Energy cycle efficiency of the EU

Academic and policy circles are increasingly paying attention to the EU’s resource closure and circular economy. According to the EU’s latest “10R” strategy, the focus has shifted from the traditional “3R” (reduce, reuse, recycle) approach to a more detailed waste management level. Many studies concentrate on cleaner production methods as part of the Reduce principle, others explore waste recycling within the Recycle framework, but papers on the Reuse aspect of 3R remain relatively sparse. This study adopts a dynamic two-stage circular Slack-Based Measure DEA model to evaluate waste recycling efficiency and energy reuse efficiency from waste conversion across 27 European Union countries from 2012 to 2020. The findings indicate that Romania, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Germany, France, Estonia, and Denmark have achieved optimal efficiency in energy consumption, waste processing and recycling volumes, and renewable energy generation from waste recycling and processing. The remaining 12 countries still have room for improvement in implementing circular economy practices.