Circular design is increasingly measured through what happens before and after a product is sold: which materials are selected, how easily products can be repaired or dismantled, and whether recovered materials find a market. EU data shows a large design and infrastructure challenge across packaging, electronics, vehicles and municipal waste. The figures below keep each source’s measurement period and denominator explicit.
Contents
- EU priorities for circular product design
- Packaging design and recycling performance
- Electronics, equipment flows and WEEE
- Vehicle design for dismantling and recovery
- Municipal waste as a design signal
- Secondary-material markets and incentives
EU priorities for circular product design
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) screened 33 initial product categories in 2024 while assessing priorities for the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. It selected 18 product groups for their potential to reduce environmental impacts and improve EU strategic autonomy. These are screening outputs, not measurements of market size or product performance.
The 18 groups divide into 11 final-product groups and 7 intermediate-product groups. The final-product list comprises textiles and footwear, furniture, tyres, mattresses, detergents, paints and varnishes, lubricants, cosmetics, toys, fishing gear, and absorbent hygiene products. The intermediate-product list comprises iron and steel, commodity chemicals, non-ferrous non-aluminium metals, aluminium, plastics and polymers, pulp and paper, and glass.
For designers, this scope is significant because it connects finished products with the material systems behind them. A circular design brief may therefore need to address durability, repairability, disassembly, recyclability, recycled content and the availability of secondary inputs at the same time. The JRC’s 2024 priority assessment is a policy-screening exercise rather than a forecast of which product categories will have the largest future markets. Source: JRC, “Designing more sustainable products: 18 categories with high potential”.
Packaging design and recycling performance
EU packaging waste reached 79.7 million tonnes in 2023, or 177.8 kg per inhabitant. The per-inhabitant figure was 8.7 kg lower than in 2022. The material mix shows why packaging design choices have system-wide effects:
- Paper and cardboard accounted for 32.3 million tonnes, or 40.4% of EU packaging waste.
- Plastic accounted for 15.8 million tonnes, or 19.8%.
- Glass accounted for 15.0 million tonnes, or 18.8%.
- Wood accounted for 12.6 million tonnes, or 15.8%.
The EU packaging-waste recycling rate was 67.5% in 2023, compared with the 70% overall target for 2030. Recycled packaging waste averaged 120.0 kg per inhabitant. The 2030 minimum recycling targets differ by material, so a single overall rate does not describe every packaging stream equally:
| Packaging material | 2030 minimum recycling target |
|---|---|
| Paper and cardboard | 85% |
| Glass | 75% |
| Plastics | 55% |
| Ferrous metals | 80% |
| Aluminium | 60% |
| Wood | 30% |
The reported country results also show how design interacts with collection and recycling systems. Belgium recycled 79.7% of packaging waste in 2023, the highest EU country rate reported for that year. For plastic packaging specifically, Belgium reached 59.5% and Latvia 59.2%, while Hungary recorded 23.0%, the lowest EU rate reported for that material.
Lightweight plastic carrier-bag use averaged 65 bags per inhabitant in 2023, down from 95 in 2018. In 2023, consumption ranged from 4 bags per inhabitant in Belgium to 209 in Latvia. These figures describe consumption and recycling outcomes, not the performance of any particular package design. Source: Eurostat, “Packaging waste statistics”.
For product designers, the practical signal is that material selection alone is not enough. A package must also fit sorting, collection and reprocessing conditions. The different 2030 targets make material-specific design decisions—such as avoiding hard-to-separate combinations or improving fibre, plastic, glass and metal recovery—more relevant than treating “recyclable” as a single universal property.
Electronics, equipment flows and WEEE
Electronics provide a clear measure of the gap between products entering the economy and waste being collected. Electrical and electronic equipment placed on the EU market rose from 7.6 million tonnes in 2012 to 14.4 million tonnes in 2023, an 89% increase. Over the same period, collected waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) increased from 3.0 million tonnes to 5.2 million tonnes, a 75% rise.
Treatment and recovery also grew, but the categories are not interchangeable. Treated WEEE rose from 3.1 million tonnes in 2012 to 5.2 million tonnes in 2023, a 66% increase. Recovered WEEE rose from 2.6 million tonnes to 4.8 million tonnes, an 83% increase. WEEE recycled or prepared for reuse rose from 2.4 million tonnes to 4.3 million tonnes, a 77% increase.
In 2023, EU residents generated 11.6 kg of collected WEEE per inhabitant. The EU WEEE collection rate was 37.5%, measured against average equipment placed on the market in 2020–2022. That denominator matters: the 2023 collection rate is not simply collected 2023 waste divided by equipment sold during 2023. Average equipment placed on the market in 2020–2022 was 30.2 kg per inhabitant, compared with 11.6 kg of WEEE collected per inhabitant in 2023.
Three countries reached the EU’s 65% WEEE collection target in 2023: Bulgaria, Latvia and Slovakia. Poland was the only EU country using the generated-WEEE method to reach the 85% collection target in 2023. Because Eurostat reports different collection methods and denominators, these rates should not be compared without their stated definitions.
The design implication is measurable: a product can contribute to circularity through longer service life, repair and reuse before it becomes WEEE, then through accessible components and material separation at end of life. Source: Eurostat, “Waste statistics - electrical and electronic equipment”.
Vehicle design for dismantling and recovery
The EU reported 4.3 million end-of-life passenger cars, vans and other light goods vehicles in 2023. Their total weight was 5.0 million tonnes. Parts and materials from these end-of-life vehicles achieved a 93.7% reuse-and-recovery rate by weight and an 88.3% reuse-and-recycling rate by weight in 2023.
| EU end-of-life vehicle measure | Reported result |
|---|---|
| Vehicles reported, 2023 | 4.3 million |
| Total weight, 2023 | 5.0 million tonnes |
| Reuse and recovery, 2023 | 93.7% by weight |
| Reuse and recycling, 2023 | 88.3% by weight |
The number of end-of-life vehicles fell 8.6% from 2022 to 2023, while the longer historical series shows a peak of 7.7 million in 2009. The EU reuse-and-recovery rate rose from 85.3% in 2009 to 93.7% in 2023. In 2023, 22 EU countries reported at least 85.0% reuse and recycling, and 8 reported rates above 90.0%.
These are mass-based outcomes, so they should not be read as a direct measure of the number of parts reused or the value retained in components. They do show why design for dismantling, component identification, material separation and recovery can matter at industrial scale. Source: Eurostat, “End-of-life vehicle statistics”.
Municipal waste as a design signal
EU municipal waste generation was 517 kg per capita in 2024. Under longstanding reporting, municipal waste recycling—including material recycling, composting and digestion—reached 48% in 2024. The composition data for 2023 identifies several material streams that product and packaging designers encounter in household waste:
- Biowaste represented 28.8% of reported EU municipal waste composition.
- Mixed waste represented 20.3%.
- Paper and cardboard represented 13.9%.
- Plastic represented 7.5%.
Mixed waste is especially important for circular design because material value becomes harder to recover when products and packaging are discarded together without effective separation. The composition percentages describe reported municipal waste composition, not the share of all products sold that use each material.
The longer-term disposal trend is positive but incomplete. EU municipal waste landfilled fell from 121 million tonnes in 1995 to 50 million tonnes in 2024, a 59% reduction. The municipal-landfilling rate fell from 61% of generated waste in 1995 to 24% in 2024. These figures indicate a major shift away from landfill, while the 48% 2024 recycling figure shows that design, collection and treatment capacity still determine how much value is retained. Source: Eurostat, “Municipal waste statistics”.
Secondary-material markets and incentives
Secondary-material prices provide one market signal for circular design, although prices vary by material, quality and trading conditions. In 2025, average secondary-material prices were €88 per tonne for glass, €154 per tonne for paper and cardboard, and €308 per tonne for plastic.
| Secondary material | Average price in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Glass | €88 per tonne |
| Paper and cardboard | €154 per tonne |
| Plastic | €308 per tonne |
Trade volumes show different patterns by material. Between 2024 and 2025, extra-EU export weights rose 32% for glass and 9% for paper, while falling 2% for plastic. Average monthly EU trade in secondary glass rose from about 171,000 tonnes in 2005 to 308,000 tonnes in 2023, then measured about 299,000 tonnes in 2025.
Average monthly EU trade in secondary paper and cardboard reached 1.90 million tonnes in both 2009 and 2017, and was approximately 1.70 million tonnes in 2025. Secondary plastic trade peaked at 477,000 tonnes in 2016 and measured 413,000 tonnes in 2025. These trade measures describe flows, not the quantity of material successfully incorporated into new products.
For circular product design, the incentive is to make recovered material usable and economically competitive: specify compatible recycled inputs, reduce contamination, design for sorting and preserve material quality through repeated cycles. Source: Eurostat, “Recycling – secondary material price indicator”.
Across these EU and JRC measurements, the same pattern appears: circular design is linked to policy scope, material composition, collection rates, mass-based recovery, waste composition and secondary-material markets. The rates use different denominators and reporting systems, and 2024–2025 figures are not 2026 measurements; each statistic should therefore be interpreted within its stated period and definition.