Overview
The EU generates around 2.5 billion tonnes of waste per year, approximately 5 tonnes annually per person. This creates significant waste management challenges.
The Waste Framework Directive is designed to tackle these problems. It establishes the basic concepts related to waste management, including definitions of waste, recycling, and recovery, as well as the waste hierarchy and associated principles.
Crucially, it aims to prevent the endangerment of human or animal health and harm to the environment.
Objectives
The Waste Framework Directive entered into force on 12 December 2008, establishing a legal framework for treating waste in the EU.
The framework aims to protect the environment and human health by emphasising the importance of proper waste management, recovery and recycling techniques to reduce pressure on resources and improve their use.
The targeted revision of the Waste Framework Directive (2025), which entered into force on 16 October 2025, focuses on food and textile waste, building upon these principles and helping to align standards across the EU with a common set of rules for all Member States.
This will increase sustainability for businesses and consumers, and harmonise the single market for used and waste textiles.
In short, it aims to promote a more circular economy throughout the EU by:-
- Fostering innovation
- Reinforcing European competitiveness
Law
As well as establishing the five-step waste hierarchy (seen above), the Waste Framework Directive (2008) confirms the ‘polluter-pays principle’ whereby the original waste producer must pay for the cost of waste management.
It also introduces the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), whereby producers of products bear financial responsibility or financial and organisational responsibility for the management of the waste stage of a product’s life cycle.
The Framework makes a distinction between waste and by-products - a substance or object resulting from a production process, the primary aim of which is not the production of that substance or object.
In 2018, an Amending Directive modified the original Directive, aiming to further improve waste management and facilitate the transition to a circular economy.
The latest 2025 revision goes further by delivering on commitments made by the Commission in the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles.
This includes seeing each Member State set up its own EPR scheme for textile and footwear products. Under such schemes, textile producers will contribute to the management of used and waste textiles.
The revision includes:-
- New rules for the management of used textiles and textile waste
- Binding food waste reduction targets for Member States
For more information on the targeted revision of the Waste Framework Directive (2025), see our press release.
Hazardous waste
Hazardous waste poses a greater risk to the environment and human health than non-hazardous waste and therefore requires a stricter control regime.
The Waste Framework Directive provides additional labelling, record keeping, monitoring and control obligations from the "cradle to the grave", in other words, from the waste production to the final disposal or recovery.
For more information on the classification of all types of waste (including hazardous), see the European List of Waste.
Read the guidelines on the separate collection of household hazardous waste.
End-of-waste criteria
End-of-waste criteria specify when certain waste ceases to be waste and becomes a product or a secondary raw material.
A methodology to develop the criteria has been published by the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
A JRC publication on 'Scoping possible further EU-wide end-of-waste and by-product criteria' is also available.
The Commission is preparing a set of end-of-waste criteria for priority waste streams. These criteria have been laid down for:-
- Iron, steel and aluminium scrap (see Council Regulation (EU) N° 333/2011)
- Glass cullet (see Commission Regulation (EU) N° 1179/2012)
- Copper scrap (see Commission Regulation (EU) N° 715/2013)
Implementation
Find out more about how the EU helps member countries to implement the Waste Framework Directive. Read about implementation reports, the European List of Waste, guidance documents and Waste Prevention Programmes.
Contact
For questions about EU environmental policy, please contact Europe Direct.