Recycling rate of waste excluding major mineral wastes

The indicator measures the share of a country’s, or the EU’s, own waste, which is recycled. Due to the strong fluctuations in waste generation in the mining and construction sectors and their limited data quality and comparability, major mineral wastes, dredging spoils and soils are excluded. This exclusion enhances comparability across countries as mineral waste accounts for high quantities in some countries and economic activities such as mining and construction. The data reflect the treatment of national waste and exclude waste that is imported from other EU countries; on EU total level the waste imports from non-EU countries are excluded. In the source dataset, the information on waste treatment is broken down into six treatment types: recovery (recycling, energy recovery, backfilling) and disposal (incineration, landfill, other disposal. The indicator presents only data on the treatment type of recovery - recycling.