Other Waste is a sub-sector in the Waste Sector. In the Danish emission inventory system emissions from other wastes are treated individually according to source. Other waste emissions include emissions from three main groups of sources;

• "Accidental building fires" includes four types of buildings: detached houses, undetached houses, apartment buildings and industrial buildings. Activity data for building fires are divided into small, medium and large size fires. Emissions from building fires are SO₂, NO_X, non methane volatile organic carbon (NMVOC), CH₄, CO, CO₂ (both biogenic and non-biogenic), N₂O, NH₃, particulate matter (PM), heavy metals (HM; As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dioxins/furans (PCDD/F), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). 
• "Accidental vehicle fires" include five vehicle categories; passenger cars, buses, light duty vehicles (vans, motor homes, mobile homes), heavy duty vehicles (trucks and tankers) and motorcycles/mopeds. Emissions from building fires are SO₂, NO_X, NMVOC, CH₄, CO, CO₂, N₂O, NH₃, PM, HM (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn), HCB, PCDD/F, PAHs and PCBs.
• "Compost production" includes the aerobic treatment of solid wastes such as garden and park waste, organic waste from households and sludge from waste water treatment plants. With the low-tech methods that are commonly used for composting in Denmark it is however inevitable that anaerobic areas are created in the windrows. Pollutants that escape from this treatment are CH₄, N₂O, NH₃, biogenic CO₂ and CO.

The contribution of greenhouse gasses from the waste other category has during the time-series 1990-2009 increased from 4.6 % (1990) to 11.1 % (2009) of the total waste category.  Throughout the time-series 1990-2009, this category increases with 138.2 % calculated in CO₂-eqv.

The most important pollutants in the other waste category are SO₂ and PCDD/F. The other waste category makes up 6.3 % and 34.8 % of the national emission of SO₂ and PCDD/F respectively.

The largest source of SO₂ and PCDD/F emissions in "other waste" is accidental building fires which accounts for 97.8 % and 98.4 % respectively. The trend of both the SO₂ and PCDD/F emissions are only dependant of the activity data and changes in activity data will be directly passed on to the emission trends. The emission trend of vehicle fires has been increasing since 1990 due to an increase of vehicle population and the growing weight and size of the different categories of vehicles. However, this small increase has no recognizable influence on the emission trend of the other waste category. The emissions of SO₂ and PCDD/F are highly dominated by the activity data for accidental building fires.
The following trends are very similar as emissions of both compounds are controlled by the activity data for accidental building fires. 

Figure 1    Time-series for the SO₂ emissions of other waste for the years 1990-2009. Click the figures to view background data

Figure 2    Time-series for the dioxin emissions of other waste for the years 1990-2009. Click the figures to view background data.

Emissions in the other waste category are calculated as activity data multiplied by the corresponding emission factor. The emission factors are based on international literature or in some cases default values given in international inventory guidelines (EMEP/EEA Emission Inventory Guidebook). Activity data are gathered from national associations or calculated from specific data or surrogate data found in literature. Other data sources are the waste statistics and reports from the Danish Ministry of the Environment.

For a more detailed description of the data and methodology for the inventory of Waste Incineration and Other Waste see the National Inventory Report, NIR.