|
Waste Statistics 2003 PrefaceISAG The ISAG (Informations System for Affald og Genanvendelse (Information system for waste and recycling) was used for the first time in 1993. The 2003 report is the eleventh consecutive report. The ISAG is based on statutory registration and reporting from Danish waste-treatment plants for all waste entering or leaving the plants. Information concerning waste in the previous year must be reported to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency each year, no later than 31 January. In order to avoid double reporting, it is important to distinguish between waste from direct (primary) sources and waste from plant (secondary) sources. The principle behind registration in the ISAG is shown below. 
The Danish EPA carries out quality assurance of the information it receives and collects additional information from sector organisations and other sources. Each year the Danish EPA prepares a publication called “Waste Statistics”, which gives an overview of waste composition and waste arisings in Denmark. The publication also calculates the quantities of waste recycled, incinerated, and landfilled relative to the total waste amounts. Information is analysed between commercial sources and waste types. New methods Since 2001 data have been reported according to new rules set out in Statutory Order No. 619 of 27 June 2000 on waste (Statutory Order on Waste). These new rules have entailed a number of changes to the ISAG. For example, the source “manufacturing etc.” was discontinued, so that since 2001 breakdown of industrial waste has been divided between 11 sectors. Since 2001 there has been a shift between sectors in that waste volumes from industry have been falling, while waste volumes from the service sector have been rising. Waste volumes from industry thus fell by 30 per cent in the period 2001 to 2003, whereas in the service sector volumes increased by 27 per cent. In the period 2002 to 2003 waste volumes from industry fell by 20 per cent, whereas in the service sector volumes increased by 22 per cent. The shift between the two sectors may be due to faulty reporting as the source “manufacturing etc.” was discontinued from 2001 following the amendment of the Statutory Order on Waste [1]. This means that waste from industry must be reported as originating from one of the following 11 subgroups: food, beverages and tobacco; textiles, clothing and leather goods; wood-working and furniture; paper and graphical production; chemicals etc.; rubber and plastic; stone-working, pottery and glass; ferrous metals; other manufacturing; utilities; agriculture, forestry, fishery etc. It is likely that some carriers find it easier to report industrial waste as service-sector waste. This should be remembered when reading the statistics. Moreover, parties reporting to the ISAG are encouraged to be very attentive to this risk of incorrect reporting. Structural changes, that is the fact that society is changing from an industrial to a knowledge society, may be another reason for the shift between the two sectors. The shift could be supported e.g. by the fact that the number of new companies in traditional industry has gone down during the 1990s, while the number of new companies in the knowledge services industry has doubled. [2] Packaging waste is a new waste type in the ISAG and does not yet reflect the total amount of packaging waste in the form of cardboard and plastic collected for recycling in Denmark. Parties reporting to the ISAG are therefore encouraged to be especially aware of this reporting possibility. The principles for categorising waste from recycling centres/transfer stations with regard to the fractions glass and paper and cardboard have likewise been changed compared to the years 1994 to 2000. See Annex 2 for a more detailed explanation of the principles for this re-categorisation. From 2001, sludge for mineralisation has been stated with a dry matter content of 20 per cent. This means that sludge which is mineralised is included in the statistics with the same dry matter content as other sludge. In previous years dry matter content for sludge for mineralisation was 1.5 per cent. Please note that the changes to the way data is reported to the ISAG mentioned above, mean that care should be taken when comparing waste arisings at sector level from 2001 and later with waste arisings from previous years. The government's Waste Strategy 2005-2008 presents a shift in focus from use of waste arisings as the only indicator for target fulfilment, to the supplementary use of new waste indicators for resource loss and environmental impacts. Reading guide Waste Statistics 2003 follows the same structure as previous reports: Chapter 1 describes general trends in waste generation, while Chapter 2 deals with waste recycling. Chapter 3 deals with generation and treatment of hazardous waste, and Chapter 4 describes developments in imports and exports, both for ordinary waste and waste subject to mandatory notification. Chapter 5 describes developments in waste arisings and treatment of waste from individual sources. Furthermore, this Chapter assesses the level of achievement of targets for treatment in the Danish government's Waste Strategy 2005-2008. Chapter 6 presents the latest figures for the number of Danish incineration plants and landfills. Finally, Chapter 7 describes the new waste indicators and Chapter 8 presents a baseline projection of developments in waste arisings up to 2020. Tables are configured with leaps of two years for the first years, which is a new element to the report. This is due to visual scope and to make it possible to present the tables in a format big enough to read. Footnotes [1] Statutory Order no. 619 of 27 June 2000 on waste [2] Statistical Ten-Year Review 2003. Statistics Denmark.
|