These Are the World’s Biggest Producers of Waste

Similar to other countries on the list, Serbia also generates a large amount of construction industry waste — over 46 million metric tons of the 62 million metric tons of total waste.

The residential construction industry in Serbia has been booming over the last several years. Permits are being issued in record numbers. The huge amount of construction and demolition waste may be partially explained by a law that requires 70% of construction material and built-in equipment to be made in Serbia. Regulation and individual initiatives to properly manage construction waste are both lacking. This has resulted in construction waste going directly to municipal landfills without sorting.

Ukraine, one of the biggest arms dealers in the world, generates just over 474 million metric tons of waste a year, 448 million of which is hazardous waste. No other of the 105 countries for which data on hazardous waste is available produces more such waste. The government has recognized hazardous waste management as the most urgent and critical issue that needs to be addressed in waste management in general. Lack of financing has been identified as a major reason for the lack of initiatives in the field.

Most of the other 26 million metric tons of waste in Ukraine is municipal solid waste and agricultural waste, which includes garbage produced in farms, poultry and slaughterhouses, harvest waste, fertilizer run-off from fields, and pesticides.

Luxembourg, a tiny nation of about 600,000 people, produced slightly more than 7 million tonnes of waste in 2017, but only a fraction of it was municipal solid waste. This kind of waste consists of products homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals throw out, such as appliances, clothes, bottles, food, and paper.

The other 90.0% of the garbage was mostly construction and demolition waste. The construction industry in Luxembourg has fared better than many other EU countries since the recession because of its overall strong economy. The number of building companies, as well as building permits, increased between 2008 and 2013. Investment in construction grew by 8.6% after rebounding from the housing crisis. Part of the demand may be explained by the growing tourism industry. Luxembourg is among the most tourism-friendly countries in the world.

Sweden, one of the happiest countries in the world, generates about 163 million tonnes of waste a year, the 15th most of the 178 countries for which data is available. But only a small fraction of that — about 2.6% — is municipal solid waste, while about 93% of the garbage is construction and demolition waste. The rest is mostly medical and hazardous waste.

Though Sweden is among the countries producing the most waste, largely due to the large amount of construction waste, the nation has made improvements in recycling this waste. This kind of waste has been prioritized in the national waste plan and in its waste prevention program.

Armenia produces relatively little municipal waste, with nearly 493,000 tons in 2014. It also ranks among the countries producing the least amount of agricultural and construction waste. However, what contributes to Armenia’s rank among the world’s biggest producers of waste is the huge amount of industrial waste it produces. Of the nearly 48 million tons of total waste the country produces, 47.3 million is industrial.

Armenia does not have processing plants or specialized sites to treat and bury waste, partly explaining its waste problem. Its first solid waste landfill has been in the making since 2011. The country’s garbage is currently being disposed of at uncontrolled dumpsites from which toxins escape into the air in the form of methane gas.

Just about 3.0% of the total waste produced in Finland is municipal waste. Almost half of it is burned, a trend that has only been improving over the last several years. Recycling has also been increasing because it’s a highly advocated method of waste management in the country and in Europe in general.

The other 97.0% of waste generated in the country comes from various industries, but mostly construction. The housing sector in Finland, one of the richest countries in the world, has been growing due to low mortgage rates and expanding urban areas, resulting in an increased demand for new buildings, especially with small apartments in centrally located zones.

Estonia, a rising tourism destination where tourists sometimes outnumber locals, produces a total amount of nearly 31 million metric tons of garbage, and a third of that is hazardous waste. The country generates more than 35 times the EU average of hazardous waste per capita, with almost all of it coming from the oil shale sector. Ash and other waste from combusting and refining ends up in landfill, polluting the air with toxic substances.

The country has set regulations for discharging of hazardous waste with taxes imposed if such waste is dumped into water, but payment of these taxes is not strictly enforced, resulting in weak incentive for companies to reduce their environmental footprint, according to the OECD.

The United States, with the third-largest population of all countries, produced the most municipal solid waste in the world — 258 million tonnes of MSW was generated in 2017. By contrast, second-place China generated 210 million tonnes of MSW in 2017. Adding to this total the World Bank’s special waste categories of industrial, medical, E waste, hazardous, and agricultural waste, the U.S. generates approximately 8.4 billion tonnes of waste in a year.

While the U.S. is the third biggest producer of waste on a per capita basis, some areas within the country are making strides addressing the problem. For example, San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2009 requiring all residents and tourists to compost food waste. The city turned more than a million tonnes of food waste into compost, and as of 2012 had achieved nearly 80% waste diversion — the highest rate of any major U.S. city in the United States. Local government are raising awareness about recycling. Some state now will even pay residents to recycle.

Bulgaria, a country of about 7 million people, generates slightly more garbage per person as the United States, a country of more than 325 million people. This is largely due to the more than 172 million metric tons of waste produced by the construction industry, the fifth highest amount of the 68 countries for which construction and demolition waste data is available.

After an economic slowdown that resulted from the global recession, the construction business is picking up again. Real estate construction has seen the greatest increase in activity — 16.4% between 2010 and 2016. While Bulgaria seems on track to produce even more waste, it is among the countries doing the most to minimize its effect on the environment.

Driven by agricultural waste and industrial waste generation, which totalled 181 million tonnes and 1.12 billion tonnes, respectively, in 2017, Canada’s estimated total waste generation is the highest in the world. Canada produced 1.33 billion metric tonnes of waste, or 36.1 tonnes per person.

According to the Canadian government, waste from industrial activities such as oil refining, chemical manufacturing, and metal processing contains various hazardous chemicals, including acids, phenols, arsenic, lead, and mercury. Industrial waste generation is a long-standing problem in Canada, which sought to address the issue as early as 1992 when it ratified the Basel Convention. Like many affluent nations, Canada exports large portions of its waste to other countries, and the convention controls and aims at reducing these waste shipments. This and other measures put Canada on the list of countries doing the most to protect the environment.