why collect
Introduction to the Waste Statistics Regulation

Waste Statistics Regulation

The objective of the Waste Statistics Regulation is to establish a framework for the production of Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste. The Member States and the Commission, within their respective fields of competence, shall produce Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste, excluding radioactive waste, which is already covered by other legislation.

On the basis of the Regulation data on the generation and treatment of waste is collected from the Member States. The information on waste generation has a breakdown in sources (several business activities according to the NACE classification and household activities) and in waste categories (according to the European Waste Classification for statistical purposes). The information on waste treatment has a breakdown in five treatment types (recovery, incineration with energy recovery, other incineration, disposal on land and land treatment) and in waste categories; this data set also has a breakdown in regions (NUTS1). NUTS is a classification system established by Eurostat to provide a single uniform breakdown of territorial units for the production of regional statistics for the European Union.

All values are measured in 1000 tonnes of waste. For sludges the amounts are measured both in normal wet waste and in dry matter.

More general information on waste and waste definitions can be found at the European Topic Centre. Overview of waste policies and legislation can be at DG Environment.