About 30% of waste in the European Union still goes to landfill.

Omissions

• The 30% figure is Eurostat's latest published value for TOTAL waste treated (reference year 2022, published with a lag), i.e. roughly four years before the plenary session of 21 October 2026; the speaker did not specify any reference year.
• The indicator is not the more intuitive municipal (household-type) waste landfilling rate, which Eurostat puts much lower: 24% of municipal waste landfilled in the EU in 2024 (down from 61% in 1995). Using the all-waste figure therefore overstates the share of everyday household waste landfilled.
• The all-waste figure includes mineral/construction and mining waste, which heavily influences the aggregate; the claim's implicit link to 'critical materials' going to landfill is only partly captured by this aggregate indicator.
• No source was found that contradicts the ~30% figure for total waste.

Sources

• PrimaryEurostat — Waste statistics (Statistics Explained)'In 2022, 40.8% of waste were recycled and 30.2% landfilled in the EU.' / 'The remaining 38.6% was either landfilled (30.2%), incinerated without energy recovery (0.4%) or disposed of otherwise (8.0%).'
• PrimaryEurostat — Municipal waste statistics (Statistics Explained)'the landfilling rate (landfilled waste as share of generated waste) in the EU dropped from 61% in 1995 to 24% in 2024' / 'In 2023, 234.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste were generated in the EU.'
• SecondaryESWET — EU municipal waste management: 2024 data'landfilling has declined dramatically (from more than 60% of municipal waste in 1995 to 22.5% in 2024)'; 'Landfilling continued its downward trend, decreasing from 51.4 million tonnes in 2023 to 49.5 million tonnes in 2024.'