Netherlands leads EU in circular material use amid upward data trend

The latest data from Eurostat has revealed that in 2024, 12.2% of materials used in the EU, including those used in packaging, came from recycled sources — a 0.1 percentage point (pp) increase from 2023.

The Netherlands had the highest circularity rate last year, and Romania the lowest, according to the data. 

Eurostat used an indicator, known as Circular Material Use Rate (CMUR), to measure the amount of recycled content in EU materials. The data comes from a recent Eurostat publication on EU recycled content fed back into the economy.

“CMUR increased in 2024 relative to 2023, driven by a reduction in Domestic Material Consumption (DMC), which fell by 63.298.678 metric in the same period, corresponding to a 1% relative decrease,” a Eurostat spokesperson tells Packaging Insights. 

Eurostat’s DMC measures the total amount of materials directly used by an economy. It is defined as the annual quantity of raw materials extracted from the domestic territory, plus all physical imports minus all physical exports.

The spokesperson explains that the circular material rate is calculated by dividing “U” — the amount of recycled materials returning to the economy, including imports and exports of recyclables — by the total of U plus DMC.

“When DMC decreases, CMUR increases. When U increases, CMUR increases.” 

Country comparison 

The data also reveals that the circulatory rate was highest in the Netherlands at 32.7%, followed by Belgium (22.7%) and Italy (21.6%). 

The lowest circulatory rate in 2024, according to the data, was in Romania at 1.3%, followed by Finland and Ireland at 2.0%, and then Portugal at 3.0%. 

“Romania and Finland mine metals,” explains the spokesperson. “Metal mining produces mineral waste, which is heavy, and most of it is not recycled. Romania has increased its DMC in recent years, while Finland has kept it stable.”

“The Netherlands does not mine metals and has recently decreased its DMC.”

Additionally, the data show that between 2015 and 2024, the circularity rate increased in 21 EU countries. Most notably, in Malta, which had a 14 pp increase. In contrast, the circularity rate decreased the most in Poland by 4.2 pp and in Finland by 3.2 pp.

Material type 

The data also shows different circularity rates across materials. In 2024, the highest circularity rate was achieved for metal ores at 23.4%, representing a 1.2 pp decrease from 2023. 

Second was non-metallic minerals with 14.3%, then biomass content at 9.9%, and fossil energy materials at 3.8% — a 0.4 pp increase from 2023. 

Recently, Close the Glass Loop data revealed that glass collection recycling rates are increasing across the EU, with previously underperforming countries improving their national glass collection streams. 

According to its data, glass collection rates in Europe rose from 80.2% in 2022 to 80.8% in 2023. Countries like Portugal and Greece reported increased volumes of collected glass, while Italy exceeded Close the Glass Loop’s 90% glass collection recycling target for the first time.