In a report the European Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik has praised Europe for its progress in recycling but highlighted that there is still a lot of progress to be made.

He commented that we all still have a long way to go before Europe could be classed as a recycling community.
The latest figures show that Europeans have generated a steady 1,100 pounds of waste per person per year for the past ten years despite a consumption rate increase of about 16 per cent.

Food waste was highlighted as a continuing issue as the latest figures show that about 25 per cent of all food waste in Europe is thrown away. European leaders believe that about 60 percent of this waste could be avoided.

There is a lot of disparity in the figures between the countries in the union, some members reported a few percentage of waste recycling while others report rates as high as 70 per cent.

A directive initiated by European lawmakers calls on member states to recycle 50 per cent of municipal waste and 70 per cent of construction and demolition waste by 2020.