Norway: Room for Improvement
Wanting to does not mean being able to. Norway‘s municipal recycling rate clearly falls below its own claims and the continental average.
The Circularity Gap Report 2020 on Norway was merciless: “Currently, 97.6 percent of materials consumed each year never make it back into the economy. Norway also has one of the highest per capita consumption rates in the world at 44.3 tons per person.” But it was not hopeless: “With a long history with renewable energy and plastic recycling, Norway is well set to become a pioneer in the circular economy.”
At first glance, it certainly does not look like pioneering. “The Early Warning Report for the 2025 Waste Targets” of the EFTA Surveillance Authority offers: “Norway is at risk of missing the 2025 targets to prepare for re-use and recycle 55 percent of its municipal solid waste, and the material-specific target to recycle 50 percent of its plastic packaging waste.” Additionally the missed landfilled municipal rate only reached 3.1 percent instead of ten.
According to the European Environment Agency, the amounts of municipal waste Norway generated in 2022 were among the highest in Europe. Furthermore, Norway reported that 59.8 percent of building and construction waste was prepared for reuse or recycled in 2022. This is approximately ten percentage points below the 70 percent target. All in all and according to the official statistics, Norway produced 10,969,000 tons of waste, including 2,812,000 tons (26 percent) by construction and construction activities, 1,911,000 tons (17 percent) by industry, 1,847,000 tons (17 percent) by service industries, 2,210,000 tons by “other or unspecified industries” and 2,188,000 tons (20 percent) by private households in 2024. Updated statistics speak of 2,131,206 tons of privately produced waste in June 2026.
There are doubts about the numbers. According to the Early Warning Report 2025 released by the EFTA Surveillance Authority, Norway incinerated around half of all municipal waste (57 percent in 2021 and 51 percent in 2022), while around 30 percent was diverted towards preparation for re-use and material recycling and an additional ten percent composted or digested.
Scarce information on processed waste
Data regarding the quantity of processed waste is scarce. While Statistics Norway reports that a total of 7,113,000 tons of waste were treated in waste treatment plants in 2024 – comprising 746,000 tons treated biologically, 1,434,000 tons treated biologically, and 4,933,000 tons “landfilled and used as filling compound and cover material”. Information on further processing reveals that, out of 692,670 tons, 423,911 were incinerated, 194,379 were sent for material recovery, and 52,985 tons were landfilled.
Furthermore, a diagram of Norway’s material flow indicates the treatment of 16.0 (likely 16,000 tons) of biomass, 214.9(00 tons) of fossil fuels, 2.2(00 tons) of metal ores, 98.5(00 tons) of non-metallic minerals, and 4.3(00 tons) of “extracted and cycled materials in Norway.” Another scheme on “Norway’s domestic extraction” in 2022 is dominated by fossil fuels – natural gas and crude oil – accounting for 65 percent of the total. Non-metallic minerals, primarily used in construction, held steady at 30 percent. Biomass and metal ores made up five percent and one percent of domestic extraction, respectively. But neither further information nor precise details are provided regarding the subsequent use of these materials.
Waste generation lower than economic growth
The European Environment Agency commented: “The building and construction sector is the largest source of waste in Norway today. The volume of waste from industry has risen slightly since 2012, while the volume of waste from households has been fairly stable throughout this period.” But the Agency also emphasized: “When comparing total waste generation in absolute terms with GDP and population growth, total waste increased by seven percent, which is lower than the population growth of 12 percent and GDP growth of 9 percent since 2010.” In the long run, some of Norway’s environmental targets are waste-related goals stating, respectively, that “the trend in waste volumes shall be significantly lower than economic growth” and “material recycling of waste shall increase.” According to the Circularity Gap Report Dashboard, the economy between 2018 and 2022 grew by 35 percent, whereas waste production by only 2.6 percent. And with a recycling rate of 38 percent in 2022, Norway even ran by ten percent lower than the continental average.
Treatment methods on the move
Following the Circularity Gap Report 2025, recycling was the most utilized method, accounting for 4.6 million tons or nearly 38 percent of total waste treatment – mostly of mineral, solidified and recyclable wastes and secondly recyclable wastes. Energy recovery represented 4.1 million tons or 34 percent consisting in particular of the treatment of mixed ordinary wastes. Landfilling stood for the treatment of 2.1 million tons or 18 percent of primarily mineral and solidified wastes. Other waste disposal – amounting to one million tons or nine percent – concentrates mainly on mineral waste and sludge. And backfilling accounted for 156.000 tons or one percent. In total and compared to former treatment quota, recycling improved by two percent since 2018, energy recovery stayed constant, landfilling declined by two percent, and backfilling sank by three percent. Other waste disposal increased by seven percent compared to 2018.
“Waste volumes from the construction and civil engineering sectors have fluctuated significantly in recent years. Following an increase in 2022 and a sharp decline in 2023, we are seeing an increase again in 2024. This is most likely due to heavier materials – such as asphalt, concrete, and brick – within the industry in 2024,” explains Manju Chaudhary, Senior Adviser at Statistics Norway. And adds that household waste accounts for the second-largest volume, showing a slight increase in 2024 compared to 2023. Summarizing the Norwegian waste treatment balance, the Circularity Gap Report Norway 2025 shows a recycling rate of 38 percent, 34 percent for energy recovery, a landfill rate of 18 percent, backfilling of one and incineration of 0.3 percent, and 9 percent of other methods.
Statistical disbelief
There are doubts about the numbers. According to the Early Warning Report 2025 released by the EFTA Surveillance Authority, Norway incinerated around half of all municipal waste (57 percent in 2021 and 51 percent in 2022), while around 30 percent was diverted to preparation for reuse and material recycling, and an additional ten percent was composted or digested. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) were even more critical. Their analysis in 2024 showed that 65 percent of all collected and processed waste in 2019 was incinerated – an increase from 49 percent in 2009. The study also found out that 70 percent of waste incinerated could have been recycled. And in some years, the country obviously recycled less than what the authorities reported: While Statistics Norway declared a material reuse and recycling rate of 44 and 41 percent in 2009 and 2019, the NTNU researchers found statistics showing a recycling rate of 28 and 29 percent for the same years.
Below the targets
Be that as it may: The 2025 waste target report of the EFTA Surveillance Authority reported a municipal solid waste recycling rate of 41 percent in 2022, which is 14 percentage points below the 2025 target of 55 percent. On packaging waste, Norway reported a total recycling rate of 58.3 percent for 2021, which is 6.7 percentage points below the 2025 target of 65 percent. And the country generates 27.5 kilograms (kg) of e-waste per capita – totaling 149 kilotons and thus ranking among the highest globally – formally collected and recycled are only 72 percent of this waste. For comparison: Slovakia reached 92.4 kg in 2023, the EU average 82.2 kg.
Azortum is a full-service technology company delivering waste sorting and solutions for waste recycling. In a blog on Norway it showed the wrong decisions and the challenges of waste management in this country. Besides of overstated official recycling rates – as mentioned by the NTNU researchers – and unnecessarily high waste incineration quota the article criticized the low material recovery of plastics and draws attention on emerging waste type streams: For example, the import of nitrous oxide (N2O) canisters grew between 2020 and 2022 from two to 232 tons.
The points of criticism by Tomra in 2025, the global reverse vending, recycling, and sensor-based sorting solutions company and manager of Norway’s deposit-return scheme, went one step further. To close the infrastructure gap, expanding industrial sorting capacity would be essential. A circular economy needs a holistic system and no single solution. Carbon capture and storage should be combined with extensive sorting. And circular economy should be framed not as an environmental obligation, but as an industrial strategy. A stronger focus on industrial infrastructure, technological development, and export opportunities is needed.
Recognition
“We must move away from a throwaway economy and toward one where we repair, reuse, and share resources”, declared Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen in May 2025, after the “Expert Group for the Assessment of Policy Instruments to Promote Circular Activities” had delivered its report. The paper stood under the motto “Ikke Rett Fram” (“Not a straight path”) and was asked to suggest reforms in the tax and fee system. Key proposals of the 79 recommendations included alignments with the EU, a plastic packaging fee, a repair initiative for electronics, a textile tax and an extended producer responsibility.
Three weeks after the presentation of the Ikke Rett Fram-paper, another expert group handed over its results on “Critical and Strategic Raw Materials in Norway” to the Minister of Trade and Industry. One of the key findings of the expert’s report was that “Norway’s process industry is strong in the most energy- and capital-intensive and technologically advanced segments”, applying among others, to aluminum, ferroalloys, silicon, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and silicon carbide. By improving the Norwegian industry, “European value chains for renewable energy, digital technologies, and the defense industry” could be strengthened “at a time when critical raw materials are gaining increased geopolitical importance”.
Outstanding results
An example of an improving industry delivers the e-waste sector. According to the National E-waste Monitor 2025, Norway is the world’s leading nation in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment generation per capita. However, the country has established an efficient collection system, successfully gathering 72 percent of generated e-waste.
The same applies to the beverage sector. Norway for example, achieves outstanding results in the recycling of single-use beverage containers like plastic bottles (97 percent) and cans (93 percent), compared to the overall recycling rate for all household waste of around 44 percent. The collection rate even reached 98 percent in 2024, the German Handelskammer announced. Recently, one of the world’s most modern plastic waste sorting facilities also began operations in Norway, with a capacity of around 90,000 tons per year.
According to the Handelskammer in July 2026, Norway is leveraging its connection to the European Single Market and increasingly adopting requirements from the EU Circular Economy Action Plan. Experts see particularly significant opportunities – among others – in repair, reuse and sharing models. That opens up interesting perspectives not only for German companies: “Technologies, digital solutions, and business models that close material cycles and use resources more efficiently are in demand.”
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 3/2026, Page 18, Photo: MSV, AI-generated)
