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Waste statistics

1999/0010(COD)

Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 on waste statistics (Waste Statistics Regulation) establishes a framework for the production of Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste. The Regulation was formulated after giving careful consideration to the complexities and difficulties of producing waste statistics. It was agreed that a number of pilot studies would be needed to clarify a number of fundamental issues concerning new areas of waste statistics. These areas are statistics on waste generated in ‘Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fisheries’ (Article 4(3)), and statistics on the ‘Import and export of waste’ (Article 5(1)) for which no data are collected under the Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 (Waste Shipment Regulation).

The Waste Statistics Regulation stipulates that the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on the progress of the pilot studies. The Commission notes that the progress report from 2005 contained only preliminary results and announced another call for proposals as well as a final report with recommendations for further implementing measures based on the results of these studies.

Statistics on the import and export of waste: the results of the pilot studies on statistics on the import and export of waste confirmed the need for these statistics for the purposes of monitoring Community waste policy, in particular, compliance with the principles of maximisation of recovery and safe disposal. A large majority of countries considered foreign trade statistics to be the most suitable data source for producing statistics on the export and import of waste. The general advantage of using available statistics based on common parameters and a harmonised nomenclature used by all Member States is compromised, however, by the fact that different thresholds, expressed in monetary value, are applied by Member States to reduce the administrative burden on businesses. This means that data are not fully comparable and may lead to the amounts of waste traded being underestimated. Foreign trade statistics cannot be used without further adaptation of the statistical nomenclature and final verification of the data by the Member States. The current provisions of the Waste Statistics Regulation do not describe the requirements for statistics on the import and export of waste in sufficient detail. The Commission will therefore propose specifications for these statistics by way of a formal proposal to amend Annex I of the above Regulation. This will:

  • provide a breakdown of statistics on the import and export of waste into intra- and extra-EU, and into imports and exports. A breakdown into economic activities will not be required; the breakdown by waste categories will contain sufficient information. These provisions will result in four additional columns to the table on waste generation in Annex I to the Waste Statistics Regulation;
  • simplify and harmonise the use of foreign trade statistics, for the purposes of which the Commission will provide Member States with an extraction of the relevant data from the foreign trade statistics database COMEXT;
  • require Member States to confirm or to revise the data. Member States may also compile statistics on the import and export of waste by other means, in accordance with Article 3(1) of the Waste Statistics Regulation.

Statistics on waste generation by NACE sectors A and B: given the many common difficulties in providing reliable data for the agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing industries, the pilot studies have provided a very useful yardstick for exploring the situation and the possibilities regarding the production of high quality waste statistics. Of particular importance were the clarification of the scope for waste statistics and the exchange of experiences gained through these studies on developing methods to include small enterprises in the statistics and to produce the waste factors for certain waste streams.

The pilot studies on waste arising from the economic sectors of agriculture, hunting, forestry (NACE A) and fishing (NACE B) recommended no additional implementing measures. The current Community statistical legislation on waste statistics is sufficiently detailed to cover waste generated within the economic activities of NACE A and B.