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Municipal waste. Selective collection. Counties and Aran, and areas

Municipal waste. Selective collection. Counties and Aran, and areas Catalonia
Glass Paper and cardboard Lightweight plastic and metal packaging Organic material Pruning & gardening Heavy waste and wood Others (1) Total
2021 189,716 412,681 185,259 440,206 116,830 283,233 252,672 1,880,596
2020 184,100 411,527 184,274 421,212 123,152 267,373 232,461 1,824,099
2019 203,329 405,667 165,678 439,968 97,348 268,589 236,345 1,816,924
2018 190,690 314,321 158,520 414,905 103,382 248,979 228,416 1,659,213
2017 181,377 296,075 145,790 385,786 97,256 226,699 202,797 1,535,780
2016 166,267 263,688 139,245 378,150 94,018 212,469 186,872 1,440,708
2015 158,878 298,134 134,011 380,110 100,723 190,404 179,746 1,442,005
Units: Tons.
Source: Agència de Residus de Catalunya.
Note: (1) Includes selective collection of other municipal waste: batteries, medicines, textiles and other household waste.

Last update: April 19, 2023.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Selective collection
Differentiated collection of fermentable organic materials and recyclable materials, and any other system of differentiated collection that enables the separation of useful materials contained in waste.
Municipal waste
Domestic waste and waste from shops, services, offices and other waste that, due to its nature or composition, may be similar to domestic waste.

Methodological aspects

The European Union indicates that one of the areas of political action is waste management, in accordance with the basic principles of generating the minimum amount and managing it efficiently.

The availability of regular, representative and reliable data on the generation, collection and treatment of waste provides information describing the situation and state of waste, as well as making comparison between different territories possible.

The Catalan Waste Agency publishes annual data on the generation of municipal waste, on the basis of data provided by different local entities responsible for the collection and treatment of municipal waste.

From 2003, including for the calculation of generation per capita, the registered population has been used. In 2002, the Population and Housing Census 2001 was used, and in 2001 and 2000 the Population Statistics 1996 were used. Note that the seasonal tourist population supported by some municipalities has a higher generation of waste per capita.

In terms of selective collection, the difference between the total from adding the geographic partials (counties and areas of the territorial plan) and the total published for Catalonia is due to the existence of commercial waste that cannot be attributed to specific territories. The "Others" category includes waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), batteries, medications, textiles, rubble and other special waste. Home composting, which was considered for the first time in 2012, has been included in the "Organic Material" category.

Provisional data.

Unavailable information is represented using the symbol ":". When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".