Regulation no.2150/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union on waste statistics (WStatR) states that each Member State must provide Eurostat with data on the generation and disposal of waste every two years, while leaving them the choice of assessment method.

The Observation and Statistics Service (SoeS) of the Ministry for Sustainable Development is responsible for providing France's response to the WStatR.

To do so, this department will coordinate statistical data produced by the main bodies working in this field.

For the response in 2008 relating to data from 2006, INSEE was responsible for estimates relating to non-hazardous waste from commercial establishments, and decided to conduct a statistical survey on large commercial establishments whose main activity was wholesale and retail trade.