Resource efficiency and the circular economy
Past and current patterns of resource use have led to high pollution levels, environmental degradation and the depletion of natural resources. EU waste policy has traditionally focused on environmentally sustainable waste management. The Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe and the Circular Economy Package laid the foundations for transforming the EU’s economy into a sustainable one by 2050. Under the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan provides a future-oriented agenda for a cleaner, more competitive EU.
Legal basis
Articles 191-193 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
Background
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines resource efficiency as achieving greater well-being while reducing resource use, emissions and waste generation per unit of product of service.
Resource efficiency is critical to the sustainability and sovereignty of the EU economy. According to the European Environmental Agency (EEA), every EU citizen consumes 14.1 tonnes of materials and generates 5 tonnes of waste each year. Although resource efficiency in the EU stands at 2.5 times the global average, this level of consumption exceeds sustainable earth limits and is among the highest in the world. This issue is further aggravated by the EU’s dependence on imports for access to natural resources: in 2024, imports accounted for 74.9% of the EU’s consumption of fossil energy materials and 49.0% of its consumption of metal ores (Eurostat statistics on EU imports and exports).
A more circular economic model aims to address both issues, by sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling products, thus extending their life cycle and minimising residual waste. The EEA estimates that, in 2023, 11.8% of the raw materials used by the EU economy originated as recycled material.
Objectives
A. 2011 Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe
The 2011 Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe was part of the resource efficiency flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 strategy. It supported the shift towards sustainable growth via a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy and outlined the structural and technological changes needed by 2050, including milestones to be reached by 2020. It proposed ways to increase resource productivity and decouple economic growth from resource use and its environmental impact.
B. 2015 Circular Economy Package
In December 2015, the Commission presented an action plan on the circular economy, outlining 54 measures covering the entire lifecycle of products, from production to recycling, through consumption and waste management. The action plan was implemented through four legislative proposals amending the following legal acts: (a) the Waste Framework Directive; (b) the Landfill Directive; (c) the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive; and (d) the directives on End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs), on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators, and on waste electrical and electronical equipment (WEEE). These directives, adopted in May 2018, set the following targets:
- A common EU target to recycle 65% of municipal waste by 2035 (55% by 2025 and 60% by 2030);
- A common EU target to recycle 70% of packaging waste by 2030;
- A binding landfill target to reduce landfill to a maximum of 10% of municipal waste by 2035;
- A ban on the landfilling of separately collected waste, requiring separate collection for biowaste by 2023 and for textiles and hazardous waste from households by 2025.
In March 2019, the Commission released a report on the implementation of the action plan, highlighting how it had accelerated the transition towards a circular economy.
C. 2020 new circular economy action plan
The new circular economy action plan for a cleaner and more competitive Europe was published on 11 March 2020 and is one of the cornerstones of the European Green Deal, the EU’s agenda for sustainable growth. It announced initiatives along the entire life cycle of products, targeting, for example, their design, promoting circular economy processes, fostering sustainable consumption, and aiming to ensure that the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible.
D. EU strategies for circular plastics and textiles
On 16 January 2018, the Commission published a communication laying out a strategy for plastics in a circular economy, presenting a wide range of measures focusing on four areas: (1) improving the economics and quality of plastics recycling; (2) curbing plastic waste littering; (3) driving investment and innovation in the plastics value chain; and (4) harnessing global action.
European consumption of textiles has the fourth-highest impact on the environment and climate change – after food, housing and mobility. On 30 March 2022, the Commission published the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, setting out concrete actions to ensure that, by 2030, textile products placed on the EU market are sustainable and recyclable, free of hazardous substances and produced under certain social and environmental standards.
E. 10th term of the European Parliament (2024-2029)
In 2025, the Commission announced a Circular Economy Act for 2026. Its aim will be to ensure that 24% of materials are circular by 2030.
Achievements
A. EU waste management legislation
1. Waste Framework Directive
The 2008 Waste Framework Directive contains basic rules for waste management, with a focus on waste prevention. It was amended in 2018 to emphasise waste prevention and circularity, and to introduce common minimal requirements for extended producer responsibility schemes for certain products. In February 2025, Parliament and the Council agreed on further amendments targeting food waste and waste textiles. The new rules include binding food waste reduction targets and a new producer responsibility scheme requiring textile producers to cover the costs of collecting, sorting and recycling waste textiles.
2. Waste shipment
The 2006 Waste Shipment Regulation lays down rules for waste shipments both within the EU and between the EU and non-EU countries, with a specific focus on environmental protection. It covers the shipment of practically all types of waste (with the exception of radioactive material) by road, rail, sea and air.
The Waste Shipment Regulation will gradually be replaced by a new regulation on waste shipment between 2025 and 2027. This regulation was adopted in 2024 in the light of the increasing amount of waste shipped from EU to non-EU countries, and in response to the goal of the circular economy action plan to further tackle illegal waste shipments. Under this new framework, waste shipments to countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will be monitored and can be suspended if they generate serious environmental problems in the country of destination. Waste exports to non-OECD countries will be prohibited by default, and only allowed if the countries concerned are able to manage the waste sustainably.
3. Waste disposal
The 1999 Landfill Directive, last amended by Directive (EU) 2024/1785, intends to prevent or reduce the adverse effects of landfill on the environment, in particular on surface water, groundwater, soil and air, as well as on human health.
Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions, last amended in 2024 by Directive (EU) 2024/1785, lays down rules on integrated prevention and control of pollution arising from industrial activities, including the generation of waste and special provisions for waste incineration and co-incineration plants. Following the latest review, waste landfill is also included within its scope.
4. Specific laws for production- and waste streams
a. Packaging and packaging waste
The 1994 Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD) covers all packaging placed on the EU market and all packaging waste. It was amended by Directive 2004/12/EC, which establishes criteria and clarifies the definition of ‘packaging’. Moreover, Directive (EU) 2015/720 amended the PPWD with the aim of reducing the consumption of lightweight plastic carrier bags, which easily escape waste management streams and accumulate in our environment, especially in the form of marine litter.
The PPWD will gradually be replaced by the new regulation on packaging and packaging waste(Regulation (EU) 2025/40) between 2026 and 2029. Adopted in 2024, the new regulation aims to reduce packaging waste by:
- Setting binding reuse and recycled content targets;
- Restricting certain types of single-use packaging;
- Requiring the packaging used to be minimised.
b. Electric and electronic equipment waste (WEEE)
Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (the WEEE Directive), amended in 2018 and 2024, aims to improve the collection, treatment and disposal of WEEE, such as mobile phones, computers, household appliances, lamps, medical devices and solar panels.
Additionally, Directive 2011/65 EU on restricting the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (the RoHS Directive) aims to protect the environment and human health by restricting the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and brominated flame retardants in such equipment.
The implementation of the WEEE and RoHS Directives in the Member States proved difficult, with only one third of all electrical and electronic waste being collected and properly treated. On 6 October 2023, the Commission published a recommendation to improve the return of WEEE, and in particular of laptops, mobile phones and tablets.
c. Batteries
Directive 2006/66/EC on batteries, accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators, last amended in 2018, aims to improve the waste management and environmental performance of such items by establishing rules for their collection, recycling, treatment and disposal. The directive also set limit values for certain hazardous substances (in particular mercury and cadmium) in batteries and accumulators.
Between 2025 and 2027, the aforementioned directive will gradually be replaced by a new Batteries Regulation, which was adopted on 12 July 2023. This will minimise the environmental impact of the battery sector as it undergoes exponential growth in a context of new socio-economic conditions, technological developments, markets and battery usages. This regulation was amended in 2025 to postpone the application of some of its due diligence requirements to 2026 or 2027.
d. End-of-life vehicles
Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles aimed to reduce waste from end-of-life vehicles and their components. It also encouraged manufacturers and importers to limit the use of hazardous substances and to develop the integration of recycled materials.
In July 2023, the Commission put forward a proposal for a repealing regulation on end-of-life vehicles to increase reusability, recyclability and recoverability.
e. Wastewater
The 1991 Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive aims to improve the collection and treatment of waste water. It will be replaced as from 1 August 2027 by the new directive on urban wastewater treatment as part of the EU zero pollution action plan and European Green Deal objectives. The new rules tighten requirements for the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater, to protect the environment and human health.
Member States must also promote the safe reuse of treated water for all purposes, and especially in water-stressed areas. This complements the Water Reuse Regulation, which sets minimum requirements for water reuse that is safe for both the environment and human health.
f. Ships
The main objective of the Ship Recycling Regulation, last amended in 2024, is to prevent, reduce and eliminate accidents, injuries and other adverse effects on human health and the environment resulting from the recycling and treatment of EU ships, in particular with a view to ensuring that hazardous waste from such ship recycling is subject to environmentally sound management.
g. Radioactive waste
In accordance with Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom on radioactive waste and substances, each Member State has to make it compulsory to report activities that involve a hazard arising from ionising radiation. Shipments of radioactive waste are covered by Council Regulation (Euratom) No 1493/93 and Council Directive 2006/117/Euratom.
h. Mining waste
The Mining Waste Directive, last amended in 2009, seeks to tackle the significant environmental and health risks associated with the volume and pollution potential of current and historical mining waste.
B. Plastics in the circular economy
As part of the EU plastics strategy, the Council and Parliament agreed to reduce plastic pollution by setting tough new restrictions on certain single-use plastic products (in Directive (EU) 2019/904). Products banned in the EU include plastic cutlery, plastic plates and straws, food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene and cotton bud sticks made of plastic. From 2025 onwards, the Member States will have the binding target for all PET beverage bottles to contain at least 25% recycled plastic. By 2030, all plastic bottles will have to be manufactured from at least 30% recycled material.
Plastic pellets are the industrial raw materials used to make plastic products. They are one of the largest sources of unintentional microplastic pollution. On 16 October 2023, the Commission proposed a regulation to tackle microplastic pollution resulting from losses of plastic pellets. It aims to help meet the EU’s target of reducing microplastics releases into the environment by 30% by 2030. This act was officially adopted by Parliament and the Council in October 2025.
On the international stage, the EU launched negotiations for a new international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution in March 2022, following the adoption of a resolution by the United Nations Environment Assembly. The EU joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution in November 2022. The negotiations took place through the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution and closed on 15 August 2025 without reaching a consensus. Participants nevertheless agreed to resume negotiations at a future date.
C. Critical raw materials in the circular economy
In order to ensure a secure, resilient and sustainable supply of critical raw materials, the 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act requires Member States to implement measures aimed at fostering resource efficiency and circularity in national programmes. It also establishes a European Critical Raw Materials Board, with a standing subgroup to discuss resource efficiency, circularity and substitution of critical raw materials.
Role of the European Parliament
Parliament has repeatedly called for a new agenda for future European growth with resource efficiency at its core, which would require some radical changes in our production and consumption patterns.
Parliament’s resolution on the strategy for plastics in a circular economy (13 September 2018) recommended introducing requirements for minimum recycled content for specific plastic products placed on the EU market, creating a genuine single market for recycled plastics, implementing measures to tackle marine litter, and banning micro-plastics in cosmetics and cleaning products by 2020.
Parliament’s resolution on the European Green Deal (15 January 2020) called for an ambitious new circular economy action plan, with the aim of reducing the total environmental and resource footprint of EU production and consumption while providing strong incentives for innovation, sustainable business and markets for climate-neutral and non-toxic circular products. It highlighted the strong synergies between climate action and the circular economy and called for the establishment of an EU-level target for resource efficiency.
Parliament’s resolution on the New Circular Economy Action Plan (10 February 2021) made over 130 policy recommendations. Among other things, it called for:
- Science-based binding EU targets for the reduction of primary raw-material use and environmental impacts;
- Binding material and environmental footprint targets for each product category placed on the EU market;
- Binding product-specific and/or sector-specific targets for recycled content.
On 23 April 2024, Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the proposed law to reduce microplastic pollution from losses of plastic pellets. Following the European elections in June 2024 and the Council’s adoption of its general position on minimising plastic pellet losses in December 2024, negotiations between Parliament and the Member States began in January 2025. Parliament’s position added new elements to the draft law, i.e. an extended definition of plastic pellets, the inclusion of all transport modes, and requirements regarding risk assessments and labelling.
Parliament’s resolution on energy-intensive industries (3 April 2025) called for the upcoming Circular Economy Act to improve resource efficiency, through better waste management and by fostering the demand and availability of secondary raw materials. It also recommended the creation of a lead market for circular products by leveraging public procurement and by creating voluntary labelling schemes and minimum EU content requirements.
For further information on this topic, please see the website of the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI).
Axel GRISLIN