How EU countries recycle raw materials – level 2

How EU countries recycle raw materials

27-11-2025 07:00

Recycling of raw materials in the EU is very slow, rising only from 11.2% to 12.2% over the last ten years. This makes the 2030 target of 23.2% seem hard to reach.

The country that recycles the most materials is the Netherlands, with a rate of almost 33%. Belgium is second (22.7%), and Italy is third (22%). At the bottom, Romania has the lowest rate at 1.3%. Six countries, like Poland and Finland, recycled even less than before. The EU says recycling is essential to help industry and make Europe less dependent on materials from other countries, especially China. One reason for the slow progress is that Europe has good laws for small types of waste, but not for large types of waste, like mining waste.

Difficult words: target (a goal), essential (necessary), mining (getting materials from the ground).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.

Which large type of waste is still lacking strong EU regulations, hindering progress in recycling raw materials?

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