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