The construction and industrial sectors accounted for more than four fifths of all the waste generated in Belgium in 2022, according to new data from Statbel, the Belgian statistics office.
According to the data, Belgium produced a total of 62 million tonnes of waste – including waste from all economic sectors as well as households – in 2022.
Construction and industrial waste
Waste from the construction sector totalled 26 million tonnes in 2022, which represents 42.1% of the national total. This was followed closely by the industrial sector, which accounted for 24.3 million tonnes, or 39.5% of the total waste. Combined, these two sectors accounted for 81.6% of the total waste.
The services sector was the third biggest producer of waste – albeit some way behind the two largest sectors – with a contribution of around 6.3 million tonnes of waste, or 10.2% of the national total.
Household waste – including waste generated by residential homes, such as packaging, food waste, and discarded goods – comprised 5 million tonnes, which is equivalent to 7.8% of the total.
The smallest contribution on a sector-by-sector basis came from the agricultural sector, which produced approximately 272,000 tonnes of waste, or 0.4% of the country’s total waste output in 2022.
Significantly down on 2020
Belgium produced significantly less waste in 2022 than it did in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the last waste totals were calculated by Statbel.
In that year, the country produced some 68 million tonnes of waste, with the construction sector producing 20.7 million tonnes, services producing 3.8 million tonnes, households producing 5.3 million tonnes, industry producing 37.5 million tonnes, and agriculture producing 417,000 tonnes. Read more here.
