According to the report, the world generates 2.01 billion metric tons (tonnes) of municipal solid waste each year. It is estimated that at least one third of that waste is not managed in an environmentally safe manner. It is hard for us living in the 21st Century United States to picture, but much of the world does not collect their trash. Mountains and rivers of trash plague much of the world.
Waste disposal or treatment using controlled landfills or more stringently operated facilities is almost exclusively the domain of high and upper-middle-income countries. Lower-income countries generally rely on open dumping 93% of waste is dumped in low-income countries and only 2 % in high-income countries.
Worldwide, waste generated per person per day averages 0.74 kilogram but ranges widely, from 0.11 to 4.54 kilograms. High income countries generate the highest per capita waste, and Bermuda, Canada, and the United States are the countries that produce the highest average amount of waste per capita, 2.21 kilograms per day. Since waste generation generally increases with economic development and population growth, regions with high proportions of growing low-income and lower-middle-income countries are anticipated to experience the greatest increase in waste production.
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| from World Bank |
The World Bank reports that Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia regions are expected to see their waste levels approximately triple and double, respectively, in the next thirty years. While the more prosperous nations of North America, Europe and Central Asia, are expected to see waste levels rise more gradually. This is a result of the countries having reached the point of economic development at which materials consumption is less linked to gross domestic product growth. Nonetheless, though they only account for 16% of the world’s population, high-income countries generate about 34%, or 683 million tonnes, of the world’s waste.
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| from World Bank |
The composition of the trash generated varies by the wealth of the country or region. On a global level, the largest waste category is food and green waste, making up 44% of global waste. Dry recyclable waste (plastic, paper and cardboard, metal, and glass) amount to another 38 % of waste. However, the composition of our trash varies considerably by national income level. The percentage of organic matter in waste decreases as income levels rise. Consumed goods in higher-income countries include more materials such as paper and plastic than they do in lower-income countries. Recyclables make up about 50% of trash in high-income countries. This represent an opportunity for increasing the recycling.
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| from World Bank |
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