waste

information on data

The EU regulations and directives on waste listed below require the submission of data from Member States to the European Commission.

Some of these EU directives have introduced recovery and recycling targets on, for example, packaging waste, end-of-life vehicles, batteries, waste electrical and electronic equipment as well as on construction and demolition waste. Data on these waste streams is required to monitor Member States' compliance with the targets set out in the directives.

Data on quantity, hazardousness and shipments of waste
- Waste Statistics Regulation (WStatR)
- Waste Shipments Regulation (WShipR)
Data for monitoring of the compliance with targets
- Directive on Batteries (BATT)
- Directive on End of life vehicles (ELV)
- Directive on Packaging and packaging waste (PACK)
- Directive on Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
- Waste Framework Directive (WFD)
Joint data collection with OECD
- Municipal waste

These key requirements for data collection and reporting can be found under Methodology and Targets.

Waste generation and management

The Waste Statistics Regulation (WStatR) aims ‘to establish a framework for the production of Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste'.

Information on waste generation is split by source (several business activities according to the NACE Rev. 2 classification and household activities) and by waste categories according to the European Waste Classification for statistical purposes (EWC-Stat).

Information on waste treatment is split by treatment type (recovery, incineration with energy recovery, other incineration, disposal on land and land treatment) and by waste categories. All values are measured in tonnes of waste.

Member States are free to decide their data collection methods. The main options are: surveys, administrative sources, statistical estimations or a combination of methods.

The user should be aware that reporting under the Waste Statistics Regulation was revised in 2010 by Commission Regulation (EU) No. 849/2010). The improved reporting structure was applied for the first time in 2012 (for reference year 2010).

Waste generation

The quantity of waste generated is an important indicator, e.g. for monitoring consumption patterns or the resource efficiency of industrial production. It can be used to measure an increase, or decline, of waste over time and also the difference in generation between countries. Member States report the data on waste generation in absolute terms (by tonnes of waste generated). Eurostat calculates and presents waste generation also in kg per inhabitant.

However, due to the significant proportion of mineral wastes from extractive industries in some Member States, the data for total waste generation is not a particularly comparable indicator. Therefore, a separate indicator focusing on non-mineral waste has been developed and can be found under the Indicator page.

The waste data is reported according to the economic activity of the waste generator. Under the Waste Statistics Regulation, waste data is categorised by 18 economic activities, NACE Rev. 2 codes and households.

Waste management

Data collection on waste treatment is closely linked to the definitions of the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) and to the lists of treatment operation set out in Annex I (Disposal operations) and Annex II (Recovery operations) of the Directive.

Recovery means any operation the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials, which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy.

Disposal means any operation not being recovery even where the operation implies the reclamation of substances or energy as a secondary consequence.

On the basis of the treatment operations defined in the Waste Framework Directive the Waste Statistics Regulation makes a distinction between a number of treatment types (with associated codes):

Item no.	Type of treatment	R/D codes	Eurobase code
1	Energy recovery	R1	RCV_E
2	Incineration without energy recovery	D10	DSP_I
3a*	Recovery (excluding energy recovery and backfilling)	R2 to R11	RCV_R
3b*	Backfilling	-	RCV_B
4	Deposit onto or into land	D1, D5, D12	DSP_L
5	Land treatment and release into water bodies	D2, D3, D4, D6, D7	DSP_OTH

(*) Note that the data until 2008 were collected differently from the above listing.

The changes due to the revision of the WStatR were as follows:

Operations 3a / 3b: No differentiation of backfilling, i.e. the operations 3a and 3b were reported together under the category Recovery other than energy recovery.
Operation No. 4 / 5: The categories D3 and D4 were reported under operation 4 instead of operation 5").

Waste treatment data refer mainly to the final treatment of the waste. Preparatory treatment operations are largely excluded from the data collection.

Data are collected on the amounts of waste treated as well as on the number and capacity of selected treatment installations.

Waste shipments across borders

In the European Union (EU), shipments of waste across borders are regulated by Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 on shipments of waste, known as the Waste Shipment Regulation. This Regulation implements into EU law the provisions of the "Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal" as well as the OECD Decision. The Regulation includes a ban on the export of hazardous wastes to non-OECD countries (Basel ban) as well as a ban on the export of waste for disposal outside the EU/EFTA area.

The Waste Shipment Regulation stipulates a procedure of prior written notification and consent (notification procedure) before cross borders shipments of:

all hazardous waste
other types of waste, including certain non-hazardous wastes that are destined to certain non-OECD countries

These amounts are to be reported to the Basel Secretariat and to the European Commission.

More detailed data covering the period from 2001 to the latest available data can be downloaded Excel here.

Shipments of so-called green listed waste for recovery operations do not have to be reported to the Basel Secretariat and to the European Commission.

Key Waste Streams

Batteries

Batteries and accumulators constitute an essential energy source and play an important role in ensuring that many daily-used products, appliances and services work properly. At the same time, waste batteries are potentially harmful to the environment.

The EU legislation on waste batteries, which is embodied in the Batteries Directive 2006/66/EC, regulates the placing on the market of batteries and accumulators and defines measures to maximise the separate collection and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators.

The European Commission is currently working to improve certain aspects of the EU Regulatory Framework on Batteries as part of its review of the Battery Directive.

End of life vehicles

Every year, end-of-life vehicles (ELV) generate between 7 and 8 million tonnes of valuable waste in the Community. The European Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive, which aims at making vehicle dismantling, reuse, recovery and recycling more environmentally friendly.

Directive 2000/53/EC sets out clearly quantified targets for reuse, recycling and recovery of vehicles and their components and also pushes producers to manufacture vehicles with a clear view to their recyclability.

Hazardous Waste

Hazardous waste arisings are relatively low compared to the generated waste total but potentially very damaging to both the environment and human health. The following key pieces of European legislation all relate to hazardous wastes:

The Waste Framework Directive lays down a strict control regime for hazardous waste. The Directive stipulates that hazardous waste must be recorded, identified and kept separated from other types of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. The properties which render waste hazardous are laid down in the Directive and are further specified by Decision 2000/532/EC establishing a List of Wastes (LoW).
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is an international treaty which came into force in 1992 having been signed by 172 Parties. It is designed to protect human health and the environment from potential adverse effects of hazardous wastes, through the control of transboundary movements and disposal of hazardous wastes. The Basel Convention is implanted into EU law by Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 on shipments of waste.
The Landfill Directive banned co-disposal of waste meaning in practise that hazardous waste must be assigned to a hazardous waste landfill (and municipal waste must go to a landfill for non-hazardous waste).

Statistics on hazardous waste generation and treatment are based on the data collected under the Waste Statistics Regulation (WStatR). Data on the shipment of hazardous waste are available from the reporting under the Basel Convention and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 on shipments of waste.

Municipal Waste

Municipal waste consists of waste collected by or on behalf of municipal authorities, or directly by the private sector (business or private non-profit institutions) not on behalf of municipalities. The largest part of the waste stream originates from households, though similar wastes from sources such as commerce and trade, offices, public institutions and selected municipal services (street and park cleaning etc.) are also included. It also includes bulky waste but excludes waste from municipal sewage networks and municipal construction and demolition waste.

It is important to understand that the term ‘municipal' has been used in different ways reflecting different waste collection practices. Differences between countries are to some extent the result of differences in the coverage of these similar wastes, which are often collected not on behalf of municipalities. Waste generation figures and management rates for municipal waste are therefore influenced by the proportion of commercial waste, for example, which falls under the definition. It is not clear which countries are following which approach from the data available here, so caution is advised when making comparisons across the EU.

Data on municipal waste generation and treatment are collected annually on a voluntary basis. The municipal waste indicator Municipal waste generation and treatment, by type of treatment is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicator set, which was established to monitor progress towards the SDGs in an EU context.

Packaging and packaging Waste

Packaging can have several main roles:

to protect the product, especially during transit;
to preserve the product;
to contain the product, e.g. in the case of liquids;
to provide information to the consumer regarding the product;
to market the product.

It is commonly made of a variety of materials including:

paper and cardboard;
wood;
plastic;
metal;
glass.

Producer responsibility arrangements are in place throughout Europe that introduce measures relating to the prevention, reduction and elimination of pollution caused by waste and the management of packaging and packaging waste.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been one of the fastest growing waste streams in the EU in recent years. WEEE is a complex mixture of partially hazardous materials and components that pose considerable environmental and health risks if treated inadequately. Furthermore, modern electronics contain scarce and expensive resources.

EU legislation as established by Directive 2002/96/EC and the recast Directive 2012/19/EC sets out quantitative targets for separate collection, recovery and recycling/preparation for reuse of WEEE in order to ensure environmentally sound management and to increase the recycling and recovery of WEEE.

Waste excluding major mineral wastes

Statistics on waste excluding major mineral wastes serve as a proxy for trends in total waste production and treatment. Waste excluding major mineral wastes reflects general trends more accurately than statistics on total waste and increases comparability across countries. Total waste generation and treatment are mainly driven by mineral waste from construction/demolition and from mining activities.

Waste excluding major mineral wastes reflects waste originating from all economic sectors and households, thus including waste generated from both production and consumption. It does not cover mineral waste and soil, of which 90% originate from the mining and construction sectors.

Statistics on waste excluding major mineral wastes are based on the data collected under the Waste Statistics Regulation (WStatR) and are used for the compilation of indicators in several indicator sets (see section on ‘Indicators’).

Reporting obligations

A number of EU Directives exist that have introduced producer responsibility measures. Data is required to monitor Member State compliance with the targets set out in the Directives.

The following key waste streams relate to these reporting obligations:

Batteries (BATT)
End of life vehicles (ELVs)
Packaging and packaging waste (PACK)
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)