The amount of household and similar waste produced during 2021 and which was estimated at 11.1 million tons recorded a decline of 12 percent compared to the period before the Covid 19 pandemic (2019), according to a study by the National Waste Agency, the results of which were announced yesterday, Thursday.
The head of the Department of Domestic and Similar Waste, said, during a media day devoted to presenting the results of the first study for the quantitative assessment of household and similar waste in Algeria 2019-2021, that the amount of domestic and similar waste produced during 2021 was estimated at 11.1 million tons, or an average of 0.68 kg per capita produced daily.
In 2019, it was estimated that household and similar waste produced was 12.6 million tons, meaning that each individual was producing 0.8 kg of waste per day.
This indicates a decline in 2021 compared to 2019 of 12 percent, i.e. more than 1 million tons of waste, which will save 3 million cubic meters in the lifespan of trenches in backfill centers.
It is worth noting that this study, the first of its kind in Algeria, concerned a representative sample consisting of 35,754 dwellings, 177,972 residents, and 2,262 economic and administrative entities, distributed over 10 provinces of the country (5 from the north, 3 from the high plateaus, and 2 from the south).
On the occasion, the Minister of Environment and Renewable Energies, Samia Moualfi, highlighted in a speech she delivered during the information day that coincides with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the National Waste Agency, the importance of this study in providing accurate, comprehensive, and high-quality statistical data and information on waste, in order to be available for use by decision-makers, researchers and investors at all levels, with the aim of developing an integrated and sustainable management of waste and ensuring the transition towards a circular economy that generates wealth and creates jobs, and work to encourage selective segregation and sorting from the source, and open the way for the green economy.
