Municipal waste by type of treatment

Compiling agency: Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

Eurostat metadata
Reference metadata 1. Contact 2. Metadata update 3. Statistical presentation 4. Unit of measure 5. Reference period 6. Institutional mandate 7. Confidentiality 8. Release policy 9. Frequency of dissemination 10. Dissemination format 11. Accessibility of documentation 12. Quality management 13. Relevance 14. Accuracy and reliability 15. Timeliness and punctuality 16. Comparability 17. Coherence 18. Cost and burden 19. Data revision 20. Statistical processing 21. Comment

For any question on data and metadata, please contact: EUROPEAN STATISTICAL DATA SUPPORT

1. Contact
1.1. Contact organisation 1.2. Contact organisation unit 1.5. Contact mail address Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union Unit E3: Environmental and Forestry Statistics 2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

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2. Metadata update
2.1. Metadata last certified 2.2. Metadata last posted 2.3. Metadata last update 27 January 2010 27 January 2010 13 March 2011

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3. Statistical presentation
3.1. Data description

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The structural indicator on municipal waste consists of a set of three indicators: municipal waste generated, municipal waste landfilled and municipal waste incinerated. The amounts are expressed in kilograms per person. The amount of municipal waste generated consists of waste collected by or on behalf of municipal authorities and disposed of through the waste management system. Municipal waste is mainly produced by households, though similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions are included. For areas not covered by a municipal waste collection scheme the amount of waste generated is estimated. Wastes from agriculture and from industries are not included. 3.2. Classification system Classification is done according to the definitions for the OECD/Eurostat Joint Questionnaire section Waste. 3.3. Sector coverage Municipal waste is mainly produced by households, though similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions are included. 3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions The base information for the structural indicator is the amount of municipal waste generated, land filled and incinerated per year. The amount of municipal waste generated consists of waste collected by or on behalf of municipal authorities. For areas not covered by a municipal waste collection scheme the amount of waste generated is estimated. The term 'municipal' is used in different ways in the separate countries reflecting different waste management practices. The bulk of the waste stream originates from households, though similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions are also included. Differences between countries are to some extent the result of differences in the coverage of these similar wastes. According to OECD/Eurostat Joint Questionnaire municipal waste includes the following types of materials: paper, paperboard and paper products, plastics, glass, metals, food and garden waste and textiles. The definition also includes:

bulky waste (e.g. white goods, old furniture, mattresses); and garden waste, leaves, grass clippings, street sweepings, the content of litter containers, and market cleansing waste, if managed as waste.

It includes waste originating from:

households, commerce and trade, small businesses, office buildings and institutions (schools, hospitals, government buildings).

It also includes:

waste from selected municipal services, i.e. waste from park and garden maintenance, waste from street cleaning services (street sweepings, the content of litter containers, market

cleansing waste), if managed as waste.

It includes collected waste from these sources:

door-to-door through traditional collection (mixed household waste), and fractions collected separately for recovery operations (through door-to-door collection and/or through voluntary deposits).

The definition also includes waste from the same sources and similar in nature and composition which:

are collected directly by the private sector (business or private non-profit institutions) not on behalf of municipalities (mainly separate collection for recovery purposes), originate from rural areas not served by a regular waste service, even if they are disposed by the generator.

The definition excludes:

waste from municipal sewage network and treatment, municipal construction and demolition waste.

Landfill is defined as deposit of waste into or onto land; it includes specially engineered landfills and temporary storage of over one year on permanent sites. The definition covers both landfill in internal sites (i.e. where a generator of waste is carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of generation) and in external sites. Incineration means thermal treatment of waste in an incineration plant as define in Article 3(4) or a co-incineration plant as defined in Article 3(5) of European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/76/EC of 4 December 2000 on the incineration of waste. OJ L 332, 28.12.2000, p.91. This indicator set presents the amounts of municipal waste (generated, land filled and incinerated) expressed in kg per person. The annual amount of waste is divided by the population on 1 January of the relevant year. The population figures were taken from the Eurostat dissemination database in March 2011.

3.5. Statistical unit The statistical units are households, municipalities and public or private enterprises (all economic activities according to NACE Rev. 2) that generate or treat waste. 3.6. Statistical population All municipal waste generated or treated in the country during the year. 3.7. Reference area

Data are published for the European Union as well as for each Member State separately. The European Union is presented in its current composition (EU-27) and the historic composition EU-15. The publication also contains data for EU-Candidate Countries (Croatia and Turkey) and EFTA countries (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland). The series cover the period from 1995 to 2009. 3.8. Time coverage Data on municipal waste generation, collection and treatment are published for the period from 1995 to 2009. 3.9. Base period Not applicable.

4. Unit of measure
kg per capita

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5. Reference period
The reference period is the calendar year. For the amount of municipal waste generated the data refer to the handover over the waste to the waste collector or to a disposal site. For the amounts of waste treated the data refer to the date of treatment. For landfills the date of arrival is regarded as the date of treatment.

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6. Institutional mandate
6.1. Legal acts and other agreements Data on municipal waste were collected via the Eurostat / OECD Joint Questionnaire. Data are currently provided under a so-called gentlemen's agreement. 6.2. Data sharing The data is made available to the OECD.

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7. Confidentiality

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7.1. Confidentiality - policy Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society. 7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment Not applicable.

8. Release policy
8.1. Release calendar The data on 2010 will be published by the end of 2011. 8.2. Release calendar access See 8.1.

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8.3. User access In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat

disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Dissemination format') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

9. Frequency of dissemination
Annual

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10. Dissemination format

10.1. News release News releases on-line 10.2. Publications Free publications: on line Statistics in Focus: to be released 10.3. On-line database Please consult free data on-line or refer to contact details. 10.4. Micro-data access Not applicable (Eurostat collects the data from the Member States at an aggregate level). 10.5. Other http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/waste http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

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11. Accessibility of documentation

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11.1. Documentation on methodology For a detailed description of the methodology please refer to the Eurostat/OECD Joint Questionnaire. This document can be obtained upon request from Eurostat, Unit E3 "Environmental and Forestry Statistics". 11.2. Quality documentation The per capita indicators on municipal waste generated and treated are part of the Structural Indicators and Sustainable Development Indicators sets. In the framework of the Structural Indicators set a standard format for quality reporting has been developed: Eurostat quality profile.

12. Quality management

12.1. Quality assurance The quality assurance is a joint responsibility of the Member States and Eurostat. 12.2. Quality assessment See 11.2.

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13. Relevance
13.1. User needs The data is used both in the Structural Indicators and Sustainable Development Indicators sets.

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13.2. User satisfaction No systematic user satisfaction survey was conducted. 13.3. Completeness Data is complete for the Member States.

14. Accuracy and reliability

14.1. Overall accuracy See the quality profile (11.2). 14.2. Sampling error Not applicable. 14.3. Non-sampling error The data quality gradually improved over time due to the installation of weighbridges in the treatment facilities.

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15. Timeliness and punctuality

15.1. Timeliness The delay between reference period and the publication of the indicator is about a year. 15.2. Punctuality In order to meet the deadline for some countries estimates have to be accepted.

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16. Comparability

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16.1. Comparability - geographical The concept of municipal waste includes different waste streams in different municipalities. Especially, the extend to which waste generated by offices and small businesses are included differ from municipality to municipality. So, different levels of municipal waste generation can reflect different attitudes to the generation of waste, but also differences in the organisation of municipal waste management. 16.2. Comparability - over time The comparability over time is high. Some breaks in the time series are documented (see the break in series flag).

17. Coherence

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17.1. Coherence - cross domain Municipal waste is only a part of total waste generation; other sources of waste generation are for instance agriculture and industry. Part of the waste generated by the service sector of the economy (e.g. trade, services, restaurants, schools, hospitals) is included in municipal waste. Waste statistics covering all waste generation from production and consumption activities based on the Regulation on waste statistics are freely available on the Eurostat website: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/waste http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat 17.2. Coherence - internal

The internal coherence of the data on municipal waste generation and treatment is high. Differences in the amount generated on the one hand and landfilled and incinerated on the other hand are mainly due to: - composting and recycling; - import and export. Explicit data on composting and recycling is available on the dedicated website: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/waste

18. Cost and burden

The collection of this information has been integrated into administrative procedures and will in general not produce much extra costs or burden.

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19. Data revision

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19.1. Data revision - policy The indicators are updated once a year (in December or January): a new year will be added and old data may be revised. During the year only obvious errors will be corrected. 19.2. Data revision - practice None

20. Statistical processing

20.1. Source data National Statistical Institutes (or other competent authorities like Ministries of Environment or Environmental Protection Agencies) collect data from various sources:

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Surveys Administrative sources such as municipalities or other local authorities (provinces, regions, etc.), waste collectors at municipal/local level, waste treatment facilities Reporting obligations under other Community Legislation, statistical estimation procedures on the basis of samples or waste related estimators A combination of these methods.

Member States select the type of survey according to national waste management practices, either at the source of waste generation, at the place waste treatment or at both sides. 20.2. Frequency of data collection Annual 20.3. Data collection Data are collected by National Statistical Institutes and Ministries for the Environment for each year. These institutions complete a small questionnaire on municipal waste. This questionnaire contains data collected in previous years for update and correction. 20.4. Data validation Data validation is done in close collaboration with the Member States' Competent Authorities. 20.5. Data compilation For the calculation of kg per person the national amounts of waste generated, landfilled and

incinerated are divided by the population on 1 January of the relevant year. The European aggregates are calculated by adding up the national waste amounts and dividing the result by the total population. The EU-aggregates are influenced by all breaks in time-series that appear at Member State level in proportion to their population size, i.e. with a higher impact for the larger countries. All Member States have supplied either data or estimates. Some results are estimated by Eurostat. 20.6. Adjustment The data are not adjusted; they are rounded to kilograms per person.

21. Comment

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21.1. Notes The German time series on municipal waste generated has been revised in August 2007. The series as supplied by the German statistical institute contained two major breaks (in 1999 and in 2002) due to revision of the classification of waste. These breaks also had a considerable impact on the EUaggregates. Eurostat decided to reconstruct the series to the current data collection procedures. The Eurostat estimates for the year 1995 to 2001 are labelled as such with an s-flag.

The publication uses some standard flags to indicate special situations:

: (colon) indicates no data available; this applies only for Croatia; e indicates a country estimate; no data is available (yet) and the figure is the result of interpolation, extrapolation or modelling; s indicates an Eurostat estimate; b indicates a break in series; this is a change in the level or structure of the figures due to a change in data collection methods; a change as the result of a change in policy (for instance a ban on landfilling) will not be marked as a break in the series.

21.2. Related Metadata env_wasr_esms - Waste statistics 21.3 Annex Footnotes on the treatment of municipal waste