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Statistics on the Collection and Treatment of Waste

• 1Contact
  • 1.1Contact organisation
    National Statistics Institute of Spain
    
  • 1.5Contact mail address

    Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid

    
    
• 2Metadata update
  • 2.1Metadata last certified
    12/11/2024
  • 2.2Metadata last posted
    23/11/2022
  • 2.3Metadata last update
    12/11/2024
• 3Statistical presentation
  • 3.1Data description

    The main objective of the survey on the collection and treatment of waste is to quantify, in physical units, the urban waste collected and the final treatment of both urban and non-urban waste, by treatment operation. Thus, of the total amounts treated for each waste category, this ascertains what amount corresponds to each of the treatment operations considered.

    Other additional objectives of the survey are the following:

    -To meet the needs of European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) 2150/2002, of 25 November, regarding waste statistics.

    -To complete the waste section in the joint OECD/Eurostat questionnaire.

    -To have entry information available for compiling the waste satellite accounts.

  • 3.2Classification system
    • Clasificaciones utilizadas

      Waste is classified according to the Statistical Classification of Waste (EWC-Stat, V.4) and the European Waste List (EWL). Correspondence between both may be viewed at the following link:

      
      
      

      https://www.ine.es/en/daco/daco42/resiurba/equivalencias_en.pdf

      
      
      

      Correspondence CER/LER:  http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ES/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32010R0849&from=ES

      
      
      

      The treatment operations are classified as follows: incineration (with and without energy recovery), recovery operations (except recycling of waste in the place it was generated) and dumping.

  • 3.3Sector coverage

    The survey targets all those companies that cary out urban waste collection and/or waste treatment, regardless of whether it has an urban origin or not, independently from the CNAE scope.

  • 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
    • Backfilling Operations
      Valuation operation consisting of the use of waste in excavated areas (such as mines or quarries) for reclaiming slopes (earthworks), safety or for engineering work in landscaping and where waste replaces other materials (not regarded as waste) that would have had to have been used for that same purpose. This operation includes the use of waste for filling in mines and quarries and replanting, land reclamation or landscaping.
    • Collection
      Operation consisting of the collection of waste, including initial classification and storage for transporting it to a treatment facility.
    • Company
      The company is the smallest combination of legal units that is an organizational unit producing goods or
      services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the
      allocation of its current resources. A company carries out one or more activities at one or more
      locations. A company may be a sole legal unit.
    • Disposal
      This encompasses deposits on or within the soil, discharges in specially designed places (e.g. inert, non-hazardous and hazardous waste dumps), permanent storage, environmental treatment, deep injection, and dumping in water. Disposal operations with codes D1 to D7 and D12 of annex I of Law 22/2011 are included.
    • European Waste Catalogue (EWC)
      This is a waste listing standardised to a European level. This waste is classified using six-digit codes for the waste, and four and two figures for subchapters and chapters, respectively. The chapters and subchapters define the types of activity that generate the waste.
    • Hazardous waste
      Means waste which displays one or more of the hazardous properties listed in Annex III of the present directive;
    • Incineration (with or without energy recovery)
      This encompasses waste used at incinerators or co-incineration plants as a fuel for generating energy, and those whose main purpose is heat treaing waste in order to reduce the volume and hazardousness thereof, and in order to obtain an inert product that can be disposed of.
    • Municipal waste
      Those taken from collection in the urban scope, which are the juridiction of local institutions or Autonomous Delegations, where applicable, and that comprise the following categories are considered as such: metals, glass, paper and card, plastic, wood, textiles, discarded equipment, batteries and accumulators, animals and mixed food products, vegetables, domestic and the like, other mineral waste and soils.
    • Non-hazardous waste
      All waste not included as hazardous waste.
    • Preparation for re-use
      Checking, cleaning or repairing recovery operations, by which products or components of products that have become waste are prepared so that they can be re-used without any other pre-processing.
    • Reclamation operations
      (including recycling, compost and regeneration). This encompasses all valuation operations by means of which waste is re-transformed into products, materials or substances, albeit with the original purpose or any other purpose. This includes valuation operations with codes R2 to R11 of annex II of Law 22/2011, and excludes backfilling operations.
    • Separate collection
      Collection in which a waste flow is kept separate, according to its type and nature, in order to facilitate a specific treatment.
    • Statistical Waste Classification (SWC codes)
      This is a nomenclature for waste for statistical purposes, directed at substances, with categories encoded from 1 to 4 digits from highest to lowest breakdown level, and with an additional distinction of whether or not the waste is hazardous.
    • Treatment
      Valuation or removal operations, including preparation for valuation or removal.
    • UGER
      Ad-hoc stastical unit, known as UGER and defined by crossing Tax identification Number / Autonomous Community, such that each UGER consists of all establishments managed under one Tax identification Number (company) in an Autonomous Community. Otherwise, for each company with a licence to manage waste, there would be as many UGERs as Autonomous Communities where it has establishments under its direct control.
    • Urban waste
      Household waste generated in households, businesses and services for which local institutions, or Autonomous Delegations where applicable, have to provide as a compulsory service the collection, transport and treatment. Moreover, localo institutions may manage non-hazardous commercial waste and household waste generated in industry. These task are performed as set out by their respective regulations within in the legal framework of the provisions of this Law 22/2011, whereby, where applicable, the Autonomous Communities and regulations of the sector pass judgment regarding extended responsibility of the producer.
    • Waste
      Means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard.
  • 3.5Statistical unit

    The UGER statistical unit is used for this survey.

    The company corresponds to an organisational unit of production of goods and services, which has a certain autonomy in decision-making, mainly when using the current resources it has available. The company carries out one or more activities at one or more locations.

  • 3.6Statistical population

    This studies the population of all of the UGERs that carry out the collection of urban waste and treatment of waste, regardless of whether they are of an urban origin or not, independently of the CNAE scope.

  • 3.7Reference area

    The entire national territory

  • 3.8Time coverage

    This survey is continuous, and it is conducted annually.

  • 3.9Base period

    2010: adaptation to the new Statistical Classification of Waste (EWC-Stat. rev.4).

• 4Unit of measure
  • 4.1Unit of measure

    Tons

• 5Reference period
  • 5.1Reference period

    The data refers to the target calendar year of the statistics.

    Data referred to the period: Anual A: 2022

• 6Institutional mandate
  • 6.1Legal acts and other agreements

    The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15  December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).

    
    

    The statistics on the collection and treatment of waste are within the framework of the 8113 - "Statistics on the Collection and Treatment of Waste" statistical operation from the 2021-2024 National Statistical Plan. Regulation (EC) 2150/2002 on waste statistics (https://www.ine.es/normativa/leyes/UE/minine.htm#30079) is applied only in even reference years.

  • 6.2Data sharing
    The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.
    

    The microdata is provided to the Autonomous Communities that request it

• 7Confidentiality
  • 7.1Confidentiality - policy

    The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society

    
    
  • 7.2Confidentiality - data treatment
    INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
    

    The data on the collection of urban waste is published by Autonomous Community (except that relating to Ceuta and Melilla), and the waste treatment data is published on a national level, broken down by type of treatment operation.

• 8Release policy
  • 8.1Release calendar

    The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.

    
    
  • 8.2Release calendar access

    The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)

    
    
  • 8.3User access

    The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice

    
    
• 9Frequency of dissemination
  • 9.1Frequency of dissemination

    The data is disseminated annually.

• 10Accessibility and clarity
  • 10.1News release

    The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web

    
    
  • 10.2Publications

    The results are published in INEbase.

  • 10.3On-line database

    INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.

    
    

    Access to results tables and series in INEbase / Physical area and the environment / Environmental statistics:

    https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736176844&menu=ultiDatos&idp=1254735976612

     

  • 10.4Micro-data access
    A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section
    

    The anonymised microdata file can only be provided via specific request; once the viability of the request is analysed, access is granted to the information under strict confidentiality conditions.

  • 10.5Other

    There is the possibility of requesting customised information from the INE Customer Service Area:

    https://www.ine.es/en/prodyser/informacion  

    or: https://www.ine.es/infoine/?L=1 

    Limitations to confidentiality or precision are borne in mind at the time of processing said requests.

  • 10.6Documentation on methodology

    A detailed description may be viewed at:

    https://www.ine.es/en/daco/daco42/resiurba/notaresi_en.pdf

    http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-RA-10-011

     

  • 10.7Quality documentation

    The European Commission (Eurostat) assesses the quality of the transmitted data, and publishes reports on the quality of European statistics, by virtue of Commission regulation 2005/0782R and European Parliament and Council Regulation 2005/1445R (https://www.ine.es/normativa/leyes/UE/minine.htm#30079).

    For even reference years, this responsible department compiles and sends Eurostat the required quality report relating to the statistics on waste generation, treatment and facilities. The quality reports that the Member States send to Eurostat are made public.

    https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/env_wasgt_esms.htm

    The information relating to the quality of this statistical operation is described in points 10.6 to 17 of this document

     

• 11Quality management
  • 11.1Quality assurance

    Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.

    
    

    Validation rules have been programmed by the Collection Units (URCEs) so as to filter the data inserted by the respondent. Once the data has reached the responsible department, it is subjected to the micro- and macrofiltering controls, making sure not to introduce errors in the data treatment, and the regular measures to correct non-response (total and partial) are applied.

  • 11.2Quality assessment

    It is considered that the samples are sufficiently representative of the target population at the national level. Given that the survey framework is not within the scope of the CNAE, each year, the responsible department updates the framework with the information from the CBR relating to division 38 of CNAE-2009, and with the information corresponding to registrations of waste management companies sent by the Autonomous Communities.

    The microdata is subjected to interannual comparison criteria, as well as its contrast with external sources, when available. Efforts are made to avoid introducing errors in the treatment, and eventually, an adjustment is performed with the generation data, in order to guarantee internal coherence.

• 12Relevance
  • 12.1User needs

    Regular users include the following:

    - Economy and Environmental University departments

    - Companies from the waste treatment sector and public institutions related to it

    - Public Administrations (Ministries and regional environmental boards).

    These users require data regarding the treatment of a subset of the waste categories studied, by waste category and treatment operation, on a national level. This information requirement is met in most cases, except in those cases in which the interest of the user is centred on waste categories with a breakdown level that is greater than that offered.

    Another exception to this rule are the regional environmental boards, whose interest lies in the treatment of specific waste categories on the scale of their Autonomous Community. This information requirement cannot be met, as the sample sizes do not allow a regional breakdown for the final treatment results.

    As long as possible, the information requested by users is made available to them, safeguarding statistical confidentiality.

  • 12.2User satisfaction

    The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013,  2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...

    On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click  next link)

     

    
    

    Recurrent queries by the aforementioned users, as well as their suggestions in terms of publication formats, demonstrate that this responsible department fully meets their needs.

  • 12.3Completeness

    For odd reference year (e.g., not subject to the waste statistics regulation), on there not being a data requirement, the R1 variable does not apply.

    For even reference year (e.g., subject to the waste statistics regulation), this responsible department sends Eurostat complete information regarding all of the required variables. Therefore, (R1) = 100%

• 13Accuracy and reliability
  • 13.1Overall accuracy

    The survey researches all of the authorised waste management companies that carry out urban waste collection operations and/or waste treatment operations. The different survey processes are aimed at reducing the errors thereof, both in the collection phase (response rate and filtering control) and in the subsequent editing and imputation phases.

    The urban waste collection data, for some waste categories (mixed domestic waste, glass, paper and cardboard, animal and vegetable waste) come from administrative registers supplied by the Ministry for Ecological Transition, and therefore, in said cases, sampling-related errors would not exist.

  • 13.2Sampling error

    A1: Variation coefficient = Not applicable (See 18.1)

  • 13.3Non-sampling error

    The updating process of the framework (18.1) allows controlling the coverage and duplicate problems, and the correction of non-response is supported by the recalculation of the elevation factors (in those strata where it is appropriate). Particular emphasis is placed on detecting and correcting errors in the measurement units (kilos versus tonnes). This turns to recontact or imputation for partial non-response.

    A4 (Non-response rate) = 11.20%

    A2 = 16.48%

    A7 = 1.33%

• 14Timeliness and punctuality
  • 14.1Timeliness

    The data from the statistics are submitted to Eurostat biennially, within a term t+18 following the end of the reference year of the information. The mailing of data corresponds to even years.

    The data in INEbase is disseminated annually, within the 22-month term after the end of the reference year of the information.

    TP2 =  23 moths

  • 14.2Punctuality

    The data is disseminated in accordance with the INE structural statistics availability calendar.

• 15Coherence and Comparability
  • 15.1Comparability - geographical

    Regulation 2150/2002 is strictly applied -whether or not submitting data to Eurostat is compulsory-, which guarantees the comparability of the data treated (estimated only on a regional level) with other countries that have conducted this survey in odd years.

    It only offers regional data regarding the collection of urban waste, and on the per capita indicators derived therefrom. Only part of this data comes from the survey, and the regional comparability thereof is ensured. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition provides the rest of the the data, which in turn, come from the regional environmental boards. In this second case, it is only possible to guarantee regional comparability to the extent that the different Autonomous Communities use homogeneous methodological guidelines for the data collection.

     

  • 15.2Comparability - over time

    The statistics are compiled annually.

    In recent years, the INE has included improvements regarding final waste treatment, through the use of external sources, though in general, the continuous application of the methodology in the survey, as well as the homogeneity in the tabulations, guarantees comparability over time.

    Nevertheless, there have been two breaks in the series: one related to the change of CNAE (to be applied to the data from 2008 onwards) and another one to the entry into force of the amendments to regulation 2150/2002 (from 2010 onwards).

    Number of comparable elements of the time series as of the last break:

    CC2  = 12

  • 15.3Coherence - cross domain

    After computing the final estimates of the different treatment operations, for certain waste categories, an adjustment is performed with the respective generation data, for the purpose of correcting the limitations of the survey framework. In this way, the possible lack of internal coherence between generation and treatment is corrected. By virtue of the partnership agreements with the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, coherence with the data provided by this institution is ensured.

    Given the special singularity of the researched variables (waste generated and treated), in physical terms, the difference in coherence with other variables researched by the INE or other external sources is not immediate. Nevertheless, similarity comparisons are carried out on the evolution patterns of the economic variables by activity sector.

  • 15.4Coherence - internal

    Coherence is a fundamental matter, both in the planning of the survey methodology, and in all of its preparation process. The coherence between the variables is contrasted in all phases of the statistical process.

    These statistics are coherent at an internal level. The annual results of all variables are consistent amongst themselves, and with the available annual series

• 16Cost and burden
  • 16.1Cost and burden

    For the purpose of reducing the response burden of respondent units, the completion of the questionnaires is facilitated for some large business groups, making the contacts directly from the department responsible for the survey, rather than doing so from the Subdirectorate General for Data Collection.

    Moreover, the design and selection of the sample are coordinated with other surveys, for the purpose of reducing, as much as possible, the overburden of certain respondent units that would be derived from the completion of several surveys in the same year. The sample size and the extension of the questionnaires are reduced to the essential minimum.

    Emphasis is placed on online completion, so as to improve the quality of the responses. Respondents have other response channels (print questionnaire by post, fax, electronic questionnaire).

    The estimation of the budgetary credit necessary to finance the Statistics on the Collection and Treatment of Waste set out in the 2024 Annual Programme comes to a total of 300.82 thousand euros.

• 17Data revision
  • 17.1Data revision - policy

    The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).

    This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow:  routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.

    
    

    There is no data revision. Only the final data is published.

    Revisions are performed subsequent to the publication, providing that errors are detected.

  • 17.2Data revision - practice

    In practice, provisional data can be published and, if possible errors are detected, disseminated definitively later on with those possible errors corrected.

• 18Statistical processing
  • 18.1Source data

    As a reference framework, this uses the Central Business Register (CBR), the registrations of authorised waste management companies from the Autonomous Communities and the valid records of the survey from the previous reference year. From the framework thus constructed, this studies the entirety of the units managing hazardous waste, and the entirety of the waste management companies for the treatment of non-hazardous waste with more than 5 employees in the company, and a random sample of those that are smaller than that size, except units with an undefined activity or an activity that is impossible to identify in the CBR.

    With regard to the units in charge of collecting urban waste, the theoretical sample of waste management companies is obtained by selecting a quota within the strata, by the size of the population served, in order to cover at least 70% of the population in the Autonomous Community. Once a unit is selected, the waste collected in all the municipalities it services is studied, regardless of size. These certainly include those waste management companies that service municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, and practically the entirety of those with more than 20,000 inhabitants, as well as a representation of the rest of the municipal sizes.

    The data on urban waste collection, for some waste categories (mixed domestic waste, glass, paper and cardboard, animal and vegetable waste)comes from administrative registers supplied by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition. The estimates for the remaining categories come from the aforementioned survey.

    The waste treatment data obtained is based on a direct sampling survey.

  • 18.2Frequency of data collection

    The data collection is annual.

    For reference year t, the collection is carried out from September to December of year t+1.

  • 18.3Data collection

    There is a single questionnaire, whose sections must be filled in by the respondent unit with the amounts of urban waste collected and/or the amounts of waste treated, whether urban or non-urban, by type of operation. The quantities are reported in tonnes.

    The information collection is performed by mailing the questionnaire by post and telephone support. Respondents are also offered the possibility of completing the questionnaire online and by fax. The questionnaire is sent to all businesses in the sample. Together with the questionnaire, in each mailing, the respondent units receive the rules for completing the questionnaire, including the equivalence tables between the Statistical Classification of Waste (EWC-Stat, V.4) and European Waste List (EWL) classifications.

    The collection tasks are supplemented by telephoning those businesses that have not returned the questionnaire by the deadline, for the purpose of requesting the information, advising them if necessary and obtaining the completed questionnaire. Support tasks for the collection are also carried out, such as updates to the directory, and the control and revision of the questionnaires.

  • 18.4Data validation

    Firstly, atypical data is controlled based on the appropriate ratios. After re-contacting the respondents by telephone, the data that is finally confirmed is applied the standard statistical control techniques for atypical data. Interannual variations are analysed on both a microdata level and a level for each category of generated waste in each treatment operation. The corresponding re-call processes are carried out. Where possible, the estimates obtained are compared with the data coming from external sources, and the causes for the possible disparities are researched, in order to carry out the necessary adjustments.

    Information coverage procedures are carried out in order to detect duplicates and coverage errors, and to carry out a first assessment of the quality of the variables included in the questionnaires.

  • 18.5Data compilation

    Once the microdata file is available, errors and inconsistencies are detected in the identification variables from each record, and different phases of content error filtering and imputation are carried out (partial non-response). Subsequently, the tables that allow detecting and analysing errors and inconsistencies are compiled.

  • 18.6Adjustment

    In certain waste categories for which the framework of authorised waste management companies does not obtain all of the treatment operations, the necessary calibrations are performed with waste generation data from external sources.

    No adjustments are carried out as a time series.

• 19Comment
  • 19.1Comment