Environmental Review, 4/2005 – Waste Statistics 2003

Waste Statistics 2003

Summary and conclusions

The 2003 reporting to the ISAG comprises 403 plants owned by 273 enterprises. In 2002, reports covered 407 plants owned by 296 enterprises.

Waste generation in 2003 is compared to targets from 2008 in the government's Waste Strategy 2005-2008.

The following can be said to summarise waste generation in 2003:

In 2003, total reported waste arisings amounted to 12,835,000 tonnes, which is 270,000 tonnes, or 2 per cent, less than in 2002.
If amounts of residues from coal-fired power plants are excluded from statistics, waste arisings in 2003 were 11,597,000 tonnes, which is a 2 per cent increase from 2002.
If amounts of residues from coal-fired power plants and waste from the building and construction sector are excluded from statistics, total waste generation in 2003 amounted to 7,814,000 tonnes, which is 19,000 tonnes, or 1 per cent, less than in 2002. In other words, there has been a fall in total waste arisings, if residues and waste from building and construction are excluded.
The overall rate of recycling amounted to 66 per cent, which is one percentage point above the overall recycling target of 65 per cent for 2008. In 2002 the total rate of recycling was 64 per cent.
The total amount of waste led to incineration amounted to 26 per cent, plus an additional 1 per cent left in temporary storage to be incinerated at a later time. The 2008 target for incineration is 26 per cent. These are the same percentage figures as applied to incineration and storage in 2002.
The total amount of waste led to landfills amounted to 8 per cent, which is one percentage point below the overall landfill target of a maximum of 9 per cent landfilling in 2008. In 2002, 9 per cent was led to landfill.
The targets for treatment of waste from individual sectors are still not being met: too little waste from households and the service sector is being recycled, and too much waste from industry is being led to landfill.