate share | ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/env_ac_mfa/default/table |
| GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2021 international $) | World Bank WDI NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD | Global comparison | data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD |
| Worldwide Governance Indicators | World Bank WGI | Regulatory quality and governance mean | www.worldbank.org/en/publication/worldwide-governance-indicators |
| What a Waste 3.0, country dataset | World Bank Data Catalog 0039597 | CDW generation for 89 countries | datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0039597 |
| Landfill taxes and restrictions overview 2021 | CEWEP | Landfill tax presence, rate and start year, restrictions | www.cewep.eu/landfill-taxes-and-bans/ |
| National instrument table | Coded by the authors from national legislation, the EC CDW protocol and the EEA briefing | Pre-demolition audits, sorting obligations, recycled aggregate regulations, aggregates levies, EPR | doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22563996 |
Eurostat operation codes: RCV_R recycling, RCV_B backfilling, RCV_R_B both (the 70% target basis), DSP_L landfill. Backfilling for the EU27 aggregate is not published before 2014 and is inferred as recovery minus recycling.
Country profile
Pick a country and, optionally, a comparison country. The cards show the archetype, the 2022 recovery mix, ranks among the 30 countries, tonnage intensities, the secondary aggregate share, instruments in force and regulatory quality.