In order to foster recycling in the European Union, the European Commission introduced in 2008 a recycling rate of 50% for municipal waste until 2020. For the calculation of this recycling rate, four methods have been published in 2011, one of which has to be selected by each Member State. In the present master thesis, the recycling rate of Austria is calculated according to all four methods. For this purpose, definitions had to be applied, data sources had to be investigated and missing data had to be estimated. The results were compared with each other as well as with the official report of the Austrian government to the EU Commission and the differences were discussed. For increasing the recycling rate of municipal waste in Austria, diverse policy measures can be applied. Three scenarios with different policy measures were taken from literature and their effects on all four calculation methods were investigated. All calculated results were compared with the updated recycling rates, the European Commission has issued in the amended Waste Framework Directive 2018. Finally, the official Austrian recycling rate was compared with those of all other EU Member States.