Within the context of expansive technological development, the wealth of European society is growing steadily. This has resulted in producing more and more waste. Every year people in the European Union throw away about 3 billion tons of waste. Therefore, the EU must give due attention to this problem. This contribution was created within the Leonardo da Vinci international project Wastre for which the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is a coordinator. The aim of the contribution is to present a current situation of waste legislation system and waste management of the EU and Slovak Republic. There is also discussed the waste recovery in Slovak Republic with stated examples of best practises in waste recovery.