Use of secondary materials: potential data sources

To achieve a circular economy, the use of virgin materials as well as the landfilling and incinerating of waste need to be minimised. Instead, waste streams are turned into so-called secondary materials that are then used as inputs for manufacturing processes. However, the data currently used to determine the use of secondary raw materials in the Dutch economy comes from the Material Flow Monitor (MFM)¹⁾ and is largely based on expert guesses. Yet, the monitoring of the use of secondary materials is crucial in a circular economy that aims to minimise the use of primary raw materials. Building on the CBS study on this topic from 2019, this report evaluates potential new data sources that could enable better monitoring of the use of secondary materials in the future. In this report the findings of the project “Use of secondary materials 2021” are presented.

The emphasis of the research in 2021 is on the use of secondary material in the Netherlands. This research explores potentially new data sources for this topic. To this end, the data of the CBS Transport Statistics is explored and CBS company surveys are examined. Through interviews with the relevant CBS departments and value chain experts the possibilities to gather information on the use of secondary materials in various industries was explored further.

This report is structured as follows. The research findings are presented in chapter 3. The research was conducted in two phases; an exploratory phase during which the potential to obtain information about the use of secondary materials using the CBS transport statistics (section 3.1) and CBS company surveys (section 3.1) was analysed. This was followed by a deeper analysis of the CBS Production Statistics survey (section 3.3) and interviews with industry associations to determine what information companies could report and which external data sources might be available (section 3.4). Finally, overall conclusions are drawn and recommendations made in chapter 4.

1.1 Scope and definitions

Here a brief overview of the definitions applied in this report and the scope of the research:

• Secondary materials: Waste, processed waste and by-products (that used to be considered waste).
• Use of secondary materials: Waste, processed waste and by-products that are obtained from outside the organisation and are used as input for new goods and not as a source of energy.
• The scope: Firms manufacturing goods in the Netherlands.
• Out of scope: Recycled content of imported materials and products, the quality of secondary materials and the value of their application, reuse of waste/by-products within an organisation.

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.

3.1 Potential of transport data

3.1.1 Road transport

The road transport data seems most promising for future use given that road transport is often necessary at the start and end of a trip. A current innovation project is aimed at improving the determination of the type of transported goods by combining vehicle and firm characteristics. Deadline of this project is end of 2021. When the methodology is implemented for the road transport statistics, it is expected that the data will be more useful for analysing type of waste or secondary materials that are transported as at least some types of waste should be distinguishable. For example, household waste is transported in special vehicles for collecting waste therefore transport of household waste per waste category could be determined. However, it is as yet unclear what categories of waste could be identified from this data.

3.1.2 Railway transport

Origin and destination of waste transported via railway can only be determined for companies with their own railway. Exploratory analysis reveals only two such cases for waste and secondary materials for which both origin and destination can be detected. This is probably only part of the total waste that is transported via railway. In other cases type of waste is unknown, sometimes this is imputed by using weight and loading or unloading locations. In general, there are too few companies to be able to report railway data since the identity of the company should remain hidden. In addition, this data provides only a snapshot of the waste transported via railway.

3.1.3 Inland shipping

In the inland shipping data more information on type of waste is available. For statistics, only the NST 3-digit classification is used distinguishing waste and secondary materials as a category. As for location information, only loading- and unloading locations of the ships are known. This mostly constitutes only part of the trip as freight is loaded onto other modalities such as road or railway. Future research could look into companies near shipping terminals for determining possible destinations, but it is unclear whether this will result in sufficiently reliable information.

3.1.4 Preliminary insights into use of secondary materials based on transport data

In 2019 a total of 10 billion kg of waste and secondary materials with an estimated worth of 3 billion Euros was transported into the Netherlands. The estimated value of imported goods is highest in road transport followed by maritime shipping, whereas imported weight is highest in maritime shipping followed by road transport. In the same period 13 billion kg was exported to other countries mostly using maritime shipping followed by road transport.

In 2020 the transport of waste and fertilizers⁴⁾ via road within the Netherlands and by Dutch transport firms was 100 million tons in total. In 2016 this was 106 million tons. On Dutch railways 93 thousand tons of waste and secondary materials was transported in 2019. This corresponds to 22 million ton kilometres. The unloading of waste and secondary materials in the Netherlands via inland shipping was 1.8 million tons in 2020. In turn, 0.9 million tons was loaded in the Netherlands to be transported elsewhere during this time.

If we look into transport of other waste and secondary materials within the Netherlands in more detail, road transport and inland shipping are most relevant. Additional analysis shows that the highest weight of other waste and secondary materials transported via road in 2019 in the Netherlands was loaded in the area of South-Holland (1.7 million tons) and the highest weight was unloaded in the area Arnhem/Nijmegen (1.7 million tons). (Part of) The unloaded waste could have come from abroad. The trajectory that was most used for road transport within the Netherlands is from Utrecht to Utrecht (88 thousand trips), so these trips were carried out within one region. The loaded and unloaded weight of other waste and secondary materials via road transport was somewhat higher in 2019 than the weight of household, municipal waste. As for inland shipping, in 2019 highest weight was loaded in Dutch Flanders (273 thousand tons) and unloaded in North Holland (469 thousand tons). The trajectory most used in 2019 to transport other waste and secondary materials using inland shipping was from West North Brabant to Dutch Flanders (40 trips). 

http://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/nl/dataset/84668NED/table?dl=50BEA
http://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/nl/dataset/83079NED/table?dl=50BED
http://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/nl/dataset/82512NED/table?dl=41A54
http://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/nl/dataset/82515NED/table?dl=50BEF

3.1.5 Conclusions and recommendations on transport statistics

Currently, waste and secondary materials in general transported via road can be followed. Loading and unloading locations can be reported on NUTS-3 level. For transport of waste by firms with their own transport sector information can be added. This may help to determine the type of waste transported but requires making assumptions that would need to be tested beforehand.

It is recommended that:

• road transport data could be used to monitor the transport of waste and secondary materials in the future. Transport data of waste and secondary materials would mainly be relevant for insights into regional circular networks, especially once geographic locations are linked to the companies receiving the waste or secondary materials;
• however, more detailed information on type of goods transported via road and loading or unloading locations needs to be available before road transport data can be used to monitor the usage of waste and secondary materials.

3.2 Insights into CBS company surveys

In this section, several CBS company surveys were explored to determine their suitability to gather information about the use of secondary materials by companies in the Netherlands. The most suitable survey was subsequently analysed in more depth to determine how that could be done (section 3.3).

3.2.1 Investments

The statistics on investments provide figures on investments in tangible fixed assets. The investments have been made by non-financial companies. A distinction is made between types of fixed assets and new or existing assets. The figures can be broken down by activity of the companies, according to the Standard Business Classification 2008 (SBI2008). Seven types of tangible fixed assets are distinguished:

1. Land and sites;
2. Business premises;
3. Soil, water and road construction works;
4. Means of transport;
5. Computers and peripherals;
6. Machines and installations;
7. Other tangible fixed assets.

The demand for investments in existing assets may be particularly interesting, but the above details are not available in the StatLine table for investments in existing assets. These figures may be known to the department itself. This is a potential resource for the use of second-hand equipment as it involves an investment in existing assets. While second-hand equipment is interesting from the perspective of the circular economy in general, it falls out of the scope of this study because second-hand equipment which can be used to invest in existing assets is namely not secondary material.

http://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/nl/dataset/81352ned/table?dl=5151F

3.2.2 Commercial waste statistic; type of waste, processing, industry (SBI 2008)

The commercial waste statistic provides information about the amount of waste released from the sectors of mineral extraction, industry, energy supply, water extraction companies and waste management. The waste materials are broken down by industry according to type of waste and the method of processing. Industrial waste is classified according to waste types. The types of waste are classified on the basis of Eural codes that are aligned with the European waste statistics regulation. The Eural codes are codes for waste materials as stated in the European waste materials list.

A further distinction is made between chemical and non-chemical waste. The non-chemical waste materials will be further broken down. The industrial waste released is recovered or offered for final processing. This statistic can give an indication about the release of waste, but not by whom it is used. What might be interesting is that the processing is broken down to reuse, and there is a Post Useful Application | Total recovery | Use as a fuel | Other recovery.

The basic data for this statistic comes from two sources. First, data reported by companies in the electronic annual environmental report (Dutch: elektronisch Milieujaarverslag, e-MJV) is used for this statistic. The e-MJV is the Dutch implementation of the EU regulation European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). Companies report their environmental impact, for example in terms of emissions and waste. The e-MJV is governed by the RIVM (see www.e-mjv.nl). Companies of sectors specified in the EU regulation, such as the energy, metal, waste and chemicals sectors, are obliged to complete the e-MJV. Second, companies that are not captured via the e-MJV are approached by Statistics Netherlands via a digital survey. This survey is held in even years. The sample is stratified by company class by company size.

http://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/nl/dataset/84970NED/table?ts=1630399313644

3.2.3 Internationale trade

The International trade statistics provides insight into the international flows of goods from, to and through the Netherlands. The table shows for import, export, re-export and transit flows and warehousing traffic the value and gross weight of the goods transported per group of goods, mode of transport, type of cargo (whether or not transported in containers), country group of origin or destination and country group of loading or unloading. This table is co-financed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.

There is a secondary raw materials item in the StatLine table, along with waste. More details are available in the data files.

However, this is about the trade of substances and products and not their use. One possibility might be to look at the difference of input - output - throughput, perhaps this will give some insight into usage. There may be some commodity groups that we can use, so these will need to be looked at more closely. However, research into the trade of second-hand products in 2020 showed that these low-value categories are likely underreported. In addition, it is difficult to track the actual destination and use of exported waste and used products.

http://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/nl/dataset/84668NED/table?dl=5148A

3.2.4 Production Statistics (PS)

Every year, Production Statistics (PS) are compiled for various industries. In the PS, a level estimate of the operating income and expenses is provided. The levels provide insight into the cost structure of operating income and expenses. The compilation of the PS depends on the size of the business concerned. Only a sample of businesses with less than 10 employees are surveyed and additional information on this group is obtained from the tax office. Businesses with between 10 and 50 employees are also sampled. All businesses with 50 or more employees are surveyed.

More detailed questions are also asked in this statistic. An example is the questionnaire for environmental services and the preparation for recycling. Here, the "revenue from sales of recovered secondary materials" is asked, broken down into a number of categories including ground glass, precious metal, granulate, recovered raw materials and other end products (such as posts and tiles). However, it is unknown to whom these industries supply these secondary substances. This is also not specifically requested, so companies that have purchased this cannot indicate this on their form as purchase of secondary material.

The quality of the data in the production statistics depends on the specific question. For certain questions, the importance of the responses necessitates detailed checks. If for example the response of a large business to a question regarding production shows an unusual trend, then the business is contacted to ensure that the trend has been accurately reported. For other questions, the responses are included in the data as is. This is the case for the questions regarding the purchase of inputs to production. This data is used in, for example, the compilation of use tables which are published at an aggregated level. In this case, the extra checks do not take place because the uses of this data does not merit the additional burden to businesses of the checks.

The advantage of the production statistics is that it concerns a large survey in which the largest companies are followed in full. A disadvantage is that due to agreements about survey pressure, it will be difficult to add questions to this statistic. It may be possible to automatically retrieve data from the companies' administrations with existing software. The possibility to do so requires further investigation.

3.2.5 Conclusions on CBS company surveys

The Production Statistics survey appeared to be particularly interesting to gather information about the use of secondary materials. This is because the sample comprises all large manufacturing firms in the Netherlands, 2) the survey is completed annually and 3) includes industry-specific survey parts. In addition, the survey includes questions that ask companies about the materials they purchase.

3.3 Insights for extending the Production Statistics survey

The exploration of Statistics Netherlands surveys indicated that the Production Statistics (PS) survey appears to be the most suitable survey to collect data on the use of secondary materials. In this section, it is further analysed how the survey could be adjusted and what considerations need to be taken into account. For this purpose, the data of the PS was reviewed, PS experts were interviewed and experience was gathered from the plastics pact survey. In the following, challenges and opportunities of the PS, possibilities of the data for the MFM, and insights into the plastic pact survey are presented.

3.3.1 Challenges and opportunities of Production Statistics

Production Statistics consists of 38 questionnaires which are tailored to specific sectors and the size (in terms of number of employees) of the businesses. Of these 38, 22 relate to specific aspects of the construction industry and the rest relate to other. The other 14 questionnaires are for different sizes of business within the mining and manufacturing industries. Some of these 14 relate to broad groups of businesses which makes it more challenging to construct general questions regarding secondary materials. Unfortunately, the plastics industry and the paper industry, both very relevant in the current context, are grouped together with a broad range of businesses including electric machinery and vehicles. Some of these questionnaires might be sufficiently targeted at relevant companies to add a question about the use of secondary materials. A potentially interesting questionnaire is used for large businesses in the basic chemicals industry and artificial fertilisers industry. Investigations into the basic chemicals industry could reveal the possibility for a question about the use of secondary materials tailored to that specific industry.

Interestingly, some information on the use secondary materials is already available in Production Statistics. Respondents are asked to report the purchase of materials and products in terms of weight and value. The materials are specified using CPA codes. There are currently around 70 CPA codes which are, or can be considered secondary raw materials. This list is provided in appendix 1. This question employs a drop down menu which allows the respondent to select the CPA codes for products and materials. In order to simplify this process, respondents who have returned a questionnaire previously only see the products in the drop-down menu which they used the last time. However, it is currently not possible for respondents to add CPA codes to their drop-down list. Respondents have to mention these CPA codes in the comment section for them to be added. It may therefore be a possibility to expand the drop-down such that it includes (relevant) CPA codes relating to secondary materials.

Yet, in some cases there is no CPA code for a certain secondary material. In these cases it is an option to add an additional question, which allows the specification of a share of secondary material for the selected CPA code. For example, if timber (CPA 1610: wood, sawn and planed) is used as an input then the questionnaire could ask the share of the wood which is secondary.
There are hence several options for adding or modifying questions in Production Statistics to obtain information about the use of secondary materials. What is possible is determined firstly by how the sectors are grouped together. However, given the survey pressure many companies already experience, it would only be possible to add questions if the information is necessary and cannot be obtained in a different way. To use the available data, the feasibility of the reported data on purchased products and materials would need to be checked more thoroughly in the future.

3.3.2 Production statistics in relation to the MFM

The questions regarding the purchase of products and materials could allow the Production Statistics to be used directly to determine the use of secondary materials in the MFM. However, there are a number of problems with the PS data which prevent this from being possible.

• Figures reported by companies regarding the purchase of raw materials are unfortunately not subject to plausibility checks by CBS and are therefore of lower quality.
• The question should be answered in terms of both volume and value. The volume information is most relevant for the MFM, but this question has a substantially lower response rate than the question regarding value.
• The PS data only refers to the mining and quarrying and manufacturing sectors, whereas the MFM concerns the whole economy. And the PS data does not cover all businesses, whereas the MFM does.

It was also investigated whether it is possible to improve the data without making changes to the questionnaire. The response rate regarding the volume (as opposed to the value) of the inputs is particularly low. Improving the response rate would be useful because volume is more relevant than value from the perspective of the MFM. However, it is unlikely that this will be possible. This is principally because the questionnaire is generally filled in by employees within finance departments. Information of volume is therefore less readily available. Further, value has the standard unit of euro’s. Volume measurements vary, for example, tonnes for coal, meter squared for fabric, litres for liquids. This means that it is more effort to fill in the questionnaire in terms of volume and therefore the response rate will be difficult to increase.

Despite these challenges, an analysis of the production statistics can be used to identify possible areas of improvement. If a given sector uses a particular secondary material according to the Production Statistics but not according to the MFM then this suggests that the MFM is not accurately representing the use of secondary materials. In order to carry out this analysis, the Production Statistics were used as the sole input to compile the part of the MFM relating to the use of secondary materials. Data on value was used instead of data on volume because of the higher response rate. A comparison can then be made between the actual MFM and the PS version. Because of the above bullet points relating to the PS, it is not useful to compare the absolute values. Instead, we simply search for cells which have non-zero values in the PS version but not in the actual version. Doing so has revealed several minor discrepancies which are not sufficiently interesting to discuss here. Two discrepancies, recycled metals (and to a lesser extent metal waste) and the recycled chemicals, are however more substantial and this suggests there is the potential for improvement to the MFM.

According to the MFM, recycled metals are only employed in the basic metals industry. The PS suggests that recycled metals are also employed by businesses which use metal to make products, specifically construction materials and metal packing materials. The other discrepancy relates to the use of secondary chemicals. Chemical waste is used in several industries according to the MFM, principally the chemicals industry. However, the PS suggests that chemical waste, specifically hazardous chemicals, may be employed outside of the chemicals industry, specifically in the printing industry and the treating, coating and machining of metals industry.

The above comparison between the MFM and the PS shows that there is potential for improvement to the MFM in relation to secondary chemicals and secondary metals. Further investigation is required to confirm these conclusions before changes to the MFM should be considered.

3.3.3 Insights from the Plastic Pact survey

The National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM) has previously attempted to use a survey to obtain new data to monitor the Plastic Pact. There are 82 businesses which under the Plastic Pact aim to reduce the impact of plastic on the environment. The survey was intended to monitor these businesses with regards to many aspects of plastic use and production in order to judge the extent that this aim is being met. It is interesting to note that RIVM declined to proceed with the plastic pact survey because it perceived that the businesses were trying to influence the questions on the survey. This highlights that it may be difficult to formulate questions which all businesses are equally able and willing to answer.

3.4 Interviews with industry associations: Validating assumptions and determining the availability of information on the use of secondary materials

In this part of the project, we conduct interviews with experts from different industries to better understand the use of secondary materials in the different value chains. We first check and validate the assumptions of the Material Flow Monitor about the industries where the different secondary materials are used. Further, we determine where in the value chain information on the use of secondary materials is available in the different industries. This information can help us to determine who can either provide us with this information (e.g. industry associations) or which companies in the value chain could report on the use of secondary materials. Please note that the following passages summarise the interviews and thus do not represent the opinions of the authors.

3.4.1 Plastics and rubber

Two interviews were carried out regarding plastics. The first was with the Royal Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry (VNCI). Discussions centred around the data regarding the basic chemicals industry in the MFM. This industry only uses a small amount of recycled / waste inputs in production, specifically chemical waste. Chemical recycling is an important new technology and it is therefore appropriate that chemical waste as an input appears in the MFM. The Royal Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry expects an increase in chemical recycling over the coming years and they hope that this trend will be accurately represented in the MFM. Further, questions were raised about the lack of any recycled products used in this sector according to the MFM, specifically recycled chemical products. The Royal Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry is currently carrying out an analysis of data from the Responsible Care survey combined with data which they have collected themselves and data from The National Institute for Public Health and Environment. The Royal Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry might be able to share the results of the analysis with Statistics Netherlands. This would give more insights into whether the very limited use of waste or recycled products by this industry is realistic.

The second interview was a joint interview with PlasticsEurope and the Dutch Rubber and Plastics Industry (NRK). These two organisations together represent a broad range of types of business in the plastics value chain. Given the degree of aggregation with the MFM, and the lack of detail regarding different quality levels of plastics, it was not possible to give an opinion regarding the accuracy of the figures relating to the use of secondary plastics and rubber. There were however several options identified for using existing data to complement the MFM. A promising source of data is currently being developed, referred to as the MORE platform⁵⁾. The MORE platform is an EU wide initiative running through to 2022 which will, among other things, allow plastics manufacturers to record their use of recycled plastics in a centralised database. Results or data from this system are likely to be useful for the MFM. The extent to which they are useful depends on the extent to which those who input data into the system are representative for the relevant sectors in the MFM. Other data sources were also mentioned such as The Circular Plastics Alliance and the data collected by “Conversio” regarding plastic flows in the entire plastics value chain in Europe. This second source of data is managed by PlasticsEurope.

Aside from existing data sources, both Plastics Europe and the Dutch Rubber and Plastics Industry expressed an interest in assisting with the alteration of / addition of any new questions to existing surveys. In particular, working with these organisations would be useful to target the correct businesses and to ask the correct questions.

3.4.2 Animal feed

Two interviews were carried out regarding animal feed. The first was with Nevedi, the Dutch Feed Industry Association, which represents manufacturers of animal feed (compound feed, premixtures, moist animal feed and milk replacers). In the MFM, 19,5% of the inputs of this sector are categorised as secondary materials (2018). To judge the accuracy of this, Nevedi suggested the use of “SecureFeed” data. SecureFeed, collects data on the inputs used by the suppliers of animal feed to Dutch farmers. Nevedi employ Agribusiness Service to analyse SecureFeed data for use in the “Grondstoffenwijzer”, a report produced by Nevedi which provides insights into the composition of animal feed⁶⁾. According to Nevedi, this data has an 89% coverage. Nevedi suggest that this data could be useful to validate / improve the representation of the industry in the MFM. Accordingly, Nevedi arranged a second interview with Agribusiness Service. In this interview more details were obtained regarding the data, thus confirming it’s potential usefulness for the MFM.

3.4.3 Paper

An interview was carried out with the Royal Association of Dutch Paper and Cardboard Manufacturers (VNP). This association represents 18 businesses within the sector C17.1 - Manufacture of pulp, paper and paperboard. These businesses, specifically the “pulpers” are the appropriate place in the value chain to obtain information on the use of waste paper. The Royal Association of Dutch Paper and Cardboard Manufacturers collects data from its members regarding their use of inputs and their production of outputs in tonnes. Details include the specific type of inputs used and the intended use of the output (for example, graphic paper, packing paper or hygiene paper). The Royal Association of Dutch Paper and Cardboard Manufacturers has previously shared data with other institutions and would be willing to discuss doing so with Statistics Netherlands.

The Royal Association of Dutch Paper and Cardboard Manufacturers represents a group of businesses which is a subset of a broader sector in the MFM. It was therefore not possible for them to evaluate the data in the MFM.

3.4.4 Metal

Emails were exchanged between Statistics Netherlands and the Metal Recycling Federation (MRF). The MRF provided some information which confirms the plausibility of the data in the MFM regarding the use of waste and recycled metals. MRF have contracted CE Delft to carry out research regarding the use of secondary metals in the Netherlands. MRF recommend to wait for this research to be published before proceeding. No reaction was given regarding the possibilities for new/modified questions in existing surveys.

3.4.5 Textile

An interview was carried out with Dutch Association for Textile Recycling (VHT). This association represents 35 Dutch textile collector, sorters and recyclers (90% of the market) of used textiles. These organization compromise part of the textile industry in the MFM, alongside textile manufacturers among others. The accuracy of the figures in the MFM was discussed. However, this proved complicated as the sector in the MFM encompasses multiple types of business. For example, the Association for Textile Recycling would expect, as a general rule of thumb, the share of recycled textile material in new clothing to be about 1%. This can however not be evaluated in the MFM because clothing manufacturers are grouped with textile manufacturers. In macro terms however, the figures in the MFM were generally recognised by the Association because they roughly correspond to the figures in the “Mass Balance”⁷⁾ report.

Much like other associations, the Association for Textile Recycling also collects data from member activities. This takes place via an annual survey collecting data on the collection and sorting of used textiles as well as imports and exports. The Association for Textile Recycling is willing to share this data with Statistics Netherlands at an aggregated level.

3.4.6 Conclusions from expert interviews

Discussions with industry associations and other experts revealed that industry associations generally agree with the representation in the MFM. Because of the specific nature of the businesses within an industry association and the level of aggregation within the MFM, it is difficult to make one-on-one comparisons between specific figures in the MFM and the expectations of industry associations. However, as mentioned, the figures in the MFM were generally well received.

Discussions with industry associations and other experts revealed that there is much data available which could potentially be used to evaluate and/or improve the MFM. Industry associations generally collect data from their members. Further, recycling is an important topic for industry associations. As such, information on this is generally available. Industry associations appeared generally willing to consider sharing this data with Statistics Netherlands at an aggregated level. There are also a number of reports and other publications which can be useful to better understand the trends. There are however several difficulties with employing data from industry associations. Firstly, attention must be paid to whether the members of industry associations are representative of that group of businesses. Secondly, the relationship between that group of businesses and the sectors in the MFM need to be accounted for. Thirdly, efforts need to be made to ensure that definitions are harmonised.

Industry associations generally had relatively little input to give in response to the possibility to add additional questions to Statistics Netherlands surveys. They were generally open to the possibility and in some cases wished to provide guidance to Statistics Netherlands in doing so. The need to target the correct businesses for the survey was specifically mentioned as an area which industry associations can provide useful input.

This report analysed several potential sources to obtain information about the use of secondary materials in the Netherlands. In the following the main conclusions and recommendations for follow-up research are presented.

It was found that the Transport Statistics currently lack the level of detail needed to determine where secondary materials are used. The exploration of different CBS company surveys identified the Production Statistics survey as the most suitable survey to collect data on the use of secondary materials.

The aims of the interviews with industry associations were to determine where in the value chain information on the use of secondary materials is available and to validate assumptions made in the MFM. These interviews highlighted the importance of a common language as currently many different definitions of secondary materials are used. Thus, simply asking companies for their use of secondary materials is likely to result in inconsistent data. The interviews further revealed the availability of various data sources which could be employed in the context of the MFM, however, also these are likely to have some consistency issues. The industry associations seemed generally willing to share data as long as it does not relate to specific businesses. However, it is not desirable to depend on external organisations to compile official CBS statistics. In order to ensure quality and consistency over time it is preferred that Statistics Netherlands uses its own data as much as possible.

Based on our findings we recommend starting a process to make changes to the Production Statistics (PS) questionnaire. As earlier explained, respondents who have responded in previous years are given a list of CPA codes to choose from which are determined by their choices in previous years. In order to make it easier for respondents to select secondary CPA codes, the secondary codes corresponding to the previously chosen primary code can also be provided as an option. Thus, if the respondent selects primary steel in year t, the respondent will be given the choice to select from both primary and secondary steel in year t+1. To implement this, a table linking secondary CPA codes with the corresponding primary CPA codes is needed, the work flow needs to be described and tested (e.g., that the secondary material codes are added based on the previously selected primary material codes but not vice versa). It is also important to determine how much longer the lists of CPA codes displayed can potentially become for companies. Changes to the PS questionnaires need to be undertaken carefully and the potential consequences of the change need to be fully understood beforehand. This seems to be a promising next step as it can be implemented easily and the feasibility of this endeavour was confirmed by the CBS colleagues governing this survey. A discussion with Dutch policy makers determined this option as the preferred one to pursue in 2022. In this discussion several industries were identified that are interesting for an initial implementation:

• Plastics: the actual reuse of recycled plastics is an important topic in policy, however, there might be overlap with the Plastic Pact and coordination is needed.
• Textile and clothing: this sector is also of interest for policy makers, it needs to be considered that there is also a lot of export of used clothing and thus less recycling in the Netherlands.
• Construction and demolition waste: interesting sector as these are very large waste streams. These materials are very heavy and therefore probably reused in the Netherlands, however, data collection could be challenging if the same company recycles and reuses the materials.
• Chemical industry: interesting because chemical waste seems to be used in more industries than expected as was found during closer inspection of the CBS production statistics data.

While we do not recommend using data from industry associations for monitoring, this data could be used for validation purposes. We thus recommend to analyse existing and forthcoming data sets of industry associations to further evaluate the MFM and to ensure that the assumptions used are and remain appropriate as the economy becomes more circular. This data can also be used to validate new data obtained from an improved PS survey.

Once the data from a modified PS has been obtained validated then the data should be used to make targeted improvements to the MFM. The analysis based on the current PS shows two areas which should be focused upon in the first instance, namely:

• The use of chemical waste in the basic chemicals industry, the printing industry and the treating, coating and machining of metals industry.
• The use of secondary metals in the construction materials and metal packing materials industries.

Finally, in order to improve the level of detail and quality of data on the use of secondary materials in the long-term it is recommended to explore the potential of existing Statistics Netherlands software which retrieves data directly from business’s administration systems. With this software data on the use of secondary materials could be obtained directly from companies, ensuring reliable data without increasing survey pressure. This research includes further exploring whether companies and which companies have the relevant data and are willing to share them.

The following list is not a definitive list of secondary codes. Some of these codes relate only partially to secondary products/materials and may therefore be excluded.

01.49.28 Non-edible products of farm animal origin n.e.c.
08.12.13 Mixtures of slag and similar industrial waste products, whether or not
incorporating pebbles, gravel, shingle and flint for construction use
10.11.20 Edible offal of bovine animals, swine, sheep, goats, horses and other equines,
fresh or chilled
10.11.39 Other meat and edible offal, fresh, chilled or frozen
10.11.60 Raw offal, inedible
10.12.40 Edible offal of poultry
10.13.13 Other meat and edible meat offal, salted, in brine, dried or smoked (excluding
swine and bovine meat); edible flours and meals of meat or meat offal
10.13.14 Sausages and similar products of meat, offal or blood
10.13.15 Other prepared and preserved meat, meat offal or blood
10.13.16 Flours, meals and pellets of meat unfit for human consumption; greaves
10.20.41 Flours, meals and pellets of fish, crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic
invertebrates or seaweed, unfit for human consumption
10.20.42 Other inedible products of fish, crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic
invertebrates or seaweed
10.39.24 Fruit and nuts, provisionally preserved, not for immediate consumption
10.39.30 Vegetable materials and vegetable waste, vegetable residues and by-products
10.41.41 Oil-cake and other solid residues, of vegetable fats or oils
10.41.72 Degras; residues resulting from treatment of fatty substances or animal or
vegetable waxes
10.62.20 Residues of starch manufacture and similar residues
10.81.20 Beet-pulp, bagasse and other waste of sugar manufacture
10.82.24 Fruit, nuts, fruit-peel and other parts of plants, preserved by sugar
10.82.30 Cocoa shells, husks, skins and other cocoa waste
10.83.12 Coffee substitutes; extracts, essences and concentrates of coffee or coffee
substitutes; coffee husks and skins
10.85.11 Prepared meals and dishes based on meat, meat offal or blood
11.05.20 Brewing or distilling dregs
12.00.20 Tobacco refuse
13.10.40 Silk yarn and yarn spun from silk waste
13.10.92 Garnetted stock and other cotton waste
13.20.11 Woven fabrics of silk or of silk waste
13.94.20 Rags, scrap twine, cordage, rope and cables and worn out articles of textile
materials
16.29.21 Natural cork, debacked or roughly squared or in blocks, plates, sheets or strip;
crushed, granulated or ground cork; waste cork
17.12.34 Recycled fluting and other fluting
19.20.42 Petroleum coke; petroleum bitumen and other residues of petroleum oils
20.14.80 Residual lyes from the manufacture of wood pulp, excluding tall oil
20.59.20 Chemically modified animal or vegetable fats and oils; inedible mixtures of
animal or vegetable fats or oils
23.65.11 Boards, blocks and similar articles of vegetable fibre, straw or wood waste,
agglomerated with mineral binders
24.42.21 Aluminium powders and flakes
24.43.21 Lead plates, sheets, strip and foil; lead powders and flakes
24.43.22 Zinc dust, powders and flakes
24.44.21 Copper powders and flakes
24.45.21 Nickel powders and flakes
24.45.30 Other non-ferrous metals and articles thereof: cermets; ash and residues,
containing metals or metallic compounds
38.11.51 Glass waste
38.11.52 Paper and paperboard waste
38.11.54 Other rubber waste
38.11.55 Plastic waste
38.11.56 Textile waste
38.11.57 Leather waste
38.11.58 Non-hazardous metal waste
38.11.59 Other non-hazardous recyclable waste n.e.c.
38.12.22 Pharmaceutical waste
38.12.23 Other medical hazardous waste
38.12.24 Hazardous chemical waste
38.12.25 Waste oils
38.12.26 Hazardous metal waste
38.12.27 Waste and scrap of primary cells, primary batteries and electric accumulators
38.12.29 Other hazardous waste
38.21.30 Waste organic solvents
38.21.40 Ashes and residues from waste incineration
38.32.21 Secondary raw material of precious metals
38.32.22 Secondary raw material of ferrous metals
38.32.23 Secondary raw material of copper
38.32.24 Secondary raw material of nickel
38.32.25 Secondary raw material of aluminium
38.32.29 Other metal secondary raw materials
38.32.31 Secondary raw material of glass
38.32.32 Secondary raw material of paper and paperboard
38.32.33 Secondary raw material of plastic
38.32.34 Secondary raw material of rubber
38.32.35 Secondary raw material of textile
38.32.39 Other non-metal secondary raw materials