The use of secondary materials in the European Union crept up to 12.2% in 2024, the highest recorded.
The indicator, known as ‘circular material use rate’ (CMUR), measures the contribution of recycled materials in the overall use of materials. The 2024 figure is 0.1 percentage points up on 2023 and 1.0 percentage points (pp) higher than it was in 2015. The information comes from data on the CMUR published by Eurostat.
The Netherlands leads
In 2024, the circularity rate was highest in the Netherlands (32.7%), followed by Belgium (22.7%) and Italy (21.6%). The lowest rate was recorded in Romania (1.3%), Finland and Ireland (both 2.0%) and Portugal (3.0%). Differences in the rate among EU countries depend on the balance between new resources extracted from the environment and those fed back into the economy.
Between 2015 and 2024, the circularity rate increased in 21 EU countries. Malta (14.0 pp), Estonia (9.1 pp), Czechia (7.9 pp), Slovakia (7.2 pp), and the Netherlands (5.3 pp) recorded the highest increases. But it fell in 6 EU countries, most notably in Poland (4.2 pp) and Finland (3.2 pp).
Metals dominate
The EU circularity rate in 2024 was highest for metal ores with 23.4% (down 1.2 pp compared with 2023), followed by non-metallic minerals with 14.3% (down 0.1 pp), biomass 9.9% (up 0.2 pp) and fossil energy materials/carriers with 3.8% (up 0.4 pp).
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan from 2020 aims to double the CMUR to 23.3% by 2030.