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  • 3 months ago
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: How much packaging waste do EU citizens produce?

Despite packaging waste having risen over the past decade, seven EU countries achieved the 2030 goal of recycling at least 70% of all packaging waste as early as 2023.

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/10/31/reduce-reuse-recycle-how-much-packaging-waste-do-eu-citizens-produce

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Transcript
00:00How much packaging waste are EU citizens producing?
00:08More than 79 million tons of packaging waste were generated in the EU in 2023.
00:14This is according to the latest Eurostat figures.
00:17While this marks a reduction of 8.7 kilos per capita compared with 2022,
00:22the figure remains 21.2 kilos higher than in 2013.
00:26In 26 EU countries, paper and cardboard made up the largest share of the total packaging waste.
00:33The only exception was Bulgaria, where plastic packaging waste made up a slightly higher share.
00:38There were also substantial amounts of plastic packaging waste, glass and wood.
00:43Ireland, Italy, Germany and Luxembourg generated more than 200 kilos of packaging waste per inhabitant.
00:50Despite their high waste generation,
00:52these countries also recycled the largest amounts of packaging waste per inhabitant in the EU.
00:58By contrast, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria were the EU countries recycling the lowest
01:03amounts of packaging waste per inhabitant.
01:06Bulgaria and Croatia also generated the least packaging waste per inhabitant among the EU countries.
01:12The EU has set out that a minimum of 70% of all packaging waste should be recycled by 2030.
01:19Meanwhile, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Czechia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Spain have already met the 2030
01:26overall recycling target for packaging waste.
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