Bulgaria and Czechia collected more electronic waste per person than any other EU member in 2024, Eurostat data published on October 14 show, as several eastern members outperformed far richer western states.
Bulgaria collected 18.9 kg of waste electrical and electronic equipment per person and Czechia 17.8 kg, ahead of France on 17.7 kg. Across the EU the figure was 12.3 kg, up 0.7 kg on 2023 and from 7.3 kg in 2015.
The east-west pattern runs the other way on spending. Eastern members put markedly less new equipment on the market per person: 28.5 kg in Bulgaria, 28.6 kg in Czechia, 29.4 kg in Poland and 17.5 kg in Slovakia, against 38.2 kg in Austria and 38.0 kg in Germany. The comparison suggests that lower volumes of new equipment placed on the market can coincide with higher same-year collection-to-market ratios.
Bulgaria collected a volume equal to about two-thirds of the new equipment placed on its market in 2024; the same-year ratios were more than 60% in Slovakia and Czechia and 56% in Poland, according to Eurostat's detailed dataset. In Germany the ratio was under 30% and in Spain about 26%, with 36.0 kg placed on the market and 9.3 kg collected. Slovakia had the smallest gap in the EU, at 6.4 kg per person.
Poland collected 16.6 kg per person, fifth in the EU, almost all of it from households. Slovakia collected 11.0 kg and Latvia 10.5 kg.
Not every eastern member is keeping up. Croatia collected 10.1 kg per person against 27.7 kg placed on the market, Estonia 9.0 kg against 26.4 kg and Slovenia 7.7 kg against 28.2 kg. Estonia's record has already drawn infringement proceedings from the European Commission over missed collection and recycling targets. Under the EU directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment, states must collect 65% of the average weight of equipment placed on the market in the three preceding years, or 85% of the e-waste they generate.
The lowest collection rates in the EU were in the south: Cyprus on 4.7 kg per person, Portugal on 6.0 kg and Malta on 6.4 kg. Greece collected 6.8 kg.
The overall gap is widening. Equipment placed on the EU market grew by 79% between 2015 and 2024, to 32.4 kg per person, driven by large items such as washing machines, dishwashers and photovoltaic panels, while collection grew more slowly. Eurostat said the difference points to a growing stock of equipment that is still in use, hoarded at home or lost to informal, unmonitored waste treatment.
Recycling capacity is growing in the east. Romania's GreenGroup, which processes electronic waste among other materials at plants in Romania, Slovakia and Lithuania, raised €127mn in 2022 to almost double its capacity for e-waste recycling to 73,000 tonnes. Its unit Green WEEE opened the region's first flat-screen recycling line in 2020.
Eurostat had no 2024 data for Hungary, Romania or Lithuania. Outside the EU, Norway collected 20.3 kg per person, more than any EU member, against 39.3 kg placed on the market.