Definition: Municipal waste

Category: Environment

Municipal waste includes household waste and similar waste. 

The definition also includes:
- bulky waste (e.g. white goods, old furniture, mattresses); 
- yard waste, leaves, grass clippings, street sweepings, the content of litter containers, and market cleansing waste, if managed as waste.

It includes waste originating from:
- households,
- commerce and trade, small businesses, office buildings and institutions (schools, hospitals, government buildings).

It also includes:
- waste from selected municipal services, i.e. waste from park and garden maintenance, waste from street cleaning services (street sweepings, the content of litter containers, market cleansing waste).
if managed as waste.

It includes waste from these sources collected:
- door-to-door through traditional collection (mixed household waste), and
- fractions collected separately for recovery operations (through door-to-door collection and/or through voluntary deposits).

For the purpose of this questionnaire, municipal waste refers to waste defined as above, collected by or on behalf of municipalities.

The definition also includes waste from the same sources and similar in nature and composition which:
- are collected directly by the private sector (business or private non-profit institutions) not on behalf of municipalities (mainly separate collection for recovery purposes),
- originate from rural areas not served by a regular waste service, even if they are disposed by the generator.

Household like waste generated by sectors not covered by the definition of municipal waste, should be reported under the respective sectors of table 1.

The definition excludes:
- waste from municipal sewage network and treatment,
- municipal construction and demolition waste.