Poland records EU’s second-highest increase in recycling rate over last decade
Poland has recorded the European Union’s second-highest increase in recycling rates over the last decade, Eurostat data show. However, its rate still remains below the EU average.
The figures, compiled in a new report by waste removal company Clear it Waste, show that Poland’s municipal recycling rate rose from 12% in 2012 to 40.3% in 2021. That represented a rise of 236%, which was behind only neighbouring Slovakia (265%).
At the other end of the scale, Romania (-24%), Denmark (-19%) and Sweden (-16%) saw the largest declines in recycling rates over that period.

However, those figures show only the relative change in rates. In overall terms, Poland’s rate of 40.3% in 2021 was below the figure of 49.6% for the EU as a whole in that year.
The bloc’s top recyclers were Germany (71.1%), Bulgaria (65.5% in 2020, the latest year its data were available) and Slovenia (60.0%). At the other end of the scale, Romania (11.3%), Malta (13.6%) and Cyprus (15.3%) recorded the lowest results. Read More…