🌿 Sampling of waste according to a sampling plan — framework procedure: agreement of the testing programme objectives by the involved parties, preparation of the plan (testing level, constituents to be tested, background information on the material, health and safety, sampling approach and technique), taking the sample in accordance with the plan, pretreatment to a laboratory sample if necessary, sampling record and delivery of the sample to the laboratory, PN-EN 14899

Environment PN-EN 14899

Overview

WHAT THE STANDARD COVERS. We read the text of the standard in the iTeh sample of SIST EN 14899:2006 (English text of EN 14899:2005): title page, contents, foreword, introduction with Figure 1, Clauses 1 and 2 and terms 3.1–3.17 (up to page 9). Outside the sample remain Clauses 4 (preparation of a sampling plan), 5 (sampling), 6 (reporting), Annexes A and B (example information for the plan and for the record) and the bibliography — we know only their titles from the contents.

ACCORDING TO THE TEXT OF EN 14899:2005. The standard was prepared by CEN/TC 292 “Characterization of waste”, whose secretariat is held by NEN, under mandate M/326 of the European Commission and EFTA; CEN approved it on 28.10.2005, and national implementation was due by June 2006 at the latest. According to the introduction, wastes are generally heterogeneous materials, so the testing programme has to specify the amount of material for which the characteristics of interest are defined; valid tests may require one or more representative samples. Figure 1 numbers seven key steps of a testing programme: 1 — defining the sampling plan, 2 — taking a sample in accordance with the plan (alongside: pretreatment to a laboratory sample if necessary, sampling record, storage), 3 — transport of the sample to the laboratory (these three steps lie in the frame “preparation and application of the sampling plan”), 4 — test portion preparation, 5 — extraction, 6 — analysis and quantification, 7 — overall measurement report; analysis of data against programme objectives (using statistical methods) stands outside the numbering, as a box linked to the report. According to the introduction, the standard deals with the first of the seven key steps — preparation and application of the sampling plan — and should be read in conjunction with the other TC 292 standards. At the outset the involved parties agree the objectives and boundaries of the programme — sometimes they are set by national legislation; the objectives define the testing level (e.g. basic characterization, compliance testing, verification testing), the required reliability and the frequency of testing, and the design of the sampling takes into account the type of material, its accessibility and the parameters to be determined. One programme may need more than one plan; a plan should contain all information pertinent to a particular sampling exercise. Essential information for applying the standard is contained in five Technical Reports CEN/TR 15310: Part 1 — selection and application of criteria for sampling under various conditions, Part 2 — sampling techniques, Part 3 — sub-sampling in the field, Part 4 — packaging, storage, preservation, transport and delivery of samples, Part 5 — the process of defining the sampling plan (at the time of publication of the standard still to be published). Scope (1): the standard specifies the procedural steps for preparing and applying a sampling plan, which describes the method of collecting the laboratory sample needed to meet the objective of the testing programme; on this basis the project manager can produce standardised plans for routine circumstances (daughter standards for well-defined scenarios), incorporate the requirements of European and national legislation or design a plan for a case-by-case basis; the plan gives the sampler detailed instructions on how sampling should be carried out; the standard was developed for the characterization of waste. Normative references (2): EN 13965-1:2004 and EN 13965-2:2004 (terminology for the characterization of waste). Terms (3) — selected: composite sample — two or more increments or sub-samples mixed in appropriate proportions, from which the average value of a characteristic can be obtained (3.1); heterogeneity — the degree to which a constituent is not uniformly distributed in a material; according to a note, the degree of heterogeneity is the determining factor in sampling uncertainty (3.4); increment — a portion collected by a single operation of a sampling device which is not analysed on its own but mixed with others into a composite sample (3.6); involved parties — e.g. the sampler, the analyst, the client, the regulator and the producer of the material, with the project manager responsible for the overall measurement report (3.7); judgemental sampling — at best partially probabilistic, usually from a sub-population narrower than the whole population (3.8); laboratory sample — a sample sent to or received by the laboratory, final from the point of view of sampling and initial from the point of view of the laboratory (3.9); probabilistic sampling — according to statistical principles, every particle or item of the population has an equal chance of being sampled (3.10); representative sample — one in which the characteristics of interest are present with a reliability appropriate for the purposes of the testing programme (3.13); the sampler should have knowledge and experience in waste sampling, and the plan may require the sampler to be independent of the waste producer (3.15, Note 2). The standard avoids the terms “sampling protocol” and “sampling strategy”, because in different countries they represent conflicting concepts (3, Note).

STATUS (as of 03.10.2026). The PKN search (query “PN-EN 14899”, 03.10.2026) returns one result: PN-EN 14899:2006 (English version, “Wprowadza: EN 14899:2005 [IDT]”) without a withdrawal note. In the iTeh catalogue (read on 03.10.2026) EN 14899:2005 has the status “Published”, now under CEN/TC 444 “Environmental characterization”, stage 90.93 (decision to confirm the standard).

HOW MANY LABORATORIES AND IN WHAT FORM (copy of the accreditation scope database, load up to 17.09.2026, read on 03.10.2026). The number 14899 appears in 5 records at 5 laboratories: AB 081, AB 325, AB 1185, AB 1365, AB 1716. In the current PCA documents (read on 03.10.2026, issues from 03.12.2025 to 09.09.2026) the number appears in 5 rows — one at each; in each of the five documents the number of page markers equals the number of PDF pages, without repetitions; a search of all 1291 PCA documents downloaded from BIP on 03.10.2026 found no laboratories outside the database copy (17 laboratories in the register have no link to a scope document on BIP). Form “PN-EN 14899:2006” (AB 325; AB 1185 together with instruction IR-37 issue II of 30.03.2023; AB 1716 together with instruction I-01 issue 1 of 07.01.2020; AB 1365 after procedure ILB3b-13 issue 8 of 27.09.2020) and “PN-EN 14899:2005” (AB 081). None of these items is suspended (the word “zawieszony” in the AB 1185 document refers to suspended particulate matter). The “Laboratories” tab (query “PN-EN 14899”) shows 4 laboratories — all except AB 1365, whose reference document starts with procedure ILB3b-13 — checked with a tab query on the labcoda.pl production server on 03.10.2026.

WHAT THE LABORATORIES TEST (items in PCA). Characteristic at all five: “Pobieranie próbek do badań chemicznych i fizycznych” (sampling for chemical and physical testing). Test object: combustion waste, code ex 20 01 99 (ashes from households) (AB 081); wastes with 4 codes (AB 325), 22 codes (AB 1185), 9 codes (AB 1365) and 46 codes (AB 1716) according to the waste catalogue. AB 1365 states that it performs sampling for the regulated area covered by the regulation of the Minister of Economy of 16.07.2015 on the admission of waste to landfills (Dz.U. 2015 item 1277) and the regulation of the Minister of the Environment of 06.02.2015 on municipal sewage sludge (Dz.U. 2015 item 257).

WHERE A SEEMINGLY CORRECT RESULT IS EASY TO GET. At the objectives: the plan follows from the agreed objectives of the testing programme and the testing level, not the other way round — without them it is not known for what amount of material the result is to be valid (introduction). At heterogeneity: it determines sampling uncertainty (3.4, Note 2), and a material may be homogeneous with respect to one constituent and heterogeneous with respect to another (3.4, Note 1). At sample names: an increment by definition is not analysed on its own — a portion analysed individually is already a sample and has to meet the criteria of both (3.6, Note 1); the word “sample” alone should, as far as possible, be qualified with the step, e.g. field sample, laboratory sample (3.14, Note 2). At judgemental sampling: it yields samples from a narrower sub-population, not from the whole population (3.8).

WHAT WE DO NOT GIVE. We did not read the content of Clauses 4–6 (elements of the plan, taking and delivering the sample, documenting the plan and the sampling record) or the examples in Annexes A and B — we know only their titles from the contents. We do not give numbers of samples, masses or sampling techniques; these are described in the CEN/TR 15310 reports, which we did not read.

Method principle

The involved parties (client, producer, regulator, sampler, analyst) agree the objectives and boundaries of the waste testing programme, and from them the testing level, the required reliability and the frequency. On this basis the project manager prepares a sampling plan describing how to obtain a laboratory sample representative for the purpose of the tests; the sampler takes the sample according to the plan, pretreats it to a laboratory sample if necessary, produces a sampling record and delivers the sample to the laboratory. This is the first of seven key steps of a testing programme.

Applications

• Preparation of standardised sampling plans for waste for routine circumstances, including daughter standards for defined scenarios (1)
• Incorporating the requirements of European and national legislation in the plan and designing a plan for a case-by-case basis (1)
• Wastes with codes from the waste catalogue and combustion waste — sampling for chemical and physical testing in the accreditation scopes of 5 laboratories in PCA

Key parameters

Standard

Standard number

PN-EN 14899:2006

Title (PL)

Charakteryzowanie odpadów — Pobieranie próbek materiałów — Struktura przygotowania i zastosowania planu pobierania próbek

Title (EN)

Characterization of waste — Sampling of waste materials — Framework for the preparation and application of a Sampling Plan

Step-by-step procedure

1. Programme objectives

   The involved parties agree the objectives and boundaries of the programme, testing level, reliability and frequency (introduction). PN-EN 14899:2006 without a withdrawal note (03.10.2026).

2. Sampling plan

   The project manager prepares the plan: constituents to be tested, background information on the material, health and safety, sampling approach and technique (4, not read; 3.11).

3. Taking the sample

   The sampler takes the sample according to the plan; pretreatment to a laboratory sample if necessary (Figure 1, 5.1).

4. Record and delivery

   Sampling record and delivery of the sample to the laboratory (Figure 1, 5.2, 6.2 — not read).

Required equipment and apparatus

Reagents, media and consumables

Health and safety (OHS)

• Health and safety is one of the elements of the sampling plan (4.2.6, not read)
• Wastes may contain hazardous constituents — personal protective equipment during sampling

Frequently asked questions