ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS

 
 

 

 

 

 

    
       
             

 Waste

   
 
 
last update: August 2009
 
       
             

 Municipal waste treatment

       
             
                       
 
latest
year available
Municipal
waste
collected
  
Municipal
waste
landfilled
  
Municipal
waste
incinerated
  
Municipal
waste
recycled
  
Municipal
waste
composted
 
         
1000 tonnes
  
%
  
%
  
%
  
%
  
Algeria 2003
8 500
99.9
...
0.1
...
Andorra 2007
32
...
116.1
1
0.0
0.0
Anguilla 2007
12
100.0
...
...
...
Antigua and Barbuda 2007
112
99.0
2
...
1.0
...
Armenia 2007
392
100.0
...
...
...
Australia 2003
8 903
3
69.7
...
30.3
...
Austria 2007
4 950
16.1
4
28.2
4
...
...
Belarus 2007
3 220
100.0
...
...
...
Belgium 2007
5 211
4
4.3
4
32.9
4
...
...
Belize 2005
120
100.0
  
...
...
  
...
Benin 2002
986
0.0
0.0
...
...
British Virgin Islands 2005
37
0.0
80.3
5
0.0
0.0
Bulgaria 2007
3 593
6
82.9
0.0
...
...
Canada 2004
13 375
7
73.3
8
...
26.8
…
Chile 2006
5 333
9
100.0
9
...
...
...
China 2003
148 565
43.1
2.5
...
4.8
China, Hong Kong SAR 2007
6 252
55.0
...
45.0
...
China, Macao SAR 2007
289
20.5
10
99.6
11
0.0
...
Colombia 2005
20 776
80.4
...
0.9
...
Croatia 2006
1 894
  
69.5
...
2.4
0.9
Cuba 2005
4 416
100.0
12
0.0
4.8
11.1
Cyprus 2007
587
6
87.2
0.0
...
...
Czech Republic 2007
3 025
82.6
12.4
...
...
Denmark 2007
4 364
4
5.1
4
53.3
4
...
...
Dominica 2005
21
100.0
...
...
...
Estonia 2007
719
6
54.2
0.1
...
...
Finland 2007
2 675
52.7
11.6
...
...
France 2007
35 233
4
33.3
4
35.0
4
...
...
Germany 2007
46 448
4
0.6
4
34.0
4
...
...
Greece 2007
5 002
84.1
0.0
...
...
Hungary 2007
4 594
6
74.6
8.3
...
...
Iceland 2007
174
4
67.2
4
8.6
4
...
...
Ireland 2007
3 391
6
59.5
4
0.0
...
...
Israel 2007
4 321
...
  
0.0
...
...
Italy 2007
32 776
4
48.9
4
11.8
4
...
...
Jamaica 2004
709
...
...
...
...
Japan 2003
54 367
13
3.4
14
74.0
16.8
15
...
Korea, Republic of 2004
18 252
36.4
14.4
49.2
0.0
Kyrgyzstan 2007
1 659
16
100.0
16
...
...
...
Latvia 2007
861
6
85.4
0.3
...
...
Lithuania 2007
1 354
91.9
0.0
...
...
Luxembourg 2007
331
4
18.7
4
35.3
4
...
...
Madagascar 2007
419
96.7
0.0
0.0
3.5
Malta 2007
263
4
87.5
4
0.0
4
...
...
Marshall Islands 2007
26
  
...
0.0
30.8
6.0
Martinique 2006
325
60.2
35.7
1.0
2.5
Mauritius 2007
432
91.2
...
2.0
...
Mexico 2006
36 088
96.7
0.0
3.3
0.0
Monaco 2007
41
27.1
17
131.5
18
4.3
19
...
Morocco 2000
6 500
98.0
0.0
2.0
0.0
Netherlands 2007
10 332
4
2.2
4
31.9
4
...
...
New Zealand 1999
1 541
20
84.7
21
...
15.3
22
...
Niger 2005
9 750
64.0
12.0
4.0
...
Norway 2007
3 859
31.8
16.0
...
...
Palestine 2001
1 350
23
100.0
23
...
...
...
Panama 1998
379
100.0
...
...
...
Peru 2001
4 740
65.7
...
14.7
...
Poland 2007
12 264
6
74.2
0.3
...
...
Portugal 2007
5 007
6
62.9
4
19.3
4
...
...
Réunion 2006
572
86.6
0.0
6.8
6.5
Romania 2007
8 183
6
74.8
4
0.0
...
...
Singapore 2007
4 823
24
15.3
25
49.3
47.2
19
0.0
Slovakia 2007
1 669
6
77.6
10.8
...
...
Slovenia 2007
886
6
77.7
0.0
...
...
Spain 2007
26 154
6
59.5
4
9.9
4
...
...
St. Vincent and the Grenadines 2002
38
  
84.9
0.0
15.1
19
...
Sweden 2007
4 717
4.0
46.4
...
  
...
Switzerland 2007
5 460
26
0.0
26
49.1
26
...
...
Syrian Arab Republic 2003
7 500
93.9
27
5.3
1.1
28
...
Thailand 2000
13 972
...
0.8
14.3
19
...
Tunisia 2004
1 316
99.9
...
...
0.1
Turkey 2007
30 000
6
83.3
29
0.0
...
...
Uganda 2006
224
100.0
0.0
...
0.0
United Kingdom 2007
34 780
56.6
9.3
...
...
United States 2005
222 863
54.3
30
13.6
31
23.8
8.4
Uruguay 2000
910
...
...
0.0
0.0
Yemen 2007
1 447
32
100.0
32
...
...
...

 

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. The amount of municipal waste managed in 2007 is 37.4 (1000 t), which includes municipal waste collected from previous years.
  2. All the waste that is not recycled goes into the landfill, depending on what type of waste it is, it is separated to different parts of the landfill.
  3. Data refer to household waste generated.
  4. Country estimate.
  5. Value refers to the main island of Tortola only.
  6. Data refer to the amount of municipal waste generated.
  7. Data refer to household waste only.
  8. Data refer to household waste landfilled or incinerated.
  9. Provisional data.
  10. Data refer to by-products produced form incineration and untreated waste transported to landfill.
  11. All wastes transported to the incineration plant, including those collected from households, sea and commercial and industrial activities.
  12. All wastes are taken to landfills, where the wastes are classfied and then sent to different destinations, like the recycling and composting plants.
  13. Data refer to waste treated by municipalities and separate collection for recycling by the private sector.
  14. Direct disposal (excluding residues from other treatments, 6.6 million t.).
  15. Data refer to amounts directly recycled (incl. private collection) and recovered from intermediate processing.
  16. Unit: thousand cubic meters.
  17. Residues of incineration of waste are landfilled in France.
  18. Household waste is imported from France and Italy for incineration with energy.
  19. Data refer to recycling and composting together.
  20. Data include landfilled household waste and recycled packaging waste.
  21. Landfill: household waste excluding construction and demolition waste.
  22. Packaging waste only.
  23. Data refer to solid waste reaching dumping site which was taken from the Dumping Site Survey implemented in 2001.
  24. Municipal waste includes industrial waste from manufacturing industries.
  25. Includes ash from incineration plants.
  26. Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
  27. Data pertains to domestic waste (4,100,000 t/year), municipal rubble and soil (1,000,000 t/year), green waste in coastal towns (40,000 t/year), and building waste (1,900,000 t/year).
  28. Data pertains to automobile waste.
  29. Eurostat estimate.
  30. Landfill: after recovery and incineration.
  31. Incineration: after recovery.
  32. Data refer to household waste that is collected from centres (capitals) of governorate only (does not include rural areas, nor other directorates, nor other areas in the governorates). It is waste that is collected from houses, commercial shops and street cleaning. It is collected through municipal official cars and deported to official landfills in governorates and to be buried there.


Definitions & Technical notes:

Municipal waste includes waste originating from: households, commerce and trade, small businesses, office buildings and institutions (schools, hospitals, government buildings). It also includes bulky waste (e.g. white goods, old furniture, mattresses) and waste from selected municipal services, e.g. 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. The definition excludes waste from municipal sewage network and treatment, municipal construction and demolition waste.

Municipal waste collected refers to waste collected by or on behalf of municipalities, as well as municipal waste collected by the private sector. It includes mixed waste, and fractions collected separately for recovery operations (through door-to-door collection and/or through voluntary deposits).

Landfill is the final placement of waste into or onto the land in a controlled or uncontrolled way.

Municipal waste landfilled includes all amounts going to landfill, either directly, or after sorting and/or treatment, as well as residues from recovery and disposal operations going to landfill. 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 is the controlled combustion of waste with or without energy recovery.

Recycling is defined as any reprocessing of waste material in a production process that diverts it from the waste stream, except reuse as fuel. Both reprocessing as the same type of product, and for different purposes should be included. Recycling within industrial plants i.e. at the place of generation should be excluded.

Composting is a biological process that submits biodegradable waste to anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, and that results in a product that is recovered and can be used to increase soil fertility.

The sum of the different types of waste disposal may be greater than the total amount of municipal waste collected, as these facilities may be used for other types of waste, or because of double counting due to the landfilling of the residues of incineration, or to the incineration of residues from composting.


Data Quality:

Data on municipal waste collected are usually gathered through surveys of municipalities, which are responsible for waste collection and disposal, or from transport companies that collect waste and transport it to a disposal site. Such surveys deliver fairly reliable data. However, the figures only cover waste collected by or on behalf of municipalities. Therefore:
- Amounts of waste will vary, depending on the extent that municipal waste collection covers small industries and the services sector.
- Waste collected by the informal sector, waste generated in areas not covered by the municipal waste collection system or illegally dumped waste are nor included.
Caution is therefore advised when comparing countries.

United Nations Statistics Division - Environment Statistics