Statizoid

Municipal waste recycling rate by country

Municipal (including household) waste recycling rates, measured as the percentage of total waste generated that is recycled.

Countries reporting
30
Highest
47.83 Percentage
Germany
Lowest
4.99 Percentage
Mexico
Median
26.04 Percentage
Years covered
26
1990–2015
Data points
646

What the numbers show

Municipal waste recycling rate is currently reported for 30 countries. The highest value is 47.83 Percentage in Germany; the lowest is 4.99 Percentage in Mexico.

The median across all reporting countries is 26.04 Percentage, and the mean is 25.62 Percentage.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 10.

Over the past decade 26 countries rose and 4 fell. The largest increase was in Lithuania (up 1,892.8%), and the largest decrease in Switzerland (down 8.9%).

Municipal waste recycling rate: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 Germany 47.83 Percentage 2015 up 7.4% rising
2 Slovenia 47.8 Percentage 2015 up 139.1% volatile
3 Belgium 35.09 Percentage 2015 up 17.7% rising
4 Ireland 33.96 Percentage 2012 up 80.8% rising
5 Sweden 32.37 Percentage 2015 down 5.4% rising
6 Switzerland 31.91 Percentage 2015 down 8.9% rising
7 Italy 29.14 Percentage 2015 up 112.1% rising
8 Luxembourg 28.51 Percentage 2015 up 11.3% rising
9 Finland 28.13 Percentage 2015 up 9.9% falling
10 United Kingdom 27.37 Percentage 2015 up 51.0% rising
11 Denmark 27.27 Percentage 2015 up 11.4% rising
12 Estonia 27.03 Percentage 2015 up 11.8% volatile
13 Poland 26.39 Percentage 2015 up 572.5% volatile
14 Austria 26.24 Percentage 2015 up 2.3% rising
15 Norway 26.13 Percentage 2015 down 0.9% rising
16 Hungary 25.96 Percentage 2015 up 196.7% volatile
17 United States 25.68 Percentage 2014 up 12.3% rising
18 Czechia 25.5 Percentage 2015 up 283.2% volatile
19 Latvia 25.17 Percentage 2015 up 470.3% volatile
20 Netherlands 24.61 Percentage 2015 down 7.7% rising
21 Lithuania 23.26 Percentage 2015 up 1,892.8% volatile
22 France 22.25 Percentage 2015 up 38.4% rising
23 Iceland 21.31 Percentage 2014 up 48.1% rising
24 Japan 20.54 Percentage 2014 up 16.8% rising
25 Canada 17.91 Percentage 2012 up 3.3% falling
26 Spain 16.84 Percentage 2015 up 9.3% rising
27 Portugal 16.23 Percentage 2014 up 137.0% volatile
28 Greece 15.56 Percentage 2012 up 92.5% rising
29 Slovakia 7.67 Percentage 2015 up 667.8% volatile
30 Mexico 4.99 Percentage 2012 up 105.6% rising

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Municipal waste recycling rate by country. Statizoid, drawing on OECD (2018) – processed by Our World in Data. Retrieved 25 September 2026, from https://environment.statizoid.com/stat/municipal-waste-recycling-rate/

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About this data

Indicator
Municipal waste recycling rate
Unit
Percentage
Source
OECD (2018) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
31 places, 646 data points, 1990–2015
Last refreshed

Municipal (including household) waste recycling rates, measured as the percentage of total waste generated that is recycled.