The EU generated 765 million tonnes of waste in 2024 after excluding major mineral waste from mining, quarrying, construction and demolition. This was 35% of the total waste generated. Dividing by the population gives 1,697 kilograms per resident. That is not the weight of the contents of a typical household bin.
The boundary makes a considerable difference to the picture. Rock and rubble are heavy: a large construction project can dominate local tonnage. Looking at those streams separately gives other materials more visibility. Weight alone, however, says little about either the resale value of what is recovered or the difficulty of treating it.
For a sorting facility, composition is more useful than one aggregate tonnage figure. Glass, paper and mixed plastics impose different demands on collection, separation and finding a buyer. Information about material type and quality is needed before estimating how much of a particular stream can return to use as a raw material.