Waste accounts

Biogas production is the production of any gas fuel derived from the decay of organic matter, as the mixture of methane and carbon dioxide produced by the bacterial decomposition of sewage, manure, garbage, or plant crops. Biogas production is regarded as recovery.

By-products

A substance or object, resulting from a production process, the primary aim of which is not the production of that item, may be regarded as not being Waste, but as being a by-product only if the following conditions are met:

Composting is biologically aerobic treatment by micro-organisms etc. with access to oxygen. Composting is regarded as recovery.

Construction waste is generated in connection with construction, rehabilitation or demolition of buildings or other constructions.

Consumer waste is waste generated by households. Also similar waste originating from certain industries is included here.

Disposal means all treatment not defined as recovery, principally incineration and landfilling.

Energy recovery means utilising the energy released by incineration, for instance for heating up buildings, and is calculated as the share of utilised energy to the share of produced energy.

Hazardous waste requires special treatment according to the Waste regulation, and is defined in the EU List of Waste (LoW) and Norwegian legislation defining limits for hazardous properties. Hazardous waste contains a large number of different materials and products, but constitutes one material category in the waste accounts.

Landfill means disposal of waste to approved landfill.

Material denotes substances that largely share the same chemical and physical characteristics. The material categories follow the Norwegian Standard for classification of waste (NS 9431).

Material recovery is the utilization of the waste so that the material is retained in whole or in part. Examples are the production of raw paper from collected return paper and composting of food waste.

Mixed waste is waste that is not subjected to any presorting or from where some categories has been sorted out (plastics, paper etc.).

Pre-treatment comprise the different processes that prepare waste for subsequent treatment/disposal, for example by sorting of waste or neutralising of acids and bases.

Products are in these statistics grouped according to the function of the final product, contrary to material types, which have been grouped according to their physical and chemical characteristics. Products are further grouped into product types. Insofar, the waste accounts are not presented in terms of product types.

Production waste is defined as waste generated by manufacturing, significantly differing in type or quantity from consumer waste.

Recovery is a collective term for recycling, energy recovery and composting.

Reuse covers the use of waste in its original form, for example discarded clothes sold in a second hand shop or sent as refugee aid, or bottles in a return scheme with deposit. When a product is reused, it does not become a waste. On the other hand, preparing for re-use (like repairing a bicycle) is a recovery operation. Used products inside a return scheme are not included in the statistics.

Secondary waste is treatment products and residues from waste treatment.

Sludge is a fluid mixture of particles and water. The particles may be both organic and inorganic. The effects of inorganic and organic sludge on the environment differ considerably. Sludge is generated from important processes like: manufacturing of paper and cardboard, oil drilling, metal processes and waste water treatment. Sludge from waste water treatment is given in dry weight, while sludge from other sources are in wet weight.

Source refers to the unit generating the waste, and follows the Standard Industrial Classification (SN 2007). Various grouping levels are used, for instance manufacturing (section) and service industries (several sections). Households constitute a separate category.

Textiles are spun, woven, knitted, etc. products made from natural or synthetic fibres. Animal or artificial skin is also covered under textiles.

Treatment of waste means physically, chemically or biological processing and preparation of the waste for recovery or disposal (recycle, compost, incinerate, landfill, dumping, export or reuse) at approved plants.

Waste is defined by the Pollution Control Act §27 as: "Discarded objects or substances. Waste also includes superfluous objects from service activities, production and treatment plants etc. Waste water and exhaust gases are not regarded as waste". See also 3.1.

Waste treatment plant is assigned to all plants having treatment/disposal or pre-treatment of waste as their principal activity. Industrial landfills and incinerators having waste as a secondary fuel, for instance in the manufacturing industries, are not defined as treatment plants.

Wet organic waste is organic waste that easily decomposes, like discarded food and processing waste from the manufacturing of food products, etc. The waste codes (Norwegian standard for classification of waste (NS 9431)) that are included here are 1111, 1127 and 1128.

Standard Industrial Classification (SN 2007) is applied for classification by source from 2008. In 2007 and backwards SN2002 is applied. The classification by material and treatment/disposal is based on the Norwegian standard for classification of waste (NS 9431).

The aggregation of the classification used in the waste accounts is given in table 3.

Table 1: Aggregation of Norwegian standard for classification of waste (NS 9431) used in the waste acounts for Norway

Name: Waste accounts
Topic: Nature and the environment

Division for Energy, Environmental and Transport Statistics

National

Annual publication.

Waste Account for Norway is data source for reporting waste statistics to Eurostat pursuant to Regulation on waste statistics (No 2150/2002).

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The main purpose with Waste Accounts is to present a holistic overview of the waste situation in Norway. Waste streams are quantified based on three different characteristics: material type, source of origin and treatment.

The work with the waste accounts started in 1995. The first results for paper and glass were published in 1997. Until 2011 the waste accounts showed data for paper, glass, wetorganic waste, metalls, wood, plastics, sludge, other materials and hazardous waste.

From the 2012 publications and forward the waste accounts has been revised and new materials have been included. The waste accounts now publish data for wetorganic waste, park and garden waste, wood, sludge, paper, glass, metals, WEEE, concrete and tiles, cinders, dust, bottom ash and fly ash, plastics, rubber, textiles, discarded vehicles, hazardous waste, mixed waste, other materials and slightly polluted soil.

The Norwegian Environment Agency makes use of the figures in their reports to the Parliament. The figures also constitute the main data source on waste statistics presented to Eurostat and OECD. Moreover, the statistics are also applied as part in the Norwegian Emission Inventory, the integrated Economic and Environmental Accounts (NAMEA) and sustainable development indicators, thereby representing a relevant foundation for resource and environmental studies. The waste account is also used by industrial and nongovernmental organisations, education and research institutes and the media.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

The Waste Account depends on an array of statistics for its calculations. Simultaneously, the Waste Account forms the basis of analyses and comparisons with other statistics, both internally in Statistics Norway and within external institutions.

Principally, the Waste Account is now included in the following statistics:

• Other waste statistics. For instance, the Manufacturing waste survey and the Waste treatment and disposal survey are forming parts of the hazardous waste statistics.
• Discharge of methane from landfills.
• Air pollution and energy accounts (figures on waste incineration).
• NAMEA (Norwegian Economic and Environmental Accounts).
• Fees and full costs statistics in the municipal waste sector.

It is considered using waste statistics in the set of sustainable development indicators.

A long-term goal is to make the waste account more integrated into a comprehensive system of environmental and socio-economic statistics. Waste amounts can then be seen in context with environmental effects from discharge to air and water, transport and logistic, employment and withdrawal of natural resources, together with environmental consequences by production and use of commodities.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

The statistics is a part of the Nasjonal program for official statistics, main area Nature, climate and environment, subarea Waste.

The Waste Accounts require no separate data collection authorized by the Statistics Act, but build on other statistics were the Statistics Act is applied. See also "About the statistics" for the other waste statistics from Statistics Norway.

Regulation on waste statistics (No 2150/2002) requires detailed reporting on the different materials, sources and treatment/disposal methods of waste in Norway.

The Waste Accounts statistics comprise all waste as defined in Pollution Control Act §27 but with the following exceptions:

• Clean masses of stones, gravels and soil.
• Other materials, which readily may be brought back into the natural cycle of the ecosystems.
• Internally recycled production residues.
• Used products covered by recycling systems, for instance the bottle deposit scheme.
• Infectious, explosive and radioactive wastes.
• Secondary waste, except incineration residues.

Slightly contaminated soil and stones (non-hazardous) are covered, but generally excluded from the totals.

The statistics encompass hazardous waste as defined in Waste regulation §11.4. Certain estimates are also made from other selected groups of health- and environmentally dangerous waste.

The waste statistics use Statistic Norway's statistics on foreign trade. The geographical extent is the same for that statistic.

Waste account makes use of an array of different statistics/data sources. The most important ones are listed in table 2. For an overview of all sources, please refer to the publications connected with these.

Table 2. Main data sources in the waste accounts.

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data. One of the main intentions with waste accounts is to build upon already existing data sources, like register data and statistics.

However it is still beeing collected some data from the recovery industry, This is numbers for treatment of special material fractions and types (for instance plastic packaging, WEEE and more). This extra numbers is used in the calculations of treatment numbers for the different material types. We also hope in the future to be able to have separate surveys for the sectors where we now have old and somewhat lacking data, but where we now have not been able to collect data because we assume that the numbers are quite small. This is true for some of the materials from the sectors A, D and E.

In the data collection for the statistics on waste from the service industry , customer registers from several waste handlers are collected. These registers contain among other data treatment and waste amounts data. This treatment data is used together with other sources for the treatment to calculate treatment for all the material types.

The different waste statistics of Statistics Norway making part of the waste account use different methods of data collection. Samples and methods of data collections of waste accounts are presented in table 3. For the remaining statistics and sources, please refer to other publications.

Table 3. Samples and data collection in the waste statistics forming the micro data of the waste accounts.

Revision carried out in connection with waste accounts may be divided into two steps:

• Revision of the different basic statistics
• Revision in connection with the compilation of the account

1. Revision of the basic statistics: The possibility for revision of basic statistics varies depending on the data collection methods in use. It also depends on which institution being responsible for the data collection. The statistics on household waste, industrial waste, waste handling and hazardous waste treatment is revised mainly through the following techniques:

• Automatic controls in the electronic forms, for example numerical limits and logical controls.
• Comparison with previous reported figures for municipalities and enterprises.
• Comparison with country average and comparable municipalities and enterprises.
• Collection of missing/insufficient information.
• Direct contact with municipalities/enterprises regarding errors or cases of doubt, which cannot readily be corrected internally in Statistics Norway.

Several revision controls are carried out automatically by computer-based applications.

The micro data concerning the service industries are based on customer registers from waste collectors. Revision of these includes identifying the establishments and connecting them to the Business register, and calculating the amount of waste per employee for each establishment as a basis for identifying outliers. No corrections are made in the micro data, but some industries delivering other establishments’ waste (transport, real estate activities, etc.) are excluded from the survey.

External sources are checked for errors or shortcomings in the following way:

• Units and values are checked against previous reference years of the same data source.
• Register units are checked automatically and manually against the Business register in Statistics Norway.
• Reported values are checked against values normally to be expected.
• Reported values are compared to values of comparable units for example assessed by size of enterprises (number of employees or turnover).

Corrections are made in copies of original fils or separat correction files. Moreover, information originating directly from other statistical sources is covered by revision routines performed by the unit responsible for the statistics or data.

2. Revision in connection with the compilation of the waste accounts: Compilation of the different basic statistics, summed up into one single account, may reveal inconsistencies in any of the underlying statistics. In addition, shortcomings in the account, not covered by the available basic statistics, must also be incorporated. This applies to both specific years and parts of the account.

These tasks are mainly carried out by the following techniques: * By returning back to the original information source, deviations of values in different substatistics can be checked again. Then, the most credible value is chosen.

• Incomplete time series and deficiencies are interpolated. Alternatively, using for example gross product (value added), production value (output) or number of employees as an auxiliary variable, deficiencies may be amended.
• Time series are extended by extrapolation using an auxiliary variable.

Similar techniques are utilized also in the compilation of the different waste statistics. For further details, please refer to the associated publications.

In compiling the waste accounts, all available waste statistics and other statistics, factors, etc. that may derive to waste statistics are collected and compiled. Please refer to the different waste statistics for further details.

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

This version of the about statistics is valid from year 2012. For versions describing the methodology used prior to 2012, go via an earlier publication.

One of the goals with the waste accounts is to follow the waste amounts over time. Therefore, it has been emphasized to make the account comparable in time. Therefore, until the year 2010, all reference years were revised when the waste accounts were updated. This is not happening anymore. There are several reasons for this, one is a great change in methodology from year 2012 and another is that many sources for the statistics do not have numbers for earlier years.

From the publication in 2012, the waste types are also different and many more than before and mixed waste is no longer separated onto its different material types. By including more material types like park and garden waste, mixed waste, WEEE, discarded vehicles and cinders, dust, bottom ash and fly ash, the waste amounts on many of the other categories are smaller than before.

Comparison of waste statistics in different countries may be problematic, because of dissimilar set of definitions etc. This applies especially to waste totals, depending on what's been included in the different countries. The same applies to waste divided into different sources. The semi-annual reporting to Eurostat, pursuant to Regulation No 2150/2002 on waste statistics, is believed to have improved this situation. A detailed description of this reporting is to be given in a comprehensive quality report, which is also reported.

When publishing numbers for 2023, new figures on Waste from Industry and Waste from Service Industries for 2022 have been published as well. The total waste amounts (excluding contaminated masses) then decreased from 12.1 to 11.9 million tons.

Data sources in the Waste account include both data based on reported information from businesses, enterprises or households, and data from registers. In addition, standard factors from selected studies have also been employed. A comprehensive description of errors and uncertainties of the different waste statistics entering the Waste Accounts is given in report 98/3, 2000/8, 2000/12, 2000/15, 2001/38, note 99/10 and NOS C625.

In the waste accounts, estimates are required in parts with originally inadequate data. In these cases, the figures are generated either from residual calculations (difference between known quantities) or imputation of numbers based on different estimation techniques. In such cases, uncertainty can exceed that found in the individual sources. For the year 2012 and forward, this is valid especially for waste from the sources A, D and E and also B. Here the numbers are either estimated or lacking some sources. That is true for instance for plastics from the fisheries and from the source B, the mining and quarrying industry, where the numbers mainly are from the quarrying industry. The waste amounts from these sources are rather small compared to the totals and therefore it has not been prioritized to collect more data.

Numbers for the manufacturing industry are also considered to be somewhat uncertain. The last big survey was done by Statistics Norway in 2015. The numbers for the years 2012-2014 and 2016 are therefor calculated based on those businesses that have to report waste numbers to the Norwegian Envoronment Agency. These numbers together with changes in turnover are used to calculate a change in numbers between 2008 and this year. This change is applied to the 2015 Statistics Norway numbers. We see that the numbers from the businesses own reporting to the Norwegian Envoronment Agancy are of very variable quality. Some waste fractions are missing and others are wrong. Before using the numbers it has therefore been carried out both a manual and an automatic revision of the numbers.

The external trade statistics (ETS) build on custom registrations, covering all import and export except shipments below the threshold value of 1,000 NOK. We believe that this source of error is unsignificant in the waste account. However, the threshold value would lead to incomplete estimations of transboundary movement of waste based on the ETS could for several waste streams.

It is hard to quantify uncertainty of the waste account as a whole, mainly because the uncertainties of the different subaccounts differ markedly. The account is structured in a way that allows the relatively uncertain parts to be separated from the more certain ones. Thus, it is possible to take uncertainty into account by using either subtotals or totals.

A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.

Revisions in previously published seasonally adjusted figures can take place when new observations (or revised previous observations) are included in the basis of calculation. The scope of the revision is usually greatest in the most relevant part (last 1–2 years) of seasonally adjusted time series. A corresponding revision in trends is also typical, particularly at the end of the time series. The extent of the revision of trends and seasonally adjusted figures is partly determined by the revision policy, see Section 4 of the European Statistical System (ESS) Guidelines on Seasonal Adjustment on the Eurostat website. For more information on the revision of seasonally adjusted figures, see the ‘About seasonal adjustment’ section in the relevant statistics.