2. Approach

In order to identify suitable sources for information on the use of secondary materials, different potential data sources were explored and analysed. First, a preliminary exploration of the CBS transport statistics and CBS company surveys determined their potential to gain further insights into the use of secondary materials in the Netherlands. Subsequently, the most promising options were investigated further through interviews with experts.

2.1 Exploration of CBS transport data

The transport data from Statistics Netherlands is based on the following modalities: road, railway, inland shipping and maritime shipping. The data comes from domestic carriers, railway cargo companies, Rijkswaterstaat (Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management), shipping companies, customs and sea ports. This data is partly collected using surveys and partly automatically shared by firms via their administrative systems. Further, data from foreign carriers transporting goods within or through the Netherlands is shared by foreign statistical bureaus via Eurostat.

In general, information on the type of good transported (identified as per the NST2007²⁾ classification, 81 categories), the origin and destination location of a trip, and the weight of the goods is available. The categories that can reliably be distinguished in type of good transported and are related to waste or secondary materials are: 1) household, municipal waste and 2) other waste and secondary materials. Therefore, at the moment little is known about the type of waste or material that is transported.

As for the origin/destination information, location information using the NUTS-3³⁾ classification can be distinguished. More detailed location information is available, but this is deemed less reliable than information on NUTS-3 level. In addition, firm information from the transporting company is known, but not from the client or recipient. This implies that transport of waste and secondary materials usually cannot be allocated to specific companies. For waste processing companies that own vehicles more information is available but only for a sample of their vehicles. Hence, at the moment it is not possible to determine from and to what industries these materials are transported.

2.2 Exploration of CBS company surveys

At CBS data from registers as well as surveys are used. Companies are receiving different surveys in order to gather the statistical information needed. In this study several CBS surveys are assessed in regard to their suitability to gather information about the use of secondary materials by Dutch manufacturing firms. The challenge is to identify a survey with a good coverage of manufacturing firm and ideally that questions about the use of secondary materials fits with the rest of the survey. One important consideration is keeping the administrative pressure of surveys for companies low.

2.3 Interviews with industry associations

It transpired early on in this project that it is crucial to understand the value chains in order to determine which companies could provide information on the use of secondary materials. The first step is was to identify relevant persons and agencies to interview. It was decided to interview industry associations as these have a good overview of their specific sectors and abilities of their members. Contacts were obtained through existing networks and in collaboration with PBL. The following table illustrates who was contacted and who responded positively. 

Theme Organisation and contact person Nature of contact
Plastics Plastics Europe and The Rubber and Plastics Federation Interview
Royal Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry Interview
Animal feed Dutch Animal Feed Organisation Interview
Agribusiness Short interview
concerning
“Securefeed” data.
Paper Royal Association of Dutch Paper and Cardboard
Manufacturers Interview
Metal Metal Recycling Federation Email contact
Textile Association for Textile Recycling Interview

The interviews were carried out in semi-structured manner. After an introduction to the research, the interviews were structured around three topics:

1. The current situation in the MFM relating to the expert’s field of knowledge and whether the expert considers this to be accurate.
2. Whether data sources currently exist which can be used to evaluate the MFM, and to what extent it may be possible for Statistics Netherlands to access the data, or the corresponding metadata.
3. The possibilities for Statistics Netherlands to add an extra questions to existing surveys in terms of:
– Where in the value chain information exists on the share of secondary material in inputs.
– Whether businesses would be willing and able to provide such information.