Zero Waste Europe

Compare performance and commitment of European municipalities

This tool allows you to observe the progress and plans of European municipalities in the field of waste & resource management

The blue pins represent municipalities that have committed to the goal of continuously reducing waste generation and improving waste separate collection and move towards zero waste. The grey pins are municipalities for which there is information available but we don't know of their commitment to further improve waste management.

This page presents the mapping of municipalities on the Zero Waste path. 

For more information on our programme, visit our dedicated website on Zero Waste Cities

Download a list of all Zero Waste municipalities.
Municipalities committed to work towards Zero Waste
Municipalities not following the Zero Waste Roadmap

Current status of waste management in Europe

Currently the EU landfills or incinerates almost 60% of the municipal solid waste and every European generates 481kg per person annualy. Recycling rates at EU level have stabilised at 41% despite the recycling targets of 50% for 2020. However this data is the result of adding up and homogeneising statistics which, despite the efforts from Eurostat, are not the most accurate or reliable to compare countries performance in waste management.

This tool focuses on the local realities because 72% of the EU’s population lives in urban areas and because, despite the problems with different accounting methods, the information obtained from towns is normally more accurate and reliable than that coming from adding data from different sources.