In 2020, the EU’s circular material use rate (referred to as the circularity rate) reached 12.8%.

This means that almost 13% of material resources used in the EU came from recycled waste materials.

Romania ranks last, with a rate of only 1.3% (one-tenth of the EU average), according to a recent Eurostat survey.

The circularity rate for metals was 25% (+0.7 pp compared with 2019), for non-metallic minerals (including glass) 16% (+0.7pp), biomass (including paper, wood, tissue, etc.) 10% (+0.2 pp) and fossil fuels 3% (+0.5 pp).

Compared with 2019, the circularity rate increased by 0.8 percentage points (pp). The rate has maintained a stable growth trend since 2004 (8.3%), the first year for which data are available.

The circularity rate is the share of material resources used, which came from recycled waste materials, thus saving extractions of primary raw materials.

The circularity rate is part of the EU monitoring framework on the circular economy.

(Photo: Tsung-lin Wu | Dreamstime.com)

andrei@romania-insider.com