Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
L-2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
15 September 2022
2.2. Metadata last posted
15 September 2022
2.3. Metadata last update
15 September 2022
3.1. Data description
Municipal waste is mainly produced by households, similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions are included.
Data are available in thousand tonnes and kilograms per person. Wastes from agriculture and from industries are not included. For further detail on the definition please refer to section 3.4.
The Sustainable Development Indicator on municipal waste is expressed in kilograms per capita.
3.2. Classification system
Municipal waste is classified by waste generation and by the treatment operations:
GEN Total waste generation
TRT Total waste treatment
DSP_L_OTH Landfill / disposal (D1-D7, D12)
DSP_I_RCV_E Total incineration (including energy recovery)(DSP_I + RCV_E)
DSP_I Incineration / disposal (D10)
RCV_E Incineration / energy recovery (R1)
RCY_M Material recycling
RCY_C_D Composting and digestion
PRP_REU Preparation for reuse
The classification follows the definitions for the OECD/Eurostat Joint Questionnaire, section waste, (see annexes).
3.3. Coverage - sector
Municipal waste is mainly produced by households, similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions are included.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Definition and concepts of municipal wastes statistics are fixed by the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EG). The definition of municipal waste is regulated in article 3 (2b) and in recital 10 the Directive (EU) 2018/851 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste. A precise operationalisation can be found in the guidance in annexes, moreover recital 10 the Directive (EU) 2018/851 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste.
In some cases it is not clear whether a certain waste category is 'municipal waste' or not. Therefore, Eurostat has drafted an annexed list of cases with explanations.
This definition is not completely identical with the definition used before the Directive (EU) 2018/851 taking effect. Therefore between 2019 and 2022 several countries adapted there data collection system to the new definition. In cases where this lead to breaks in series, these are marked with the footnote 'b'.
In order to show the difference the old definition can be found below.
The base information is the amount of municipal waste generated and treated per year. The amount of municipal waste generated consists of household and similar waste collected by or on behalf of municipal authorities. For areas not covered by a municipal waste collection scheme the reporting countries estimate the amount of waste generated.
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, 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 the 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).
For the purpose of this questionnaire, municipal waste refers to waste defined as above, collected by or on behalf of municipalities.
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.
The treatment definitions did not change much, a new categorie 'preparing for reuse' was added in 2019. Tthis category was part of category 'recycling' before, and thus coverage of recycling has slightly declined.
Treatment means recovery or disposal operations, including preparation prior to recovery or disposal;
Incineration means thermal treatment of waste in an incineration plant as defined 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 December 2000, p.91.
Energy recovery is defined as the incineration that fulfils the energy efficiency criteria laid down in the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), Annex II (recovery operation R1).
Recycling means any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations. (Waste Framework Directive, 2008/98/EC).
Composting and anaerobic digestion are processes of biological decomposition of biodegradable waste under controlled aerobic (composting) or anaerobic conditions. It may be classified as recycling when compost (or digestate) is used on land or for the production of growing media. (Green Paper on the management of bio-waste in the European Union, COM(2008) 811 final).
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.
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. Annex II sets out a non-exhaustive list of recovery operations;
Material recovery means any recovery operation, other than energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or other means to generate energy. It includes, inter alia, preparing for re-use, recycling and backfilling;
Preparing for re-use means checking, cleaning or repairing recovery operations, by which products or components of products that have become waste are prepared so that they can be re-used without any other pre-processing;
3.5. Statistical unit
Reporting units may be legal units (waste collectors, waste treatment facilities etc.) or institutions (e.g. communities or cities).
Observation units are units of weight of waste and units of weight per capita.
3.6. Statistical population
All municipal waste generated in a country and its treatment 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. The publication also contains data for EU-Candidate Countries and EFTA countries (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) as well as the potential Candidate Countries Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. The series cover the period from 1995 to 2020.
Reference area refers to the generation of municipal waste, the treatment of this municipal waste is registered no matter where the waste is treated. If a country exports municipal waste for landfilling, then this waste has to be included in the landfill rate of the generating country, same for the other treatment methods.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data on municipal waste generation, collection and treatment are published for the period from 1995 onwards.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Thousands of tonnes, kg per capita (based on annual average population).
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.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Data on municipal waste are collected via a subset of the Eurostat / OECD Joint Questionnaire. Data are provided under a so-called gentlemen's agreement.
From reference year 2020 on municipal waste generation and recyling are covered by the Directive (EU) 2018/851 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (Text with EEA relevance). The variables landfill and incineration without energy recovery are then covered by the Directive (EU) 2018/850 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste (Text with EEA relevance).
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
The data is made available to the OECD.
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.
8.1. Release calendar
There is no release calendar, data dissemination is explained in item 9 below.
8.2. Release calendar access
See Eurostat website, release calendar, data releases
8.3. Release policy - 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 - 'Accessibility and clarity') 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.
Data received in November, 10 months after the end of the reference period (T+10 months; where T = reference year), will be published two months later T+12 months). An update of the dataset is done in March (T+14 months) and June (T+17) of the following year.
The Member States describe the sources and methods in a quality report. A summary of these are to be found in country specific notes in annexes.
11.1. Quality assurance
The quality assurance is a joint responsibility of the Member States and Eurostat. The Member States conduct the data collection and describe their sources and methods in a quality report. Eurostat can make comparisons over the countries and will discuss the issue of comparability with the countries. Concepts, classifications and formats are agreed between Eurostat and the Member States, the countries remain free to choose the sources and collection methods that fit them best.
Eurostat carries out in-depth validations. For details see 18.4.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
See 11.1.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The data is used in the Sustainable Development Indicators set and in the Resource Efficiency Scoreboard. Moreover, it is used by some coutnries to calculate the recycling rates, required according to article 11a of the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives (Text with EEA relevance))
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No systematic user satisfaction survey was conducted. Eurostat is in regular contact with the main users inside the Commission and with EEA
12.3. Completeness
The data sets have a high level of completeness. A few data cells are missing because no proper data sources were available at that time.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
See the quality profile (11.1).
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Due to the freedom of the countries to choose their methods the non-sampling errors are difficult to summarise at the European level. The data quality gradually improved over time due to the installation of weighbridges in the treatment facilities.
14.1. Timeliness
The delay between reference period and the publication of the indicator is about a year.
14.2. Punctuality
The Member States usually to deliver the data within nine months after the end of the reference period. Most countries do respect this deadline, some countries deliver with a small delay. In a few cases the delay is over two months. In such cases Eurostat will propose an estimation of the country data to be able to produce European totals.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The concept of municipal waste includes different waste streams in different municipalities. Especially, the extent to which waste generated by offices and small businesses are included differs from municipality to municipality. Thus, different levels of municipal waste generation can reflect different coverage of the generation of waste, but also differences in the organisation of municipal waste management.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The data is comparable over time unless otherwise stated. A break in series flag will be applied to indicate significant changes in methods.
15.3. 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. Municipal waste generation data is thus not comparable with the waste collected from households as displaid in Waste Statisticss regulation data.
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:
The reported quantities of waste generated and treated do not match exactly for some Member States, for the following reasons: estimates for the population not covered by collection schemes, weight losses due to dehydration, double counts of waste undergoing two or more treatment steps, exports and imports of waste and time lags between generation and treatment (temporary storage).
The collection of this information has been integrated into administrative procedures and will in general not produce much extra costs or burden.
Every year Eurostat publishes the complete time series, which may lead to revisions of data previously published. Data are revised once in between annual releases
17.2. Data revision - practice
The published data shall be regarded as final, unless otherwise stated. Corrections and revisions might occur. Important corrections will be explained in the summary methodology.
Major changes in the methods will be mainly the result of technical progress in waste treatment and be explained in the guidance document in annexes.
Every year the questionnaire requests data for a given reference year. If data are revised by countries, it is done for the reference year.
Reported errors are assessed for seriousness to determine whether they should trigger a correction of already disseminated data. Reported errors may be corrected in the disseminated data but are usually revised once in between annual releases
18.1. Source data
National Statistical Institutes (or other competent authorities like Ministries of Environment or Environmental Protection Agencies) collect data from various sources:
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.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual
18.3. Data collection
National Statistical Institutes (or other competent authorities like Ministries of Environment or Environmental Protection Agencies) complete a small questionnaire on municipal waste. This questionnaire contains data collected in the previous year for publication and in previous years for update and correction.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation is done by Eurostat in close cooperation with Member States' competent Authorities.
Certain data format checks are carried out during the data entry into the webform. The validation routines at Eurostat include checks related to consistency, plausibility, development over time and clarification requests are sent to countries in case of observations.
Methodology reports from countries are consulted during the validation process. In case of revision of data the Member State transmit a new dataset.
Results of the data validation 2020 can be found in the nenexed country specifiv notes.
18.5. Data compilation
The European aggregates are calculated by adding up the national waste amounts. EU aggregates are compiled when the available countries represent 60% of the population and 55% of the number of countries defining the aggregate; data for missing countries are estimated on the basis of the previous year.
For the calculation of kilogram per capita the national amounts of waste generated and treated are divided by the average population of the relevant year.
The average population for the calculation of kg per capita is taken from the table Population on 1 January by age and sex (demo_pjan) in Eurobase.
18.6. Adjustment
The data are not adjusted; they are rounded to thousands of tonnes, or kilograms per person respectively.
Next to the municipal waste data two other data collections on waste have to be mentioned. One is data on the generation and treatment of waste collected in the framework of the Regulation on waste statistics according to the Waste Statistics Regulation. For this data a time series exists with annual data from 2004 onwards. For the comparability with the concept of waste generated by households see point 15.3 Coherence across domains.
The other collection of waste data concerns information for the monitoring of the effectiveness of certain waste Directives (for instance on packaging waste, end-of-life vehicles and electronic waste).
Municipal waste is mainly produced by households, similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions are included.
Data are available in thousand tonnes and kilograms per person. Wastes from agriculture and from industries are not included. For further detail on the definition please refer to section 3.4.
The Sustainable Development Indicator on municipal waste is expressed in kilograms per capita.
15 September 2022
Definition and concepts of municipal wastes statistics are fixed by the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EG). The definition of municipal waste is regulated in article 3 (2b) and in recital 10 the Directive (EU) 2018/851 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste. A precise operationalisation can be found in the guidance in annexes, moreover recital 10 the Directive (EU) 2018/851 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste.
In some cases it is not clear whether a certain waste category is 'municipal waste' or not. Therefore, Eurostat has drafted an annexed list of cases with explanations.
This definition is not completely identical with the definition used before the Directive (EU) 2018/851 taking effect. Therefore between 2019 and 2022 several countries adapted there data collection system to the new definition. In cases where this lead to breaks in series, these are marked with the footnote 'b'.
In order to show the difference the old definition can be found below.
The base information is the amount of municipal waste generated and treated per year. The amount of municipal waste generated consists of household and similar waste collected by or on behalf of municipal authorities. For areas not covered by a municipal waste collection scheme the reporting countries estimate the amount of waste generated.
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, 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 the 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).
For the purpose of this questionnaire, municipal waste refers to waste defined as above, collected by or on behalf of municipalities.
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.
The treatment definitions did not change much, a new categorie 'preparing for reuse' was added in 2019. Tthis category was part of category 'recycling' before, and thus coverage of recycling has slightly declined.
Treatment means recovery or disposal operations, including preparation prior to recovery or disposal;
Incineration means thermal treatment of waste in an incineration plant as defined 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 December 2000, p.91.
Energy recovery is defined as the incineration that fulfils the energy efficiency criteria laid down in the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), Annex II (recovery operation R1).
Recycling means any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations. (Waste Framework Directive, 2008/98/EC).
Composting and anaerobic digestion are processes of biological decomposition of biodegradable waste under controlled aerobic (composting) or anaerobic conditions. It may be classified as recycling when compost (or digestate) is used on land or for the production of growing media. (Green Paper on the management of bio-waste in the European Union, COM(2008) 811 final).
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.
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. Annex II sets out a non-exhaustive list of recovery operations;
Material recovery means any recovery operation, other than energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or other means to generate energy. It includes, inter alia, preparing for re-use, recycling and backfilling;
Preparing for re-use means checking, cleaning or repairing recovery operations, by which products or components of products that have become waste are prepared so that they can be re-used without any other pre-processing;
Reporting units may be legal units (waste collectors, waste treatment facilities etc.) or institutions (e.g. communities or cities).
Observation units are units of weight of waste and units of weight per capita.
All municipal waste generated in a country and its treatment during the year.
Data are published for the European Union as well as for each Member State separately. The European Union is presented in its current composition. The publication also contains data for EU-Candidate Countries and EFTA countries (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) as well as the potential Candidate Countries Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. The series cover the period from 1995 to 2020.
Reference area refers to the generation of municipal waste, the treatment of this municipal waste is registered no matter where the waste is treated. If a country exports municipal waste for landfilling, then this waste has to be included in the landfill rate of the generating country, same for the other treatment methods.
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.
See the quality profile (11.1).
Thousands of tonnes, kg per capita (based on annual average population).
The European aggregates are calculated by adding up the national waste amounts. EU aggregates are compiled when the available countries represent 60% of the population and 55% of the number of countries defining the aggregate; data for missing countries are estimated on the basis of the previous year.
For the calculation of kilogram per capita the national amounts of waste generated and treated are divided by the average population of the relevant year.
The average population for the calculation of kg per capita is taken from the table Population on 1 January by age and sex (demo_pjan) in Eurobase.
National Statistical Institutes (or other competent authorities like Ministries of Environment or Environmental Protection Agencies) collect data from various sources:
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.
Data received in November, 10 months after the end of the reference period (T+10 months; where T = reference year), will be published two months later T+12 months). An update of the dataset is done in March (T+14 months) and June (T+17) of the following year.
The delay between reference period and the publication of the indicator is about a year.
The concept of municipal waste includes different waste streams in different municipalities. Especially, the extent to which waste generated by offices and small businesses are included differs from municipality to municipality. Thus, different levels of municipal waste generation can reflect different coverage of the generation of waste, but also differences in the organisation of municipal waste management.
The data is comparable over time unless otherwise stated. A break in series flag will be applied to indicate significant changes in methods.
