List of World's Topmost Recycling Countries

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): A new research report published by Eunomia-a Bristol-based environmental consultancy states that Germany is the top recycling country in the world, closely followed by Austria and South Korea. The rankings are based on self-reported data coupled with additional publicly available waste data from the likes of Eurostat and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report notes that Germany achieved an overall recycling rate of 56%.

On the basis of self-reported rates, Germany topped among world countries with a recycling rate of 66%. In second place was Wales with 64% recycling rate, closely followed by Singapore with 61%. The other two countries which reported recycling rate of just under 60% were South Korea and Taiwan.

Eunomia refined the above reported recycling rates by examining the data in more detail and incorporating the publicly available waste data from various agencies to arrive at new recycling rates for both municipal solid waste (MSW) and household waste (HH). It noted that the nations differ in the ways in which processes are accounted for. The new rates take into consideration the various discrepancies among world countries in recyclable handling methodologies.

The top three in terms of adjusted recycling rate for MSW are Germany (56.1%), Austria (53.8%) and South Korea (53.7%). The others in the top-ten league are Wales (52.2%), Switzerland (49.7%), Italy (49.7%), Belgium (49.4%), the Netherlands (46.3%), Slovenia (45.8%) and Singapore (34%).

Meantime, the ten countries with highest recycling rates on the basis Household waste are Germany (57.0%), Taiwan (55.4%), Wales (53.9%), Austria (53.8%), Switzerland (49.7%), Belgium (49.4%), Italy (49.1%), the Netherlands (46.6%) and Slovenia (45.8%).

Singapore reported the largest decline of 27% from reported MSW rate. Wales and the Netherlands witnessed significant declines of 11.6% and 10.3% respectively.

Based on the current data and historic recycling rate increases by various countries, Wales looks to be the closest to overtake Germany in the short term. Wales could overtake Germany as early as 2018, the report said. Meantime, several countries have set ambitious recycling goals. For instance, Wales aims to meet its 70% target by 2025 and also become ‘zero waste nation’ by 2050. The EU also plans to achieve 65% recycling rate by 2030.