Kortlægning af affaldssammensætningen i servicesektoren; Institutioner, handel og kontor
Summary and conclusionThe basis of the project has been the statement in Waste 21 (The Government’s plan for the Danish waste policy up to year 2004) stipulating that the service sector has not reached the recycling objectives together with the fact that the sector lacks knowledge of waste compositions and amounts.
As a consequence, the Cleaner Products Council has earmarked funds for a study of the waste composition in the service sector. This report is the result of a pre-assessment of the waste composition in the service sector in Denmark.
The service sector has been defined from Statutory Order on Waste No. 299, 30 April 1997. The service sector comprises Institution, Trade and Office. The sector covers approx. 1.5 million full-time employees distributed among approx. 194,000 workplaces.
According to ISAG, the service sector generated approx. 861,000 tons of waste in 1997, and the latest statistical survey (in the middle of 2000) shows that in 1998 an amount of approx. 955,000 tons of waste was generated. In this report, only 97 amounts are used because of the time of the preparation of the survey. As the information from 1998 shows, the waste amounts from the sector are increasing. This fact further confirms the relevance of a detailed survey of the waste composition in the selected parts of the service sector.
The individual industrial sectors in the service sector have been categorised in accordance with DB93 (Dansk Branchekodeindeks (Danish Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities)). The service sector comprises a total of 25 industrial sector groups on 2-figures DB93-level. Of these, 12 have been selected as they are supposed to be significant as regards the waste fractions prioritised in Waste 21. Furthermore, the 12 industrial sectors have been selected based on an evaluation of their total significance in the service sector (number of employees, number of workplaces and turnover).
The 12 industrial sectors consist of a total of 413 industrial sub-sectors on 6-figures DB93-level. Of these, 41 industrial sub-sectors have been selected for which preliminary surveys of the waste composition have been carried out.
The 41 industrial sub-sectors were selected based on the expectation that the occurrence of the waste fractions prioritised in Waste 21 is significant in these sub-sectors, and based on the total significance of the industrial sub-sector for the industrial sector group and a concrete assessment whether there are other significant circumstances indicating that the sector should be included.
The 41 industrial sub-sectors include approx. 720,000 full-time employees distributed among approx. 49,000 workplaces.
The object of the survey has been to illustrate the waste composition and the knowledge of this in the selected industrial sub-sectors. On the basis of the survey, the industrial sub-sectors in which there are expectations of a potential may be selected for a detailed survey.
The potential may be:
 | to increase the recycling and/or to ensure that the fractions causing harm to the environment are sorted out for special treatment |
In the project, focus has been put on nine prioritised waste factions:
| Batteries |
| Cars |
| Electric and electronic products |
| Impregnated wood |
| Furniture |
| Organic waste |
| Cardboard and paper |
| Plastic packaging |
| PVC |
Overall conclusion
In this project, the level of knowledge of the waste composition and amounts has been classified into three categories: good, partly and modest.
Five industrial sub-sectors of the 41 participating were in this project categorised as having a "good" level of knowledge. These are: Hospitals, Post, Telecommunications, Consulting engineers and Druggist
| In general, the conclusion is that all of the 36 industrial sub-sectors, in which there is "partly" or "modest" knowledge of the waste conditions, are interesting in relation to a detailed survey. This is due to lacking knowledge of waste composition, waste amounts, possibilities of waste separation and finances etc. |
If it is necessary to prioritise in which industrial sub-sectors detailed surveys should
be carried out, the industrial sub-sectors should be selected from criteria such as the
size of the sub-sector, including number of full-time employees, number of workplaces and
turnover, since these factors are assumed to be of importance for the waste composition
and the amount of waste. Furthermore, the number of users, visitors and guests etc. should
be taken into consideration.
Also, the selection should be done in such a way that the surveyed industrial sub-sectors are distributed among all the industrial sector groups within the service sector and in such a way that both private and public enterprises are represented. Furthermore, when the industrial sub-sectors for the detailed survey are selected, consideration should be made to the industrial distribution on 2-figures DB93-level in order to ensure a wide span in the examined industrial sub-sectors.
Recommendation of industrial sub-sectors for the detailed survey within trade and office
On the basis of the above-mentioned criteria, it is recommended looking further into the following sub-sectors:
| Banks, saving banks and co-operative banks |
| Ordinary cleaning |
| Retail trade with automobiles |
| Supermarkets |
| Wholesale of office machines, computers and equipment |
| Hotels and restaurants |
| Special goods trade (footwear dealers, ladies’ and men’s clothes, radio dealers, hardware stores, furniture, building equipment). |
| Private undertakings, for example advertising, accountants etc. |
A number of the industrial sub-sectors can be surveyed in detail by means of a study of the waste management in a shopping centre. This approach has two advantages, namely that the above-mentioned industrial sub-sectors will be represented and that relatively much waste is concentrated on a limited area. In a detailed survey, it will also be possible to investigate the chain stores’ possibilities of enterprise-organised waste management.
Recommendation of sub-sectors for the detailed survey within institutions
On the basis of the above-mentioned criteria, it is recommended that a future detailed survey within the sub-sectors under Institutions is at first concentrated on the following sub-sectors:
| General public services |
| Defence and civil defence |
| Police |
| Fire service and salvage corps |
| Elementary schools |
| Universities |
| Residential homes and sheltered accommodations |
| Age integrated institutions |