Waste management spans everyday municipal rubbish, food scraps, packaging, plastics and discarded electronics. The figures below show how much waste is generated, how it is handled, and where recovery systems remain incomplete. Dates and geographies vary by source, so each statistic is identified clearly.
Contents
- Global generation and cost
- Composition and material streams
- Collection and controlled disposal
- Recycling and recovery
- Food waste and organic materials
- Plastic waste and packaging
- E-waste and special waste
Global generation and cost
The World Bank’s What a Waste 2.0 report estimated that the world generated 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually in 2016. Average generation was 0.74 kilograms per person per day, although reported country-level figures ranged from 0.11 to 4.54 kilograms per person per day.
The same 2016 assessment found a sharp difference between population share and waste share. High-income countries represented 16% of the world’s population but generated about 34% of global waste, equal to 683 million tonnes. The report projects that daily per-capita waste generation in high-income countries will increase by 19% by 2050. In low- and middle-income countries, daily per-capita generation is projected to increase by approximately 40% or more by 2050, while total waste generation in low-income countries is projected to increase by more than three times.
Global annual municipal waste generation is projected to reach 3.40 billion tonnes by 2050. This is a forecast, not a measured total. It describes the scale of the management challenge if current generation and development patterns continue.
The Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 estimated the direct global cost of waste management at USD 252 billion in 2020. Including pollution, poor-health and climate costs associated with poor disposal, the estimated annual cost rose to USD 361 billion in 2020. These are estimates of economic cost, not waste tonnage.
Composition and material streams
The European Union provides a detailed recent view of municipal waste streams. According to Eurostat’s Municipal waste statistics, EU municipal waste generation totaled 234.4 million tonnes in 2023.
| EU municipal waste stream, 2023 | Quantity | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Biowaste | 67.4 million tonnes | 28.8% |
| Mixed municipal waste | 47.5 million tonnes | 20.3% |
| Other municipal waste | 33.9 million tonnes | 14.5% |
| Paper and cardboard | 32.6 million tonnes | 13.9% |
| Plastic | 17.5 million tonnes | 7.5% |
| Glass | 14.8 million tonnes | 6.3% |
| Wood | 7.9 million tonnes | Not stated |
| Metal | 6.9 million tonnes | Not stated |
Biowaste was the largest named EU stream, at 67.4 million tonnes. Mixed municipal waste was the second-largest named category, while paper and cardboard accounted for 32.6 million tonnes. Plastic and glass accounted for 17.5 million tonnes and 14.8 million tonnes respectively. The published percentages are retained as reported; wood and metal quantities are listed without adding unsupported shares.
These categories matter for household recycling decisions because the same broad municipal system contains very different materials. Organic waste may be composted or digested, paper and metal can enter material-recovery systems, and mixed waste is more difficult to sort into clean material streams.
Collection and controlled disposal
Waste generation does not guarantee safe collection or disposal. The World Bank estimated that at least 33% of global municipal solid waste was not managed in an environmentally safe manner in 2016. Separately, the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 reported an estimate that about 2.7 billion people globally lacked access to solid-waste collection. The collection figure is identified by UNEP as an estimate reported in 2023, while the 33% figure describes the World Bank’s 2016 assessment.
EU landfill data show a long-term shift in disposal. Eurostat reports that EU municipal waste sent to landfill fell from 121 million tonnes in 1995 to 50 million tonnes in 2024. The EU municipal-waste landfilling rate declined from 61% in 1995 to 24% in 2024, and landfilling declined by an average of 2.0% per year over that period.
Landfill was not the only residual-waste route. EU municipal-waste incineration reached 61 million tonnes in 2024. Incineration and landfill are different treatment routes, so neither figure should be treated as a recycling total.
For a U.S. reference point, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Overview reports that about 146.1 million tons of municipal solid waste were landfilled in 2018. The U.S. figure uses tons, while the global and EU figures above use tonnes; the units should not be silently combined.
Recycling and recovery
EU recovery performance improved substantially over the period covered by Eurostat. Municipal waste recycling, including material recycling plus composting and digestion, was 19% in 1995 and 48% in 2024. Eurostat also reports that municipal-waste recycling and composting increased at an average annual rate of 6.9% from 1995 to 2024.
In absolute terms, EU municipal waste recycled through material recycling and composting totaled 111 million tonnes in 2024. That equaled 247 kilograms per capita. The 48% rate includes material recycling, composting and digestion, whereas the 111-million-tonne and 247-kilogram figures are described as material recycling and composting in the source; these measures should not be treated as interchangeable without checking the definition.
| EU municipal-waste indicator | Earlier point | Later point |
|---|---|---|
| Recycling rate | 19% in 1995 | 48% in 2024 |
| Landfilling rate | 61% in 1995 | 24% in 2024 |
| Waste sent to landfill | 121 million tonnes in 1995 | 50 million tonnes in 2024 |
The U.S. EPA reports that U.S. municipal solid waste recycling totaled 69.0 million tons in 2018. Composting totaled 24.9 million tons in the same year. These are U.S. quantities for 2018 and should not be compared directly with the EU’s 2024 rates as though they described the same population, year or accounting method.
Food waste and organic materials
Food is a major component of the waste problem, and it is measured separately from total municipal waste in the FAO Food Loss and Food Waste Database. The world generated 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste in 2022. That equaled 132 kilograms per person in 2022.
Food waste at the retail, food-service and household levels represented 19% of food available to consumers in 2022. Households generated 60% of global food waste, food services generated 28%, and retail generated 12%.
| Where consumer-level food waste occurred | Share in 2022 |
|---|---|
| Households | 60% |
| Food services | 28% |
| Retail | 12% |
Food waste is distinct from food loss earlier in the supply chain. The FAO estimate reported in 2024 states that 13.2% of food is lost in the supply chain after harvest and before retail. Its timing and scope differ from the 2022 consumer-level food-waste figures, so the two percentages should not be added together.
Plastic waste and packaging
The OECD Global Plastics Outlook reports that global plastics use reached 460 million tonnes in 2019. Global plastic waste generation reached 353 million tonnes in that year, and only 9% of global plastic waste was ultimately recycled.
The remaining flows included 67 million tonnes handled through industrial incineration and 174 million tonnes received by sanitary landfills in 2019. Mismanaged and littered plastic waste reached 82 million tonnes per year, while an estimated 22 million tonnes of plastics leaked into the environment.
These figures describe different points in the plastic system: use, waste generation, recycling, treatment, disposal, mismanagement and environmental leakage. They should not be summed because the categories can describe overlapping stages or different accounting boundaries.
E-waste and special waste
Electronic waste is growing quickly and is not captured by ordinary household recycling figures. The Global e-Waste Monitor 2024 reports that the world generated 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022. Only 22.3% was documented as formally collected and recycled.
The regional picture was uneven. Europe’s formally documented e-waste collection and recycling rate was 42.8% in 2022, while less than 1% of e-waste was formally recycled in African countries in 2022. Cross-border e-waste shipments totaled 5.1 million tonnes, or 8.2% of global e-waste, in 2022.
The monitor projects global e-waste generation to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030. The documented global e-waste collection and recycling rate is projected to fall to 20% by 2030. Both figures are forecasts. The projected rate can decline even as collection volumes grow if e-waste generation increases faster than documented formal recycling.
Policy coverage is expanding but remains incomplete. E-waste legislation existed in 81 countries in 2023, including 67 countries with legal instruments promoting extended producer responsibility. These counts describe legislation and policy instruments, not proof that every device was collected or recycled through a formal system.