Luxembourg

General facts
National legislative framework
National policies on waste
Instruments
Data on waste management
National legislation on waste (selected)
Competent Authorities
Bibliography

1. General facts

General facts
Surface area	2 586Km²
Population (tousand inhabitans)	459.5
Population density	178 inhabitants/Km²
Average number of persons per private household*	2.5
Passenger cars per 1000 inhabitants**	659
GDP per capita in Purchasing Power Standards(PPS) EU25=100	238
GDP per capita (Constant prices)	EUR 55 015(2005)(at 1995 prices and exchange rates)
Land use***	51.6% Agricultural land 37.0% Forests and semi-natural zones 10.4% Constructed zones (incl. roads & railways) 1.0% Water surfaces, humid zones
Household characteristics by urbanisation degree, distribution of households %(2004)	62% in densely populated areas(at least 500 inhab./km²) 26% in intermediate urbanised areas(100 - 499 inhab./km²) 11% in sparsely populated areas(less than 100 inhab/km²)
Gross value added(GVA) - At current basic prices and current exchange rates (% of all branches).	10.9% Industry, including energy 5.9% Construction 21.9% Trade, transport and communication services 43.1% Buisness activities and financial services 17.8% Other services 0.6% Agriculture, hunting and fishing

Source: STATEC (Statistical Institute of Luxembourg) except * Eurostat and ** Environment Ministry of Luxembourg

2. National legislative framework

National acts/laws on waste management
Reference	Main features
Law of June 17, 1994 relating to the prevention and the management of waste	Article 15, provides that the cost of the waste disposal must be supported either by the holder (last or former) or by the producer of the generating product of waste I.e. polluter pays principle must be upheld.
Act of 10th June 1999 on classified establishments	The objective of this Act is to: ensure the integrated prevention and reduction of pollution from establishments; promote sustainable development.

2.1 Summary of the legislation relevant to waste management

Luxembourg has a comprehensive set of laws and regulations for waste management based on prevention and recovery. The waste law is underpinned by a number of principles:

Polluter-pays principle (the most important)
Principle of information and awareness
Principle of quality
Proximity principle
Self-sufficiency principle
Principle of coherence and co-ordination

National Waste Management Plans
Period of implementation	Main features
1999 - 2005	to minimise waste generation and waste hazardousness through prevention to recover as much waste as possible to minimise amounts of final waste to be managed to introduce the principle of cost-coverage in all levels of product and waste management

National and local Waste Management Plans

By 2005, when the next update of the national waste management plan will be made, the following quantitative objectives (% by weight) should be attained for domestic waste, bulky waste and similar wastes (reference year: 1999):

waste type	rate of recycling
organic wastes:	rate of recycling of 75 %
packaging wastes:	rate of recovery of 55 % rate of recycling of 45 % (15 % for each packaging material)
other recoverable wastes:	rate of recycling of 45 %
bulky wastes(quantity/capita):	rate of reduction of 30 %
final wastes(quantity/capita):	rate of reduction of 30 %
problem wastes:	rate of separate collection of 70 %

Industrial and commercial waste

The sector plan for industrial and commercial waste mainly aims at the following objectives:

implementation of a focused policy of information and advice giving enterprises the necessary elements for them to introduce an environmentally friendly management of their wastes together with awareness-raising activities for both companies and their customers;
integration of quality concept among waste management facilities;
the setting up of instruments ensuring compliance with the waste management hierarchy;
definition of ways of using the principles of self-sufficiency and proximity in consideration of the small size of the national territory.

Inert wastes

The sector plan for inert wastes mainly aims at the following objectives:

strengthening of prevention of inert waste arisings, particularly by integrating this aspect in the planning of construction projects;
prevention of impacts from disposal of inert wastes on the natural environment by clarifying criteria relating to backfill;
increase of recovery and reuse of inert wastes by establishing a system of quality certification for recycled materials accompanied with a suitable promotion;
setting up of sufficient capacity for landfilling of non-reuseable inert waste in a national network;
national coherence in the disposal of inert wastes by setting up structures ensuring a constant functioning of the network.

The OECD has recommended that for Luxembourg to meet the quantified targets in the National Plan for Sustainable Development cost-effectively, enforcement of some regulations should be stepped up and economic instruments used more fully. Volumes of municipal waste are increasing under the dual impetus of population growth and rising per capita generation of waste. The polluter pays principle is applied only partially. Over half of Luxembourg’s industrial, commercial and service waste is exported. Accordingly, firms should systematically establish waste prevention and management plans, and efforts to find reliable medium- and long-term disposal capacity should be made, including through bilateral or multilateral co-operation with neighbouring regions. Substantial efforts are needed to manage hospital waste more effectively.

**Transposition of landfill and incineration directives**
Transposition	Act/Law/decree	Year of transposition	Text available (Y/N)	Language
Landfill directive 99/31			All of the text is in French and so I was unable to determine whether they have transposed the directive into National Law.
Landfill Decision 33/03
Incineration directive 76/00

3. National policies on waste

Luxembourg has endorsed the polluter pays and user pays principles. In practice, however, polluters usually do not meet the costs they generate, nor do users of environmental services bear their costs. Little use is made of economic instruments to internalise negative externalities. Local authorities set charges for waste disposal and waste water treatment, which are generally low since communes as a rule meet only 10% of infrastructure investment costs. A government intention to introduce environmental taxes, first broached in 1994, has not yet been acted on.

Numerous information and awareness measures are directed at households and the commercial sector. Separate collection, covering all recoverable components, takes place throughout the country. Disposal infrastructure has been modernised and brought into line with standards.

Non-compliant facilities, such as landfills for inert waste, hospital incinerators and a national landfill for non-household waste, have been closed. Work has begun on establishing a register of polluted sites and on cleaning up former landfills and other contaminated sites. Technological change in the steel industry (conversion from blast to electric arc furnaces) has helped to reduce quantities of industrial waste, and to transform this industry into one specialising in the recovery of scrap from well beyond the country’s borders. Several other industrial sectors (glass, aluminium, construction) also use high proportions of recovered materials.

Options that are currently being explored by Luxembourg include the following:

1. Adaptation of the tax system to the new environmental, social and economic requirements The paths being explored in more detail consist of:

higher taxes on the use of non-renewable natural resources and lower taxes on work
promotion of innovative activities that generate an environmental added value
reduction of VAT on certain man-power intensive activities

2. Progressive internalisation of environmental and natural resource costs in the price of goods and services

3. Exploitation of the potential incentive of public expenditure to the benefit of sustainable development

Other policies described briefly in the Luxembourg waste strategy include:

Cleaner technology and life cycle analyses
Practical ways of separate collection
Designation of staff member responsible for waste
Advisory services for entreprises
Establishing waste data bases
Best practice guidelines
Voluntary industry agreements and pilot projects
Waste exchange
Economic instruments (none set out)

4. Instruments

None found

5. Development in waste generation and treatment from 1995 - 2005

Waste generation and treatment in 1000 tonnes
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Total waste generation	-	-	-	-	6934	-	-	-	-
Municipal waste generated	240	242	253	266	278	285	285	291	306
Municipal waste landfilled	65	67	60	62	60	60	58	57	58
Biodegradable municipal waste generated	*160	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Biodegradable waste landfilled	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Used tyres generated	1	3	3	3	4	4	6	4	-

Source: Eurostat Structural Indicators; except from *: EEA, 2001

Waste generation and treatment in kg per capita
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Total waste generation	-	-	-	-	16224	-	-	-	-
Municipal waste generated	592	589	607	629	650	658	650	656	684
Municipal waste landfilled	161	163	145	146	140	138	131	129	129
Biodegradable municipal waste generated	*394	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Biodegradable waste landfilled	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Used tyres generated	2	7	7	7	9	9	14	9	-

Source: Eurostat Structural Indicators except from *: EEA, 2001

6. National legislation on waste

National regulations	Exists or not (Y/N)	Reference* (if available)
Landfill	Not sure	All of the text is in French and so I was unable to determine whether they have transposed the directive into National Law.
Incineration	Not sure	Same as above
BMW (Bio-degradable municipal waste)	No information
Packaging	No information
End-of Life Vehicles / Tyres	No information
Waste of electric and electronic equipment	No information
Batteries	No information
Lamps	No information
Construction/demolition waste	No information

*Reference: type of act, title, number, year

7. Competent authorities

This hyperlink will direct you to Competent Authorities on eionet wastebase

8. Bibliography

Act of 10th June 1999 on classified establishments,http://www.environnement.public.lu/etablissements_classes/legislation/loi_10_juin_1999_en.pdf
OECD review of environmental policies in Luxembourg,http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/8/17/2450399.pdf
STATEC (Statistical Institute of Luxembourg),http://www.statistiques.public.lu/fr/

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