Average solid waste generated per household has decreased by 4.2 per cent
compared to a decade ago, according to a survey conducted for the NSO.

It said today that the daily average household waste is 0.68 kilogrammes per capita,
unchanged since the last survey held in 2002.

On the other hand, the average solid waste generated per household daily went down by 4.2 per cent to 2.17 kilogrammes when compared to 2002.

The volume of household waste is is highest on Mondays, gradually decreasing over the subsequent weekdays. This occurs since household waste collected during the first part of the week includes waste generated over the weekend.

Food remains made up over 50 per cent of the daily household waste generation in all survey weeks. This was followed by recyclable materials, of which paper
and cardboard formed the dominant category. In all, recyclable material made up 38.4 per cent of total waste generated by households, up by 8.3 percentage points over 2002.

A comparison of the 2002 and 2011/2012 waste composition averages showed that the share of paper and cardboard went up most, by 4.9 percentage points from 12.7 to 17.6 per cent.

Plastic and glass waste fractions increased by 2.0 and 1.5 percentage points respectively, while the metals component remained stable. On the other hand, the food remains fraction declined by 7.5 percentage points to 52.1 per cent of household waste.

Additionally, the share of hazardous waste declined by 2.3 percentage points and that of textiles by 1.1 percentage points.