Municipal waste recycling remains far behind target

The national recycling rate of municipal waste has remained at the same level for a long time, according to the report published by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) on Thursday.

About half of the municipal waste is generated by households. The recycling rate of municipal waste in Finland stood at 37 per cent in 2020.

The European Union and Finland aim to increase the recycling rate to 55 per cent by 2025, to 60 per cent by 2030 and to 65 per cent by 2035.

The recycling rate of household waste has increased in almost all municipal areas that have been monitored in the period 2016–2021 (some of the municipalities have been monitored from 2018–2021).

The trend in the volume of household waste, however, has fluctuated as during the monitoring period, about one-half of the municipal areas witnessed an increase in the household waste per capita and about half of the areas witnessed a decrease.

The monitoring data on the volumes of household waste and recycling rates were calculated for ten municipal areas, i.e. Forssa, Hyvinkää, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Porvoo, Riihimäki, and Turku.

In addition, the data from Helsinki Metropolitan Area that the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY calculated with their own model is also included.

The recycling rate increased in nearly all the monitored municipal areas. In the Hyvinkää, Riihimäki, Joensuu and Porvoo regions, the recycling rate has risen from 2016 to 2021 at the pace required by the EU targets, i.e. by about five percentage points over five years.

“There appears to be a number of reasons for this positive development, such as a more efficient separate collection of biodegradable waste and a reduction in the amount of mixed waste. Furthermore, in some municipal areas, the more precise monitoring of waste data has had an impact on the results. Waste sorting and recycling still need to be even further developed in the coming years at a fast pace throughout the country,” said Tiina Karppinen, researcher at SYKE.

Reducing the amount of waste is an important national objective. According to the data from Statistics Finland, the amount of municipal waste in 2021 has settled at the level it was on in 2020, but the amount had previously been in quite a steady rise ever since 2010.

In the municipal regions, the development of household waste volumes has been divided. During the monitoring period, the amount of household waste has decreased in the Hyvinkää, Riihimäki, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Turku and Vantaa regions. The decreases in these areas have varied from a few per cent to over ten per cent. The Forssa, Kuopio, Lahti, Lappeenranta and Porvoo regions, on the other hand, have seen an increase in waste volumes, but even in these regions the amount of household waste was lower in 2021 than in 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic has increased waste amounts in the municipal areas due to people spending more time at home. The pandemic particularly affected the numbers in 2020.

Some of the waste facilities report an increase in the amount of waste brought to waste stations, for example, as a result of people cleaning their homes and giving their belongings away. According to the producer organisation, the amount of packaging waste has also increased, presumably due to the increase in people ordering takeaway and using parcel services.