METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN THE GENERATION OF HOUSEHOLD WASTE STATISTICS - AN ANALYSIS OF THE UNITED-KINGDOM NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD WASTE ANALYSIS PROGRAM

The establishment of national targets designed to bring about more sus tainable waste management in many developed countries has not generall y been accompanied by the creation of reliable information systems for policy formulation and monitoring. In the first part of this paper th e factors that complicate the collection of reliable household waste s tatistics are examined from both applied and theoretical perspectives. The second part presents a critique of the recent UK National Househo ld Waste Analysis Programme (NHWAP). This was based on waste-collectio n-round samples selected by means of a geodemographic classification p ackage (ACORN), NHWAP data are currently the only national data on hou sehold waste composition and the results have already been widely used by policy-makers at national and local levels. However, it is conclud ed that the NHWAP sample was too limited for there to be much confiden ce in the results. A national research programme based on household sa mples is required in order to understand the relationships between hou sehold waste arisings and socioeconomic, institutional, spatial and te mporal variables. An outline methodology is suggested. (C) 1997 Elsevi er Science Ltd.