The service industries in Norway disposed of almost 1.6 million tonnes of waste in 2008. This is 4 per cent more than in 2006. A total of 41 per cent of the waste had its origin in the domestic trade business. A large share of the waste, as much as 58 per cent, consisted of mixed waste, says Statistics Norway.

More than 640 000 tonnes of waste came from the domestic trade business in 2008. This represents an increase of 7 per cent since 2006 for these industries. On average, each employee in the service industry contributed with 920 kg of waste in 2008. Since 2006, the increase has been 2 per cent. The amount of waste varies with type of activity. This means that the amount of waste generated per employee may differ between sections. While employees within domestic trade business were responsible for 1.9 tonnes, employees in financial intermediation contributed with less than 0.4 tonnes each in 2008.

Service industries is a collective term including wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, transport, storage and communication, financial intermediation, real estate, renting and business activities, together with public and personal services. Only one fifth of the waste disposed in Norway came from these industries, although as much as 76 per cent of the Norwegian workforce was employed in the service industries in 2006. The waste amounts from the service industries have increased by 4 per cent since 2006. In comparison, the value added for the industry increased by more than 11 per cent during these two years.

More than 900 000 tonnes, or 58 per cent, of waste was collected as mixed waste. In this context, mixed waste is defined as waste that cannot be classified as pure fractions.

For the waste fractions of metal, plastics and EE, there has been an increase since 2006. This increase can to some extent be attributed to enhanced sorting efforts by the industries. The increase is however uncertain due to a more extensive data acquisition, which generated a more substantial data basis for 2008 than for 2006. Thus, it cannot be definitely established that the waste fraction composition has in fact been altered during these two years.

A table on Waste from Service Industries 2008, by section and material, can be downloaded under ssb.no.

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