The European Union exported 32.7 million tonnes of waste in 2020, according to Eurostat, a 75% increase since 2004. Turkey was the primary destination country for EU waste last year with some 13.7 million tonnes sent there – three times as much as in 2004.
India received the second highest quantity of EU waste last year with some 2.9 million tonnes. It was followed by two European countries – the UK and Switzerland – with 1.8 and 1.6 million tonnes, respectively. Eurostat reported that the volume of waste being sent from the EU to China has fallen noticeably in recent years, declining from a peak of 10.1 million tonnes in 2009 to 0.6 million tonnes in 2020.