ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS

Waste

last update: August 2009

Hazardous Waste Generation

Latest year available map

Sources:

UNSD/UNEP Questionnaires on Environment Statistics, Waste section.
OECD/Eurostat Questionnaire on the State of the Environment, Waste section.
Eurostat environment statistics data website http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/environment/data/main_tables.

Footnotes:

1. Starting with the exports in 2003, the data come from the regular weighing and there have been modifications of management and of the weighing methods.
2. Includes waste from new mining operations.
3. Data refer to primary waste.
4. The figure corresponds to the latest year available, which may not necessarily be 2007.
5. The data provided from 1995 till 2002 was based on calculated quantity, as total quantity of industrial waste generated without classification (hazardous or non hazardous) adopted by Basel Convention. Since 2003, the data were based on classifications as adopted by Basel Convention.
6. Data refer to Dhaka city only. Data are from Dhaka City Corporation.
7. Waste from hospitals only.
8. 2000 data.
9. Data refer to biomedical waste.
10. Data refer to two cities: Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso.
11. Pathological solid waste from hospitals, clinics and ash from incineration.
12. Break in time series due to a new Waste Act in 1998. 1998 onwards: data include municipal hazardous waste.
13. Break in time series in 2002 due to a new Waste Act.
14. Break in time series in 1995; 1995: excludes red mud.
15. Data for Jakarta City only.
16. Hazardous waste are from domestic and medical.
17. Includes reported and unreported waste, contaminated soil and on-site treatment.
18. Includes reported and unreported waste, contaminated soil (2004: 307 thousand tonnes) and on-site treatment.
19. Data refer to toxic waste.
20. This quantity represents biomedical waste only.
21. Data are based on surveys covering 27280 enterprises; includes biological infectious waste.
22. Excludes contaminated soil.
23. 2003: new type of waste are defined as hazardous in legislation.
24. Data refer to waste from health care centres taken from the Environmental Survey for Health Care Centres.
25. Data do not include health care centres which are owned by the private sector.
26. The data only correspond to the amount of waste produced by the City of Panama. Source: The Municipal Direction of Urban Cleanliness and House (DIMAUD), is the one in charge of the collection, transport and final disposal of the solid waste in the Municipality of Panama.
27. Hazardous waste: the hazardous waste, that is handled by the Municipal Direction of Cleanliness, originates from Centres of Health, Hospitals and some Private Clinics affiliated with our system of collection. These are collected by our workers daily and transported to the Sanitary landfill of Cerro Patacón, where when arriving at the site, they are buried immediately in pits.
28. Data refer to on-site treatment, including the amount of hazardous waste registered as treated by incineration, lagoon, biological one, chemical one and oil separation. It is based on the study on Hazardous Waste Management in the Philippines by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
29. 1998 onwards: data refer to a new classification based on the European Waste Catalogue.
30. Data refer to Serbia and Montenegro.
31. Data refer to solid chemical and PVC wastes.
32. Provisional data.
33. Data refer to Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) waste.
34. Hazardous waste from manufacturing industry.
35. Data refer to industrial hazardous wastes.
36. Production before 1997: defined by the Control of Pollution (Special Wastes) Regulations, 1980.
37. From 1997 onwards: Special wastes as defined by the Hazardous Waste List (94/904/EC) and implemented by the Special Waste Regulations,1996.
38. From 1997, data exclude waste water. In 2001: reporting requirements have been changed; includes some waste water.
39. Data refer to city of Harare.

Definitions & Technical notes:

In the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (http://www.basel.int/), 164 countries agreed to minimize the generation of hazardous waste, to assure sound management of hazardous wastes, to control transboundary movement of hazardous wastes; and to improve institutional and technical capabilities especially for developing countries and countries with economies in transition. At later meetings, Parties agreed to a ban on the export of hazardous wastes from OECD to non-OECD countries ('Basel ban').

Hazardous waste is waste that owing to its toxic, infectious, radioactive or flammable properties poses an actual or potential hazard to the health of humans, other living organisms, or the environment. Hazardous waste here refers to categories of waste to be controlled according to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (Article 1 and Annex I). If data are not available according to the Basel Convention, amounts can be given according to national definitions.

Data Quality:

Although countries are asked to report data on hazardous waste according to the categories of the Basel Convention, most countries are not able to do so, and supply data according to national definitions. Some countries have indicated this in footnotes, but it can be assumed that this also applies to other countries. National definitions of hazardous waste may change over time, as national legislation is revised. Therefore the definition of hazardous waste varies greatly from one country to another, and sometime also over time. Moreover, data only refer to wastes declared as hazardous by the generator, or by the company responsible for disposing of the waste. How far this is represents the real amount of hazardous waste generated in the country will depend on how well the sector is regulated and policed. Data quality and comparability are therefore limited and trends should be interpreted with care.