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★Mark us as a preferred sourceEurope’s paper recycling rate stood at 76.4% in 2025 – exactly the same as a year earlier. According to the European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC) annual monitoring report and Cepi’s press release, the sector is now exceeding its 76% target for 2030 five years ahead of schedule. A stable paper recycling rate looks like reassuring news at first glance, but the figure is worth unpacking: falling consumption, a 2024 number revised upwards after the fact, and a growing volume of recovered paper leaving Europe.
In short: Europe’s paper recycling rate remained at 76.4% in 2025 because recycled paper (53.9 million tonnes) and paper consumption (70.5 million tonnes) fell at almost the same pace. On paper, the sector already meets its 2030 target, but 14% of the collected volume is recycled outside Europe, mainly in Asian paper mills.
What exactly does 76.4% measure?
First, an important clarification: this is not a household separate-collection rate. Under the EPRC definition, the rate compares the amount of used paper recycled – including net trade of Paper for Recycling (PfR) – with the amount of new paper and board consumed in the same year.
The 2025 figures:
- recycled paper and board fell by 0.3% to 53.9 million tonnes,
- paper and board consumption fell by 0.4% to 70.5 million tonnes.
The commitment covers the EU-27 plus the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland. Cepi collects the data from national associations in 19 countries – Hungary among them – sources figures for the remaining EU member states from the consultancy AFRY, and the calculation has been verified by Deloitte since 2015.
The rate covers every paper grade: graphic paper (newspapers, office paper, print), packaging and tissue. Part of this – think of paper tissues, or books kept on shelves for decades – can never return to the loop, so 100% is out of reach even in theory.
Why the paper recycling rate stood still in 2025
The explanation is simple arithmetic: the numerator and the denominator shrank by almost the same amount. Europe used less paper and, in parallel, sent less back for recycling, so the ratio did not move.
Over the longer term, however, the shift is striking. Compared with the 1998 base year, recycled volumes have grown by 34.4%, or 13.8 million tonnes. Consumption, by contrast, rose until 2007 and has since fallen back to 1990s levels. The rate was just 40.3% in 1991, 51.8% in 2000, 68.5% in 2010 and 73.3% in 2020. Growth has therefore come from two sources: better collection and processing, and a denominator – paper consumption – that has been shrinking for the past fifteen years.
The report also gives a telling indicator: in Europe in 2025, each fibre went through the use-and-recycling loop 4.2 times on average, against a world average of 3 times in 2024.
The revised 2024 figure: where did the extra 1.3 points come from?
Readers who followed last year’s news may remember that the previous report, published in July 2025, put the 2024 rate at 75.1%. The new edition now gives 76.4% for 2024.
The report’s data quality chapter explains the change. Submitted data – especially trade data from customs authorities – are adjusted afterwards, and final figures always appear in the following year’s report. There was also a methodological change: in certain countries, the value calculated from PfR utilisation and net trade did not adequately reflect reality, so recycling there is now based on actual collection for recycling. Other countries adjusted their consumption figures, with the opposite effect. All historical annual rates have been recomputed using the revised methodology.
This practice is not objectionable in itself – statistics are routinely refined, and the calculation is checked by an independent auditor. Readers should still be aware, though, that the “target already met in 2025” message is partly the result of a recalculation, not only of improved collection or processing. The real trend will become clear from the time series over the coming years.
More and more recovered paper is leaving Europe
The most interesting – and perhaps least emphasised – part of the report concerns international material flows. The 2021–2030 Declaration introduced a domestic recycling rate that excludes net trade and only counts how much PfR European paper mills actually used. In 2025 this was 46.3 million tonnes, equal to a domestic rate of 65.8%.
The difference, a net 7.5 million tonnes – 14% of the total collected – went to countries outside the commitment region. Once-dominant Chinese demand has dropped to almost zero; the main buyers are now India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. Net exports rose by 13.9% compared with 2024.
Working backwards from the published percentage changes (our own estimate, subject to rounding), net exports in 2024 were roughly 6.6 million tonnes and the domestic rate around 67%. In other words, while the overall rate stayed flat, European paper mills processed about 1.2 million tonnes less recovered paper, and the difference moved to Asia. This sits in some tension with the report’s “Made in Europe” message, which presents paper recycling as a predominantly European industry.
The trend also matters from a regulatory point of view: none of the destination countries listed is an OECD member, and the new EU waste shipment rules tighten the conditions for exporting waste to such countries. The European Commission recently published its draft waste import list for non-OECD countries, while the introduction of the digital waste shipment system is already threatening disruption. If export routes narrow, those 7.5 million tonnes will need to find buyers within Europe.
Packaging: paper stays in the lead
Paper packaging remains the best-recycled packaging material. According to the latest Eurostat data for 2023, recycling rates in the EU-27 were:
- paper and board: 87.0%
- metal: 77.2%
- glass: 74.9%
- plastic: 41.7%
In absolute volumes, more paper packaging was recycled than all other packaging materials combined. The 4evergreen alliance, which brings together more than 110 organisations from the fibre-based packaging value chain, has set a target of 90% recycling for paper and board packaging by 2030.
Internationally, Europe leads: in 2024, alongside the 76.4% of the EU-27+3 region, North America stood at 67.0%, Asia at 60.3%, Latin America at 48.5% and Africa at 42.3%, with a world average of 62.3%. Within Europe, 20 countries exceeded 70% (17 in 2024), and only 3 remained below 60% (5 a year earlier).
The packaging targets were renewed by the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), and the report argues that a well-functioning paper recycling chain is key to meeting them. We have covered how the PPWR is rewriting the economics of recycling and summarised Rabobank’s analysis of the packaging transition in earlier articles.
Beyond the numbers: collection, design, research
The EPRC brings together organisations from 14 sectors, from paper producers and converters to printing associations and ink and adhesive manufacturers. The second half of the report sets out what they did to advance the qualitative targets – collection, ecodesign, research and information.
Harmonised labels. The PPWR introduces EU-wide harmonised sorting labels on packaging and collection bins. Cepi supports the process but argues that labelling should eventually reflect actual recyclability rather than material composition alone, so that packaging is channelled to the most appropriate recycling route.
Measurable recyclability. Cepi published the third version of its recyclability test method and, in 2025, organised a laboratory programme to check whether the method gives reproducible results across different labs. EPRC members are working on Design for Recycling criteria within CEN Technical Committee 261, which will feed into the Commission’s delegated acts setting the design requirements applicable from January 2030.
Composite packaging. The Food and Beverage Carton Alliance (FBCA) launched the RECY:CHECK protocol for assessing fibre-based composite packaging. This matters as new paper-based formats keep appearing – such as the paper-based laundry detergent bottle from Smol and Pulpex – whose recyclability needs to be measured with a common method.
Hidden losses. INGEDE, representing the deinking industry, supports the SPaRe research project, which aims to recover more fibre and other usable materials, such as plastics, from paper mill pulper rejects. Cepi’s expert forum is working on PFAS, microplastics and other substances of concern.
Modulated EPR fees. The report stresses that robust recyclability assessment underpins modulated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees, which give producers an economic incentive to design more recyclable packaging. How much administrative burden the PPWR rollout places on the packaging industry is illustrated by companies’ experiences in its first month.
What does this mean for Hungary?
Hungary is among Cepi’s data-reporting countries, but the report does not publish a country-level breakdown. It is therefore impossible to tell whether Hungary is one of the 20 countries above 70%, one of the 3 below 60%, or somewhere in between.
Some lessons apply regardless. In Hungary, the extended producer responsibility system is operated by MOHU, so the European direction towards recyclability-based fee modulation directly affects Hungarian producers and distributors. At household level, the report’s message is clear: the quality of separate collection matters. The cleaner and drier the separately collected paper, the lower the sorting losses and the better its chances of becoming paper again.
A stable figure, open questions
The 76.4% is a genuine achievement: Europe has been the world’s best paper-recycling region for decades, and paper packaging is far ahead of other materials. Yet the report also signals three things to watch in the years ahead. The rate’s stability partly reflects falling consumption. The “early achievement” of the 2030 target is linked to a methodological recalculation. And the domestic recycling rate is falling while more and more recovered paper heads to Asia – just as EU rules narrow the options for export.
Paper is performing well, but the biggest question for the period up to 2030 is not the headline rate – it is whether Europe’s own paper mills will be able to process the fibre it collects.
Frequently asked questions about the paper recycling rate
What was Europe’s paper recycling rate in 2025?
Europe’s paper recycling rate was 76.4% in 2025, the same as the revised 2024 figure. Recycled paper and board totalled 53.9 million tonnes, while consumption was 70.5 million tonnes. The figure covers the EU-27 plus the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland, and the calculation is verified by Deloitte.
How is the paper recycling rate calculated?
The rate divides the amount of used paper recycled, including net trade of Paper for Recycling, by the consumption of new paper and board in the same year. It is a ratio of tonnages, not a household collection rate, and covers all grades: graphic paper, packaging and tissue, part of which can never be collected.
Why did the rate not change compared with 2024?
Because recycled volumes fell by 0.3% and paper consumption by 0.4%, so the ratio between them stayed the same. Over the longer term, the rate’s rise has been helped not only by better collection but also by paper consumption falling back to 1990s levels since its 2007 peak.
Why was the 2024 figure revised?
The previous report put the 2024 rate at 75.1%; the new one revises it to 76.4%. The reasons are later corrections to customs trade data and a methodological change: in certain countries, recycling is now based on actual collection for recycling. All historical annual rates were recomputed using the revised methodology.
How much recovered paper leaves Europe?
In 2025, a net 7.5 million tonnes – 14% of the total collected – went outside the commitment region, 13.9% more than a year earlier. The main destinations were India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, while Chinese demand has almost disappeared. The domestic recycling rate, which excludes net trade, was 65.8%.
Which packaging material has the highest recycling rate in the EU?
Paper and board packaging: according to Eurostat data for 2023, it reached a recycling rate of 87.0% in the EU-27, compared with 77.2% for metal, 74.9% for glass and 41.7% for plastic. In absolute volumes, more paper packaging was recycled than all other packaging materials combined.
Sources:
Cepi press release (2026) · EPRC Monitoring Report 2025 – European Declaration on Paper Recycling 2021–2030 · European Paper Recycling Council
