The highest rates of recycled material usage were recorded in the Netherlands (32.7%), Belgium (22.7%), and Italy (21.6%).
At the opposite end of the spectrum were Romania (1.3%), Finland and Ireland (2.0% each), and Portugal (3.0%).
Examining different material types, the EU’s circularity rate in 2024 was highest for metal ores, at 23.4% (-1.2 percentage points compared to 2023), followed by non-metallic minerals at 14.3% (-0.1 pp), biomass at 9.9% (+0.2 pp), and fossil energy materials/carriers at 3.8% (0.4 pp).
The European Union’s statistics service explains that differences in circularity rates between countries depend on the balance between newly extracted resources and those reintroduced into the economy. Portugal’s circularity rate remained stable from 2023 at 3%.
