National reporting of waste data

The Finnish Environment Institute is responsible for national waste reporting in accordance with the Waste Directive, the Landfill Directive and the Sludge Directive. The reports are compiled annually, as a general rule, in June-August. Most of the information is obtained from Statistics Finland's waste statistics; in addition, for example the environmental protection information system YLVA is utilized. Some of the calculations are done by the Finnish Environment Institute.

Reporting of the Waste Directive requires information on municipal waste, reuse, construction and demolition waste, and waste oil. In addition, the Finnish Environment Institute produces an updated quantity estimate of home composting, which is used in the waste statistics published by Statistics Finland.

For municipal waste, the total and processing quantities, the recycling rate and the disposal of municipal waste in landfills are reported. Product group-specific quantity data and a list of national measures promoting reuse are reported on reuse. For construction and demolition waste, the quantities and treatment data is reported. Regarding waste oils, waste oils put on the market, generated and processed are reported by oil type.

Biodegradable municipal waste placed in landfills is reported in accordance with the Landfill Directive.

Reporting according to the Sludge Directive consists of sludge analysis data and sludge quantities. It concerns only municipal wastewater. In addition, reporting requires the production of location information for those sites that have received sludge for farming.

All annual reporting data and quality reports are available from the metadata service CKAN of the Finnish Environment Institute: https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/organization/syke-reporting.

You may examine the reporting data from the attached Excel or the graphs below.

Like other EU countries, Finland is committed to recycling 55 % of municipal waste by 2025, 60 % in 2030 and 65 % in 2035.

Finland has calculated the municipal waste recycling rate using two different methods. Method 4 includes all recycled municipal waste. Method 2 takes into account the recycling of paper and cardboard, metal, plastic, glass, bio-waste and electrical and electronic waste.

According to method 2, the recycling rate in 2023 was 51 %, while calculated using method 4, it was only 45 %. The EU average in the same year was 48 %. Method 2 is thus more advantageous for Finland.

In 2023, Finland's municipal waste recycling rate increased a little from the previous year. With either method, Finland is still far from the 55 % recycling target.

Looking by material type, electrical and electronic waste has the highest recycling rate in Finland: it rose to 88 % in 2023. The next highest are the recycling rates of glass, paper and cardboard and metal waste. The recycling rate of plastic is the lowest: in 2023 it was 19 %. It should be noted that material-specific recycling rates are not the same as packaging waste recycling rates.

The development of municipal waste is also monitored by the indicators for the monitoring of the National Waste Plan compiled by the Finnish Environment Institute: https://www.ymparisto.fi/en/sustainable-circular-and-bioeconomy/waste-and-recycling/national-waste-plan.

The Finnish Environment Institute produces an estimate of the quantity of home composted municipal waste, which is used in the waste statistics published by Statistics Finland.

The prevalence of home composting has been assessed with an extensive survey, in addition to which national waste statistics are utilized to estimate the amount. The amount of domestic composted biowaste in 2021-2023 was a total of almost 60,000 tons. In 2023, its share of the total amount of municipal waste increased slightly to 2.3 %.

The amount of home-composted bio-waste per year, calculated per home-composting resident, is about 40 kilos per person. On average, about 29 % of Finns compost at home: it is most common in detached and semi-detached houses, of which about 55 % compost at home. Correspondingly, about 5 % of terraced house residents and about 1 % of apartment building residents compost at home. The home composter used for the processing of bio-waste is used for an average of 10.8 months a year.

The Finnish Environment Institute calculated the reuse quantities by product type for the first time for the year 2021. The quantity data is reported every three years in the future. The data for 2024 will be reported in 2026.

Textiles were reused the most, amounting to 16,100 tons. Furniture, which was 15,500 tons, was reused the second most.

Quantitative information was collected through a survey aimed at reuse operators. The operators included, among others, flea markets, recycling centers and charities.

In addition, the Finnish Environment Institute reports annually the measures to promote reuse nationally.

Construction and demolition waste refers to waste generated during new construction, renovation and demolition of a building or other fixed structure, civil engineering and other construction and demolition activities. The reporting does not include excavated soil in mineral waste.

In 2023 waste generation in the construction industry rose to 12,5 million tons. The share of hazardous waste was 1.9 %, which was slightly more than in the previous year.

The majority, approximately 97 %, of construction waste was mineral waste. The second most generated waste type was wood waste, which was 234,000 tons in 2023. The amount of wood waste from construction has been declining.

Construction waste amounts vary according to the general economic situation and thus the amount of construction.

In 2023, construction and demolition waste was utilized as material more than in the previous year. A total of 726,000 tons of waste ended up in material recovery, which corresponded to 54 % of the generated construction and demolition waste. The material recovery rate did not change from the previous year due to increase in the generation of construction and demolition waste.

The amount also includes the amounts of construction and demolition waste diverted to landfill, which was approximately 48,000 tons. The share of landfilling decreased from the previous year.

The reported data are also monitored by the National Waste Plan. The goal of the national waste plan is that by 2027, at least 70 % of construction and demolition waste will be utilized as material.

In construction waste statistics, the preparation for re-use included in the total amount of material recovery has previously been estimated as indicative. Starting from 2017, the statistics have become more detailed regarding the amounts of waste diverted to landfill. In 2015-2016, the estimates of the amount of landfill waste were higher than the actual amount, which explains the decrease in the amount of material utilization in 2017.

In 2023, 570 thousand tons of oils measured as dry weight were put on the market in Finland; the number increased significantly, by over 70 % from the previous year.

Between the years 2020-2022, the final disposal quantities of waste oil decreased, but as the amounts of oils brought to market they increased in 2023. There was no great change in the energy utilization of waste oils, but the amount of regeneration increased almost threefold compared to the previous year.

The information has been reported in accordance with the new reporting obligations from 2020. The reporting categories only include a part of oil waste, such as mineral and synthetic oils and industrial oils. For example, solid oil waste or waste oil from fuel liquids are not included.

Biodegradable municipal waste includes separately collected biodegradable kitchen and garden waste and non-separately collected biodegradable municipal waste, i.e. biodegradable waste among mixed municipal waste and separately collected biodegradable waste fractions such as paper.

The amount of biodegradable municipal waste varied between 1.8 and more than 2 million tons in the years 2010-2019. The highest amount was in 2021, when more than 2.3 million tons were produced. After this, the amount has started to decline and in 2023, the amount dropped to just under 1.8 million tons.

At the same time, landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste has decreased. Thanks to the organic waste landfill ban that came into effect in 2016, the amounts of biodegradable municipal waste placed in landfills has decreased significantly. In 2023, only 6.300 tons of biodegradable municipal waste was placed in landfills.

The amount of biodegradable municipal waste calculated per inhabitant increased from 2017 to 2021, when the total amount was 421 kilograms per inhabitant. In 2023, the amount decreased to 314 kilograms. The vast majority, almost 80 %, of the generated biodegradable municipal waste is other than separately collected biodegradable municipal waste, which ends up in waste management among mixed waste.

The formation of sludge at wastewater treatment plants and the agricultural use of sludge concerns only sludge originating from municipal wastewater.

Sludge formation in municipal wastewater treatment plants has decreased from 2019. In 2023, the amount decreased by about 8 % from the previous year and was 142 thousand tons measured as dry matter.

In 2023, 56 thousand tons of sludge were diverted to agricultural use. The amount decreased by about 8 % from the previous year. In agriculture, around 40 % of the sludge is utilized as fertilizer.

Wastewater sludge is always treated before agricultural use, for example by digestion, composting or lime stabilization.

Sludge directive reporting of spatial data

The reporting provisions of the EU sewage sludge directive on agricultural use require the collection of spatial data. The map in question shows the geographic data material reported by Finland.

The map shows in purple the municipalities where treated municipal sewage sludge has been spread for agricultural use in 2024. Regionally, sludge has been spread especially in southern and southwestern Finland, northern Ostrobothnia and northern Savo. The sludge application areas vary somewhat each year.

The material has been compiled based on the information obtained from the YLVA information system, and the starting material for the spatial data is the administrative areas of the land survey.

Website of Finland’s environmental administration

National reporting of waste data

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