Data on treatment (landfilled, incinerated, recycled or composted) of the collected municipal waste by country on the last year available. Data on collected waste expressed in thousand tons, whereas data on treatment expressed on percentage from total waste collected.

Municipal waste, collected by or on behalf of municipalities, by public or private enterprises, includes waste originating from: households, commerce and trade, small businesses, office buildings and institutions (schools, hospitals, government buildings). It also includes bulky waste (e.g., white goods, old furniture, mattresses) and waste from selected municipal services, e.g., waste from park and garden maintenance, waste from street cleaning services (street sweepings, the content of litter containers, market cleansing waste), if managed as waste. The definition excludes waste from municipal sewage network and treatment, municipal construction and demolition waste.

Municipal waste collected refers to waste collected by or on behalf of municipalities, as well as municipal waste collected by the private sector. It includes mixed waste, and fractions collected separately for recovery operations (through door-to-door collection and/or through voluntary deposits).

Landfilling is the final placement of waste into or onto the land in a controlled or uncontrolled way. The definition covers both landfilling in internal sites (i.e., where a generator of waste is carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of generation) and in external sites. Municipal waste landfilled includes all amounts going to landfill, either directly, or after sorting and/or treatment, as well as residues from recovery and disposal operations going to landfill. The definition covers both landfill in internal sites (i.e. where a generator of waste is carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of generation) and in external sites.

Incineration is the controlled combustion of waste with or without energy recovery.

Recycling is defined as any reprocessing of waste material in a production process that diverts it from the waste stream, except reuse as fuel. Both reprocessing as the same type of product, and for different purposes should be included. Recycling within industrial plants i.e. at the place of generation should be excluded.

Composting is a biological process that submits biodegradable waste to anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, and that results in a product that is recovered and can be used to increase soil fertility.

The sum of the different types of waste disposal may be greater than the total amount of municipal waste collected, as these facilities may be used for other types of waste, or because of double counting due to the landfilling of the residues of incineration, or to the incineration of residues from composting. Moreover other waste treatment/ disposal is not included in this table. It corresponds to any final treatment or disposal different from recycling, composting, incineration and landfilling. Examples include releasing into water bodies and permanent storage.

Data on municipal waste collected are usually gathered through surveys of municipalities, which are responsible for waste collection and disposal, or from transport companies that collect waste and transport it to a disposal site. Such surveys deliver fairly reliable data. However, the figures only cover waste collected by or on behalf of municipalities. Therefore:

• Amounts of waste will vary, depending on the extent that municipal waste collection covers small industries and the services sector.
• Waste collected by the informal sector, waste generated in areas not covered by the municipal waste collection system or illegally dumped waste are not included.

Caution is therefore advised when comparing countries.

Sources:

• UNSD/UNEP Questionnaires on Environment Statistics, Waste section.
• Eurostat Environmental Data Centre on Waste.
• OECD Environmental Data Compendium, Waste section.
• United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision, New York, 2009