Indicator 11.6.1 Proportion of municipal solid waste collected and managed in controlled facilities out of total municipal waste generated, by cities

Indicator 11.6.1: Proportion of municipal solid waste collected and managed in controlled facilities out of total municipal waste generated, by cities

Target 11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management

UN-Habitat, UNSD

Definition:

SDG 11.6 targets an improved environmental performance of cities and SDG indicator 11.6.1 measures the progress of the performance of a city’s municipal solid waste management. It quantifies the parameters listed below, which are essential for planning and implementing sustainable Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). In most cases, these variables are generally compatible with those collected through the UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire on Environment Statistics (waste section).

1. Total MSW generated in the city (tonnes/day)
2. Total MSW collected in the city (tonnes/day)
3. Proportion of population with access to basic MSW collection services in the city (%)
4. Total MSW managed in controlled facilities in the city (tonnes/day)
5. MSW composition

It is important to realize that part (b) total MSW collected and (c) proportion of the population with access to basic MSW collection services are two different concepts. While part (b) refers to amounts of waste reaching waste management facilities, part (c) considers the population who receive waste collection services. In some cities it is common to dump waste ‘collected’ from households into the surrounding areas instead of transporting it to a disposal or recovery facility. In this case the household has waste collection services, but the collected waste is polluting the environment. Therefore, it is possible that a city has a high proportion of population with access to basic waste collection services, but the amount of MSW collected and transported to waste management facilities is low.

Although part (c) is covered by SDG 1 (“End poverty in all its forms everywhere”), under target 1.4 and SDG indicator 1.4.1 which focuses on universal access to basic services, with a particular emphasis on poor and vulnerable groups, this document provides guidelines, quality ladders and household questionnaires to measure the proportion of the population with access to ‘basic’ MSW collection services. The household questionnaire can be integrated into the national census or global household survey mechanism such as Demographic and Health Survey or UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. Due to the lack of standardized concepts and definitions that differentiate these two concepts, many cities report the proportion of collected MSW in their own terms. Therefore, this metadata distinguishes clearly between part (b) and (c) and offers introduction to the approaches to monitor and report on part (c).

Concepts:

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

Municipal Solid Waste includes waste generated from: households, commerce and trade, small businesses, office buildings and institutions (schools, hospitals, government buildings). It also includes bulky waste (e.g. white goods, old furniture, mattresses) and waste from selected municipal services, e.g. 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. The definition excludes waste from municipal sewage network and treatment, municipal construction and demolition waste.

Generation

Total MSW Generated is the sum of the amount of municipal waste collected plus the estimated amount of municipal waste from areas not served by a municipal waste collection service.

Collection

Total MSW Collected refers to the amount of municipal waste collected by or on behalf of municipalities, as well as municipal waste collected by the private sector. It includes mixed waste, and fractions collected separately for recovery operations (through door-to-door collection and/or through voluntary deposits).

Figure 1: What MSW collected means for SDG indicator 11.6.1

The proportion of the population with Access to Basic MSW Collection Services is the proportion of the population who receive waste collection services that are either basic, improved or full, defined by the service ladder of MSW collection service. It considers aspects of frequency, regularity and proximity of the collection points (

Table 1). This aspect is measured under the SDG indicator 11.6.1 assessment but it is reported through a different indicator, SDG 1.4.1. on access to basic services.

Table 1: Ladder of MSW collection service that household receives

Recovery

Recovery means any operation the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy.

Recovery facilities include any facility with recovery activities defined above including recycling, composting, incineration with energy recovery, materials recovery facilities (MRF), mechanical biological treatment (MBT), etc.

Material Recovery Facility (MRF; or materials reclamation facility, materials recycling facility, multi re-use facility) is a specialized recovery facility that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to further processors or end-user manufacturers.

Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) facilities are a type of recovery facility that combines an MRF with a form of biological treatment such as composting or anaerobic digestion.

Incineration is the controlled combustion of waste with or without energy recovery.

Incineration with Energy Recovery is the controlled combustion of waste with energy recovery.

Recycling is defined under the UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire and further for the purpose of these indicators as “Any reprocessing of waste material in a production process that diverts it from the waste stream, except reuse as fuel. Both reprocessing as the same type of product, and for different purposes should be included. Recycling within industrial plants i.e., at the place of generation should be excluded.” For the purpose of consistency with the Basel Convention reporting and correspondence with EUROSTAT reporting system, Recovery operations R2 to R12 listed in Basel Convention Annex IV, are to be considered as ‘Recycling’ under the UNSD reporting for hazardous waste.

Recycling value chain usually involves several steps of the private recycling industry which purchase, process and trade materials from the point a recyclable material is extracted from the waste stream until it will be reprocessed into products, materials or substances that have market value. In many low and low-to-middle income countries, this involves informal waste pickers, many middlemen, traders, apex traders and end-of-chain recyclers.

Apex traders collect recyclable materials from different sources and suppliers (in different cities across municipal or even national boundaries) and supply them to different end-of-chain recyclers (sometimes after pre-processing such as sorting, washing and bailing).

End-of-chain recyclers purchase recyclable material from suppliers such as apex traders and reprocess it into products, materials, or substances that have market value.

Figure 2: Complexity in the recovery chain (plastic example)

Disposal

Disposal means any operation whose main purpose is not the recovery of materials or energy even if the operation has as a secondary consequence the reclamation of substances or energy.

Disposal Facilities refer to sites which are regularly used by the public authorities and private collectors, regardless of their level of control and legality, to dispose of waste. Such sites may or may not have an official recognition, a permit or a license. Disposal sites may be managed in either a controlled or uncontrolled manner. The definition excludes other unrecognized places where waste is deposited occasionally in small amounts which public authorities may organise clean ups to remove the waste from these sites.

Landfill is the deposit of waste into or onto land. It includes specially engineered landfill sites and temporary storage of over one year on permanent sites. The definition covers both landfills at internal sites, i.e. where a generator of waste is carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of generation, and at external sites.

Control level of MSW recovery and disposal facilities

MSW Managed in Controlled Facilities refers to MSW collected and transported to recovery and disposal facilities with basic, improved or full control according to the Ladder of waste management facilities’ control level (Table 2: Ladder of waste management facilities’ control level.Table 2). The Ladder can be used as a checklist for assessing the level of control of a particular recovery or disposal facility. The facility has the level of control, where it checks the most boxes. Note that the emphasis is on operational control rather than engineering/design. A facility that is constructed to a high standard, but not operated in compliance with Level 3 (or above) standard is not regarded as a controlled facility.

Table 2: Ladder of waste management facilities’ control level.

Formality of MSWM

The Formality of MSWM activities is an important aspect to take into consideration when conducting the SDG indicator 11.6.1 assessment. MSWM activities are carried out by formal and informal economic units, both public and private, and by generators for the purpose of prevention, collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of waste.

Formal waste management relates to waste management activities undertaken by units working within the context of the formal governmental or non-state actors regulating and operating waste management; that is, organisations or individuals registered as economic units with government authorities and assumed to generally abide by local laws and regulations related to wastes and their management.

Informal waste management, recycling and recovery refers to waste management and recovery activities undertaken by individuals, economic units, or enterprises which are not sponsored, financed, recognised, supported, organised or acknowledged by the formal solid waste authorities, or which operate in violation of or in competition with formal authorities (Scheinberg et al., 2010). Informal units are assumed to abide by local waste-related laws and regulations when it is in their interests to do so.

Proportion (Percentage)

Countries and cities/municipalities that have the data already are recommended to answer the UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire on Environment Statistics to provide the data related to SDG 11.6.1. For countries and municipalities/cities that do not have the data, it is recommended to apply UN-Habitat’s Waste Wise Cities Tool – Step by Step Guide to Assess a City’s MSMW Performance through SDG indicator 11.6.1 Monitoring.

Ministry of environment or equivalent agency to it, responsible for environmental protection and

National statistical offices. For the UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire on Environment Statistics (waste section), countries typically specify one of the above two institutions as the preferred focal point.

Collection of data for the indicator is very much possible as demonstrated by pilot data collection using UN-Habitat’s Waste Wise Cities Tool in Mombasa (see flow diagram), but continuous training and capacity development for tool application at city level will be required to strengthen the global waste statistics and improve its data quality. In general, developed countries have good Municipal solid waste data collection systems. Some of the best available data for middle and low income countries is available from UNSD, though it is relatively sporadic.^[1] In countries and cities where data availability is particularly challenging, household surveys and other complimentary surveys are being conducted for the estimation of municipal waste generation per capita. Also, the collection of the data, such as the amount of waste managed in controlled facilities, remains a challenge for many national and local governments. The judgement on the adequacy of treatment and disposal of all the waste management facilities, including composting, recycling, incineration facilities in a city, requires high level of technical capacity and large investment in human resources.

The numerator of this indicator is ‘total MSW collected and managed in controlled facilities(tonnes/day)’ and the denominator is ‘total municipal solid waste generated by the city (tonnes/day’).

SDG indicator 11.6.1 is calculated as follows:

$SDG\mathrm{\ }11.6.1\mathrm{\ }=\frac{\mathrm{T}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{M}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{c}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{a}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{m}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{c}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{f}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{\ }(\mathrm{t}/\mathrm{d}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{y})\mathrm{\ }}{Total\mathrm{\ }MSW\mathrm{\ }generated\mathrm{\ }(t/day)}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{\ }x\mathrm{\ }100\mathrm{\ }\left(\%\right)$

The calculation of SDG indicator 11.6.1. provides two important sub-categories with varying policy implications:

$SDG\mathrm{\ }11.6.1.category\mathrm{\ }a=\frac{\mathrm{T}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{M}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{c}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\ }(\mathrm{t}/\mathrm{d}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{y})}{Total\mathrm{\ }MSW\mathrm{\ }generated\mathrm{\ }(t/day)}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{\ }x\mathrm{\ }100\mathrm{\ }\left(\%\right)$

$SDG\mathrm{\ }11.6.1.category\mathrm{\ }b=\frac{\mathrm{T}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{M}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{m}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{c}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{f}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{\ }(\mathrm{t}/\mathrm{d}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{y})}{Total\mathrm{\ }MSW\mathrm{\ }generated\mathrm{\ }(t/day)}\mathrm{\ }\mathrm{\ }x\mathrm{\ }100\mathrm{\ }\left(\%\right)$

Figure 3 summarizes the elements measured by SDG indicator 11.6.1. The MSW generated by the city is either collected or uncollected, and the collected MSW is delivered to recovery or disposal facilities. Recovery facilities generate residues that are sent to disposal facilities. In many cities, recyclables are also recovered from disposal facilities and brought back into the recycling value chain. Recovery or disposal facilities can be categorized as either ‘controlled’ or ‘uncontrolled’ depending on the operational measures put in place to minimize the environmental, health and safety impacts from the facilities. When both recovery and disposal occur within the same facility, it is necessary to evaluate the control level of the recovery and disposal operations independently of each other.

Figure 3: Concept figure of SDG indicator 11.6.1

Data points

The data points required to calculate SDG indicator 11.6.1 include:

1. Total MSW generated by the city
2. Total MSW collected
3. Total MSW managed in controlled facilities

These data also help cities to identify the proportion of MSW that remains uncollected.

1. Total MSW generated by the city

For cities that do not have reliable data on MSW generation, it can be estimated through the multiplication of the total population and per capita MSW generation from the household. Detailed methodology for this is provided in Steps 1, 2 and 3 in Waste Wise Cities Tool – Step by Step Guide to Assess a City’s MSMW Performance through SDG indicator 11.6.1 Monitoring (UN-Habitat, 2020).

Equation 1: Total MSW Generated

1. Total MSW collected

When measuring total MSW collected, there is a risk of double counting, concerning the residue or rejects from recovery facilities and the amount of waste recovered from disposal facilities going to recovery. Therefore, these amounts need to be deducted from the sum of waste received by both recovery and disposal facilities. It is assumed residue of recovery facilities is going to disposal facilities or other recovery facilities.

Steps 4 and 5 in Waste Wise Cities Tool – Step by Step Guide to Assess a City’s MSMW Performance through SDG indicator 11.6.1 Monitoring provide detailed methodology on how to collect this data if not available.

Equation 2: Total MSW^[2] collected

1. Total MSW managed in controlled facilities

MSW Managed in Controlled Facilities is MSW collected and transported to recovery and disposal facilities with basic control or above according to the control ladder. Steps 4 and 5 in Waste Wise Cities Tool – Step by Step Guide to Assess a City’s MSMW Performance through SDG indicator 11.6.1 Monitoring provide detailed methodology on how to collect this data if not available.

Equation 3: Total MSW Managed in Controlled Facilities

Additional data points

The SDG indicator 11.6.1 assessment provides information for the calculation of three more very relevant MSW management data points. Although they are not necessary for the calculation of the SDG indicator, these figures are of interest for city authorities:

1. Per capita MSW generation rate
2. MSW composition
3. Uncollected waste
4. Per capita MSW generation rate

A very relevant parameter that can be derived from the previous formula is the “total per capita MSW generation rate”. Steps 2 and 3 in Waste Wise Cities Tool – Step by Step Guide to Assess a City’s MSMW Performance through SDG indicator 11.6.1 Monitoring explain how to calculate this through waste sampling from households, if no reliable or updated data is available. Particularly for cities where a large amount of MSW remains uncollected, it is recommended to sample the waste from households, as provided by the Waste Wise Cities Tool.

1. MSW Composition

The SDG indicator 11.6.1 assessment determines the waste composition at the point of generation (i.e. households) and at the point of disposal. Understanding MSW composition at the beginning and end of the MSW service chain is a useful exercise for several reasons; Understanding composition helps identifying how the existing recovery/recycling sector is functioning, it enables further recovery facilities to be identified and planned, and overall assists triangulation (i.e. test validity and reliability) of data collected.

Note that MSW also includes waste from non-household sources. In Step 3 of Waste Wise Cities Tool – Step by Step Guide to Assess a City’s MSMW Performance through SDG indicator 11.6.1 Monitoring, the quantities of MSW generated from commercial and institutional sources, as well as from public spaces, is estimated. However, specific composition analysis on MSW from non-household sources is beyond the scope of this tool as it is complex and resource intensive.

1. Total uncollected waste

Total uncollected MSW can be calculated by subtracting the total MSW regularly collected from the total MSW generated.

2021-12-20

UN-Habitat, UNSD

SDG 1.4.1, Proportion of population with access to basic services

SDG 6.3.1 Proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flows safely treated

SDG 12.3.1.b Food waste index

SDG 12.5.1 National recycling rate

2