How CEPI Tracks Progress on the European Declaration on Paper Recycling

CEPI tracks progress through the European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC), which publishes a Monitoring Report for the European Declaration on Paper Recycling 2021–2030. The report assesses recycling performance against the declaration's commitments and is listed among CEPI's publications, so it serves as the public record of whether the 2021–2030 goals are being met.

Who does the tracking

The European Declaration on Paper Recycling is a voluntary commitment covering the 2021–2030 period. The European Paper Recycling Council — the body that monitors the declaration — issues the Monitoring Report. CEPI, as the Confederation of European Paper Industries, hosts and disseminates the report through its publications, which is why the 2025 edition appears on cepi.org.

This division matters if you are citing the work: the declaration and its monitoring sit with the EPRC, while CEPI is the industry confederation publishing and communicating the results.

What the Monitoring Report covers

The report evaluates recycling performance and progress toward the declaration's objectives for the 2021–2030 cycle. In practical terms, it is the document to consult when you need to know:

• whether the declared recycling commitments are on track for the current period;
• how performance is being assessed across the signatories and the sector;
• what the EPRC records as the state of play in a given reporting year.

The 2025 Monitoring Report is the current edition referenced on the site. Because the declaration runs to 2030, each annual report is a checkpoint rather than a final verdict.

How to use it

If your task is to check progress or cite a figure, start from the CEPI publications listing and open the EPRC Monitoring Report 2025. Read it as the EPRC's own assessment of the declaration, and attribute findings to the EPRC rather than to CEPI directly. For the policy context around recycling and circularity, CEPI's news and publications sections carry related items — for example, its coverage of carbon leakage protection and the circular bioeconomy — but the Monitoring Report remains the specific instrument for declaration progress.

What this does and does not tell you

The Monitoring Report answers "how is the declaration doing?" It does not by itself establish the legal status of the declaration (it is a voluntary commitment, not regulation), nor does it replace EU-level statistics. If you need binding targets or official EU data, treat the report as industry self-monitoring and cross-check against the relevant official sources.