The European List of Wastes (LoW) is the waste classification in the EU for administrative purposes, i.e. for permitting and supervision in the field of waste generation and management. The LoW defines 842 waste types which are structured into 20 chapters and 111 sub-chapters, mainly according to the source of the waste (i.e. the economic sector or process of origin). Each waste type is characterised by a six-digit code. Any waste marked with an asterisk (*) in the list of wastes shall be considered as hazardous waste pursuant to Directive 2008/98/EC. Countries which use the European List of Waste (LoW) for collecting data on waste generation and treatment can use the table of equivalence that has been established between the LoW and the EWC in order to convert their statistics in EWC categories. This transposition table is also useful for countries using the EWC-Stat for their compilation of waste statistics as it provides useful information on the composition of the waste categories listed in EWC-Stat.
Legal basis:2014/955/EU: Commission Decision of 18 December 2014 amending Decision 2000/532/EC on the list of waste pursuant to Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance), OJ L 370, 30.12.2014, p. 44 -86.
LoW 2015 is maintained by Eurostat and published by the Publications Office of the European Union on the EU Vocabularies website.
