Sources:
UNSD/UNEP 2001, 2004 and 2006 questionnaires on Environment statistics, Waste section.
OECD/Eurostat 2004 questionnaire on Environment statistics, Waste section.
OECD Environmental Data, Compendium 2006/2007, Waste section.
UN Population Division.
Footnotes:
- Data refer to Antigua only.
- Unit: thousand cubic meters.
- Household waste generated only.
- 1996 data.
- Data only refer to waste collected from households and sea by a licensed company.
- Includes amounts undergoing mechanical sorting before treatment/disposal.
- The information Includes the National District (Capital of the Republic) and the Santo Domingo Province.
- Data refer to total amounts of municipal waste managed.
- Total municipal solid waste generated in 299 Class-I cities.
- Data refer to municipal waste landfilled and recovered (include street cleansing waste).
- Data refer to waste treated by municipalities and separate collection for recycling by the private sector.
- 2002 data.
- Data refer to total amounts of municipal waste managed in the country (exclude exported amounts).
- For the calculations, only the six important locations of "Faritany" (Antanarivo, Antsiranana, Fianarantsoa, Mahajanga, Toamasia, Toliary) and the cities of Toalagnaro and Nosy-be were taken into account.
- Data include landfilled household waste and recycled packaging waste.
- Data refer to solid waste reaching dumping site which was taken from the Dumping Site Survey implemented in 2001.
- Data refer to municipal waste, specifically rubbish transported by trucks and liquid wastes transported by cesspool trucks.
- Household and similar waste.
- Data are from Trinidad and Tobago Solid Waste Management Company Limited (SWMCOL). The landfills managed by SWMCOL collect 85% of solid waste.
- Data refer to urban population only.
- Data refer to Serbia and Montenego.
Definitions & Technical notes:
Municipal waste
includes household waste and similar waste. The definition also includes bulky waste (e.g. white goods, old furniture, mattresses) and yard 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, 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 household waste, and fractions collected separately for recovery operations (through door-to-door collection and/or through voluntary deposits). In the absence of data for municipal waste collected, data for municipal waste generated is given, if available.
Municipal waste collected per capita served
is calculated by dividing the Municipal waste collected by the number of people served by the waste collection system.
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, it must be remembered that the figures
only cover waste collected by or on behalf of municipalities. Therefore:
- Amounts of waste will vary, depending on how far 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.
Policy Relevance:
Although on a 'per kilogram' basis, municipal waste
is less damaging than hazardous waste,
the large number of sources (households, services, small
industries), as well as the variety of wastes included and the sheer
quantities generated, make the collection and disposal of municipal
waste an important issue worldwide.
The amount of waste a country generates depends
on a number of factors, including GDP, the extent of urbanisation,
family structures, and lifestyles. Increasing urbanisation, economic
growth and the move away from traditional family groups have resulted
in an increase in the amount of waste generated in recent decades.
Waste management, i.e. waste collection and treatment, has become
an independent economic sector, as waste becomes an environmental
problem of growing concern.
The environmental impacts that are most closely
associated with waste are:
- pollution of ground and surface water, through leaching and run-off;
- soil contamination and damage to nature;
- emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from landfill
sites;
- risks to health due to putrification of food waste,
- emission of dusts, odours and hazardous gases and
- unregulated fires.
The quantity of municipal waste generated will be larger than that collected if large areas of the country are not served by waste collection or if a significant percentage of illegal dumping of waste is suspected. The associated environmental impacts will also be greater, as uncontrolled landfill is generally more environmentally damaging.
Some towns and cities rely heavily on the informal sector to collect and recycle household waste, and this may be the sole source of income for whole families, with women and children also actively involved. As this is totally unregulated, the workers are often subject to accidents, to respiratory illnesses, to skin infections and other health problems.
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