Have you ever wondered how much garbage and rubbish there is on Earth? When disposing of their daily trash, most people do not give any further thought to where it goes and what happens to it. But a greater insight into waste could provide us with a different attitude towards a variety of issues, ranging from our consumption patterns to the environmental footprint we leave behind.
Just think about this: every minute, 3,825 tons of municipal waste are produced and collected. The largest share of this huge volume ends up in landfills or on open dump sites, putting enormous pressure on the environment and wildlife habitats. Unfortunately, on the whole, people have not yet acknowledged the danger of overconsumption and overproduction and while businessmen, politicians, activists and scientists argue about how to reduce, reuse, and recycle, each country faces tons and tons of waste to deal with.
In this article, we’ll briefly describe the waste-related numbers and figures behind your daily cup of coffee, meal, and even daily shower.
Short facts about the global waste
According to the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 produced by UNEP, the generation of municipal solid waste will increase by nearly 2 billion tons and hit 3.8 billion tons by 2050. If waste management problems are not addressed immediately, the cost of waste and its management could almost triple by 2050 to an astounding US$640.3 billion (in 2020, this was US$252 billion).
How much municipal solid waste is expected to be generated globally in 2030, 2040, and 2050 if humanity fails to react
Source: Beyond an age of waste
According to the World Bank, high-income nations will show a daily per capita waste increase of 19%, while the same figure for low- and middle-income will be 40% or more.
- MSW is garbage composed of all the items that people use on a daily basis, including food packaging, clothes, bottles, leftover food, papers, electronics, and batteries.
- Despite all the recycling technologies in use, less than 20% of waste is recycled annually, with the remaining 80% becoming part of landfill sites.
With about 18% of the planet’s population, China is the largest generator of MSW globally, accounting for over 15% of the total. However, when we consider the amount of waste per capita, the ranking completely changes, with another country topping the list.
What is municipal solid waste? Who generates the most?
The residues produced by households, shops, small enterprises, and public institutions (such as schools and hospitals) are referred to as municipal solid waste, or MSW.
Despite representing a minor share of the world’s overall trash, MSW is typically tracked because of its correlation with trends and individual consumption patterns.
The production of MSW has historically been associated with economic development and purchasing power, which is why the highest numbers are registered in some of the most developed countries.
The countries that generate the most municipal solid waste per person are Austria, the United States, and Denmark. According to Statista, on average, a person in these countries produces over 800 kilograms of waste annually, which is almost three times the average global figure (i.e., 280 kilograms).
What are the different types of municipal waste?
Food, clothing, household devices, and plastic packaging are just a few of the usual categories that make up municipal waste.
However, electronic garbage (e-waste) is the fastest-growing waste category, particularly in developing countries. According to E-Waste Monitor, 2022 saw the generation of a record 62 million tons (Mt) of e-waste, which represents an 82% increase over 2010. By the end of the decade, this figure is likely to increase by an additional 32%, hitting 82 million tons.
Where does municipal waste end up?
After it has been collected by an authorized firm, waste is carried to locations for recycling, composting, or recovery, or taken to landfill sites.
Despite the rise of innovative recycling technologies and the wider adoption rate across the world, landfill remains the most common method of disposing of and treating waste. Naturally, this leads to the creation of many landfill sites, some of which span thousands of acres (up to 9 square kilometers), such as the Apex Regional Landfill.
More on the largest landfill and dump sites later in the article.
What regions generate the most waste?
In terms of the total volume of waste generation, the Asian region – home to around 60% of the global population, tops the list.
The graph below illustrates the global volume of waste by region, broken down by its composition.
Source: Beyond an age of waste
Note: In, the “Other” category includes textiles, wood, rubber, leather, household products, and personal hygiene products.
Why do low-income nations have less municipal solid waste than high-income nations?
- Low-income countries are usually home to large rural populations, meaning that more people reside near food production sites.
Since these countries make use of much less packaging to ship food to urban regions, the level of MSW is lower compared to developed countries.
- In contrast, higher-income nations, which also have a higher level of urbanization, need more packaging to be able to safely ship food from rural to urban regions.
Furthermore, since higher-income consumers are more likely to pay more attention to convenience, this leads to a greater volume of single-use goods and packaging from home delivery and takeaway food ending up in the MSW stream.
Finally, high-income consumers simply have more disposable income, which they can and do spend on various products.
Top countries in terms of waste production worldwide
Based on the latest data available, the United States is the world’s greatest producer of municipal waste, generating almost 265.2 million metric tons of garbage every year.
The graph below shows the countries with the world’s highest volume of waste generation (in million metric tons)
Source: Statista
World’s largest landfills and dump sites
Located near the famous city of Las Vegas, USA, the Apex Regional Landfill holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s biggest landfill covering an area of 2,200 acres (890 hectares), which can be compared to 1,250 football pitches. Opened in 1993, its anticipated life expectancy is 250 years.
The other two biggest landfills are:
- Bordo Poniente located in Mexico City, Mexico, with an area extending to 927 acres or 375 hectares
- Laogang, found in Shanghai, Chin,a covers a total area of 830 acres or 335 hectares.
Landfill sites are usually situated far from cities. Very few people care about waste sorting and waste disposal as long as it is done in an “invisible” way. However, they could be made aware of the magnitude of the issue simply by being shown how much of their unsorted waste goes to landfill. It is therefore interesting to take a look at how much waste is being disposed of annually at the top 10 landfill sites.
Source: Statista.com
The three biggest sites in terms of the area covered are not the same as the top three sites in terms of annual waste disposal volume. That said, here is the list of the largest landfills in terms of annual volume of waste:
Source: Statista
Over the course of a year, around 7.3 million tons of waste are delivered to the Mesquite landfill site near Brawley in the United States, with this figure surpassing any other landfill site in the world.
As for the largest landfill site in terms of area, Apex Regional is listed in fifth place, handling more than 3.3 million tons of waste annually.
Global Waste Index: Data on waste generation and recycling in OECD countries
One of the latest available data-aggregating reports, the Global Waste Index 2025, analyzes and describes the way the most developed countries in the world, namely the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), generate and recycle their waste (all data is provided in kg/person).
It would be worth noting that the study analyzed a number of factors to come up with the results. These factors include landfill usage, recycling initiatives, as well as long-term strategies developed for waste handling.
Note that waste incineration is better than landfill in terms of environmental impact. With this in mind, only half of the 38 nations incinerate more than they deposit in landfill, the list being topped by Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, and Norway.
Several countries take pride in their advanced waste management processes, as well as having impressive recycling levels.
Let’s take a closer look at how countries manage their waste, based on the data from the Global Waste Index 2025 (kilograms per capita per year):
Source: Sensoneo.com
The top three countries by waste generation and recycling
- Japan rose from 7th place in 2022 to the top spot thanks to its low landfill rates and waste output levels.
- At 54%, South Korea has the highest recycling rate of any country, placing it in second place among the OECD nations.
- Unexpectedly, Estonia came third with virtually no waste going to landfill.
The top three worst countries by waste generation and recycling
- Israel is the country with the most per capita garbage creation (among OECD countries), producing up to 650 kg of municipal waste per person annually.
- The data from 2019 and 2025 shows that Chile and the United States continue to rank among the OECD’s top waste generators. In the 2019 report, it was estimated that the United States ranked first in terms of per capita waste generation – on average, each resident produced over 800 kg of MSW per year, while in the 2025 Global Waste Index, this figure increased to 951 kilograms per capita. Although the U.S. accounts for about 4% of the global population, it generates 12% of MSW.
Incineration vs. Landfill
Incineration has become a viable alternative to landfill, particularly for items that are difficult to recycle.
It minimizes the need for landfill sites, which pollute the soil and underground water, by drastically lowering the content of waste by up to 90% through controlled burning at high temperatures.
One of the major advantages of waste incineration is energy production: the heat produced during incineration is transformed into power or district heating by contemporary waste-to-energy plants.
Check out the video that explains this process:
Modern waste incineration is safer and cleaner than it was in the past, thanks to the sophisticated filtration mechanisms that many modern incineration technologies feature. However, not all toxic pollutants can be captured, with some of the dioxins, furans, and heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and cadmium escaping into the atmosphere.
What is the total cost of waste?
Due to unsustainable consumption and generation patterns, the amount of waste that has to be managed is continually rising, triggering increased direct costs for society.
According to estimates presented in the UN’s report, in 2020, the cost of MSW management around the world was US$252.3 billion.
Here’s what impacts this cost:
- Waste collection – the costliest part of waste management, which involves wages for personnel, vehicle fuel and maintenance, insurance, and other indirect costs.
- Recycling which involves sorting and processing infrastructure, as well as ongoing operational costs.
- Waste disposal facilities, such as waste-to-energy plants and landfill sites, need considerable upfront infrastructure expenditure. Moreover, they have high operational costs.
- Open waste disposal also involves direct expenses, such as the need to extinguish fires and the loss of land value.
Source: Beyond an age of waste
Final word
It is obvious that the largest economies and most populous countries, such as China and the United States, generate the most waste in the world. At the same time, significant effort is being made by governments to achieve environmental sustainability. However, with overconsumption, the trend is difficult to change, and data shows that by 2050, advanced nations will register a 19% increase in daily per capita waste, while low-income countries will generate double that amount.
