In 2022, the EU's circular material use rate (also called the circularity rate; the percentage of material resources used that come from recycled materials) reached 11.5%, meaning that 11.5% of material resources used in the EU came from recyclable materials.

Compared to 2021, the circularity rate increased by 0.1 percentage points (pp). Between 2010 and 2022, the rate increased by 0.8 pp from 10.7% to 11.5%; however, the highest rates were observed in 2018 and 2020: 11.6%.

In 2022, the circularity rate was highest in the Netherlands (27.5%), followed by Belgium (22.2%) and France (19.3%). The lowest rates were recorded in Finland (0.6%), Romania (1.4%) and Ireland (1.8%), according to Eurostat. 

The differences in circularity rates between EU countries are based not only on the amount of recycling in each country, but also on structural factors in national economies. Also in 2022, the highest circularity rate by main material type was metal ores at 23.9% (+0.6 pp compared to 2021), followed by non-metallic minerals at 13.7% (-0.1 pp), biomass 10.0% (+0.6 pp) and fossil energy materials/transporters at 3.2% (unchanged).