Waste production

Waste production remained stable in 2020

Environment
Waste production remained stable in 2020

In 2020, 68 million tonnes of waste have been produced in Belgium. This is a stagnation compared to 2018.

Increases in waste production from agriculture (+15%), households (+9%) and industry (+7%) were offset by decreases of 21% and 9% respectively in the service and construction sectors.

Industry is the sector producing the most waste with 37 million tonnes followed by construction (20 million tonnes) and households (5.3 million tonnes).

Table 1
Content
Waste production by economic activity in Belgium (2004-2020, in tonne)n) 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Total 53,013,275 59,294,999 48,615,551 61,323,320 53,839,470 57,965,403 63,152,377 67,429,779 68,061,760
Construction 11,051,218 13,089,649 15,441,861 16,852,662 17,132,769 18,347,259 19,573,149 22,658,151 20,727,780
Services 8,971,810 9,959,475 5,023,641 6,697,911 4,635,229 4,840,455 5,403,172 4,850,496 3,816,533
Households 5,337,002 4,745,162 4,459,161 5,865,753 5,294,743 5,419,043 5,041,208 4,885,123 5,342,388
Industry 26,466,600 31,138,888 23,409,597 31,707,672 26,611,266 29,046,813 32,865,656 34,778,422 37,757,757
Agriculture 1,186,645 361,825 281,291 199,322 165,462 311,833 269,192 257,587 417,301
Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics - Statistics Belgium) based on surveys, administrative data (OVAM, IBGE-BIM, DGARNE) and models.
More info and data: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/waste/data
Table 2
Content
Waste production per type in Belgium (2004-2020, in tonne) 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Total 53,013,274 59,294,999 48,615,551 61,323,320 53,839,470 57,965,403 63,152,377 67,429,779 68,061,760
Discarded equipment, batteries and vehicles 393,690 561,371 601,241 613,381 586,277 594,570 601,722 608,269 711,920
Chemical waste 2,321,340 1,533,581 1,261,224 1,242,321 1,399,226 1,306,914 1,569,842 1,735,627 1,560,911
Glass 558,947 749,443 691,768 1,028,468 897,699 1,110,497 1,197,742 1,277,398 1,714,351
Wood 2,041,821 1,796,909 1,572,776 2,820,175 2,980,026 3,382,032 3,723,370 3,956,126 4,148,524
Household waste 6,468,087 5,019,784 3,608,476 3,835,660 3,816,887 4,111,683 3,889,514 4,211,739 4,648,978
Metal waste 2,339,926 5,602,560 3,931,266 6,804,239 3,371,153 3,116,369 3,331,534 3,395,379 3,460,701
Mineral waste 16,469,409 24,466,641 19,068,072 18,675,216 18,342,580 19,095,114 21,620,959 24,583,667 23,963,102
Other 927,932 3,625,544 1,331,924 4,019,059 1,622,487 1,328,651 1,484,987 1,747,565 2,112,330
Paper and cardboard 3,114,551 4,523,967 3,542,574 4,325,031 3,922,146 4,273,142 3,580,661 3,380,865 3,940,453
Vegetable and animal waste 6,887,338 4,389,886 4,259,441 4,795,530 4,979,570 5,654,086 6,726,240 8,733,209 8,961,630
Plastic waste 1,332,559 631,508 1,074,910 716,164 651,774 1,395,460 715,624 745,450 994,897
Sorting waste 922,952 1,118,251 884,209 1,517,065 1,439,652 1,550,342 2,206,244 2,214,981 2,356,312
Textile 106,767 626,808 166,129 257,221 175,441 206,022 169,949 199,456 179,604
Combustion waste 5,482,292 2,927,243 1,764,554 2,135,207 3,862,168 4,231,490 6,126,625 4,243,150 3,123,516
Contaminated soil, common sludge and dredging spoil 3,645,663 1,721,503 4,856,988 8,538,583 5,792,385 6,609,033 6,207,363 6,396,897 6,184,530
Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics - Statistics Belgium) based on surveys, administrative data (OVAM, IBGE-BIM, DGARNE) and models.
More info and data: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/waste/data

Survey on waste

Purpose and brief description

Waste statistics cover all production and processing of waste in Belgium. This concerns industry, agriculture, households, services and waste management enterprises. Obviously, not everyone is surveyed. By means of samples, administrative sources and models, the administrative burden on enterprises is kept to a minimum.

Periodicity

Biennial.

Population

Survey among enterprises.

Metadata

Waste survey.pdf