WHAT A WASTE!

background reading | solid waste unit

Studies For Our Global Future

As the global population continues to grow by 80+ million people each year, much of it in urban areas, the world
must manage an ever-growing amount of solid waste. In fact, waste management already comprises the largest
portion of most municipalities’ budgets around the globe. Since the middle of the last century, we have become an
increasingly disposable society, throwing away everything from diapers to food packaging to electronics that are
frequently replaced. How discarded items are disposed of is, and will remain, a cornerstone of public health.

Solid waste generation is on the rise thanks

to continued population growth (more people U.S. TOTAL MSW GENERATION (BY MATERIAL), 2017
creating waste) but also to rising affluence around 267.8 MILLION TONS
the globe (more waste generated per person). In
2016, urban residents generated over 2 billion
tons of garbage (2.6 pounds per person).1 By Metals 9.4%
2050, urban waste is projected to increase 70
percent, to 3.4 billion tons, due to urban and Glass 4.2%
economic growth.2 Urban residents produce, Food 15.2%
on average, twice as much waste per capita as
their rural counterparts. As countries urbanize, Other 3.5%
their economic wealth increases. As standards
of living and disposable income rises, so does the Plastics 13.2%
consumption of goods, resulting in an increase of
waste.

Just as living standards vary across the world, so Rubber, leather & Paper 25.0%
do the types of waste and disposal challenges. textiles 9.7%
Higher income countries produce the most
garbage per person and much of that is made up Wood 6.7%
of paper, plastics and other inorganic materials.
Low-income countries have the highest portion of
organic waste (food, yard and wood wastes). Most Yard trimmings 13.1%
low- and lower middle-income countries dispose
of their waste in open dumps, while higher income
countries are more apt to use sanitary landfills,
incinerators and recycling plants. Source: U.S. EPA

The waste management pyramid

Proponents of sustainable waste management promote an integrated approach to dealing with solid waste. It
takes the form of an inverted pyramid with the most preferred waste management strategies at the top and
the least preferred at the bottom. In this case, the top of the inverted pyramid is source reduction and reuse of
materials, followed by recycling and composting. Moving down the hierarchy is energy recovery – creating energy
from waste, usually through incineration. Finally, the bottom tip of the pyramid is treatment and disposal, mostly
in sanitary landfills.

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 Source reduction (or waste
prevention) involves practices that
prevent waste from being generated
in the first place. On a household
level, this can include reusing items,
donating items for others to use and
buying in bulk to reduce packaging.
Industries can redesign products to
minimize waste. Aside from reducing
waste, source reduction also saves
natural resources, conserves energy,
reduces pollution and saves money for
consumers and businesses.

In managing the more than 2 billion

tons of waste that the world’s
Source: European Commission Environment Programme
people generate, recycling and
composting are the most sustainable
strategies. Recycling involves sorting and processing recyclable products (e.g. paper, cardboard, glass, plastics
and aluminum) into raw materials that can be used to create new products. Composting is the decomposition
of organic materials, such as food scraps and yard waste, into usable, nutrient-rich fertilizer. Recycling and
composting have a number of benefits to the environment. These practices prevent water and air pollution, save
energy, supply raw materials to industry, create jobs, conserve resources and reduce the need for landfills and
incinerators.

For trash that is not easily recyclable, energy recovery (often through combustion) offers a waste management
option that reduces the volume of waste and provides energy generation. With energy recovery (sometimes
called waste-to-energy), non-recyclable waste is converted into useable heat, electricity or fuel through a variety
of processes. Using this energy
in place of energy generated by
burning fossil fuels reduces carbon
dioxide emissions. The resulting
ash (representing just 10 percent
of the original waste volume) can
then be disposed of in landfills
but must be treated carefully, as
it contains high concentrations of
toxic metals such as lead. Despite
careful pollution regulations on
what incinerators release into the
air, gaseous emissions frequently
include toxic compounds called
dioxins, as well as carbon
monoxide and sulfur dioxide, all of
which can be harmful to humans
and the environment.
Photo Credit: zeljkosantrac/[Link]

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Waste that can’t be recycled or converted to energy would be disposed of in landfills. Landfills are holes in the
ground consisting of a liner made of clay or plastic to contain the wastes, pipes and pumps to remove water
and other liquids that collect in the landfill, and a cover to keep water out and to prevent wastes from spilling
over the sides. The pumping system is essential to prevent leachate (the liquid mix of rainwater and waste)
from contaminating groundwater and surface water. Landfills can also emit hazardous, and sometimes highly
flammable, gases such as methane if not built and managed with safeguards in place. Methane from landfills
represent 12 percent of total global methane emissions.3 Over the course of 100 years, methane has 34 times the
impact of carbon dioxide.4

Source: U.S. EPA

Environmental justice
It is important to note that more often than not, municipal waste incinerators and landfills in the United States
are located in or near low-income communities and communities of color.5 As a result, health issues related to
such sites disproportionately affect these communities. Toxins from landfills can and do leak into the local water
supply, resulting in cancer, birth defects, and other serious health issues.6 In the early 1980s, residents in Warren
County, North Carolina organized and protested a proposed PCB-contaminated landfill in their community,
creating momentum for the modern-day environmental justice movement.7

According to the EPA, two goals of environmental justice are to ensure people have “the same degree of
protection from environmental and health hazards” and “equal access to the decision-making process to have a
healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.”8

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Recycling in the U.S.
In most places, the hierarchy of integrated waste management is more an aspiration than reality. In the United
States, more than half of solid waste ends up in landfills. About one-third is recycled and composted, and about
one-eighth is incinerated. Out of the 4.5 pounds of garbage each U.S. resident generates, about 1.6 pounds is
recycled or composted. Significant amounts of paper and yard trimmings are recovered (over 65 percent of each),
but smaller amounts of other waste items are, such as food waste (6 percent), plastics (8 percent) and aluminum
(16 percent).9 Most of those items wind up in landfills. So even while the percentage of waste that is recycled has
grown (it was just 10 percent in 1985 and was around 35 percent in 2017), success has been uneven.10

Source: U.S. EPA

The benefits of increased recycling rates can’t be overstated. When manufactured products use recycled
materials, it reduces the need for virgin materials. This saves energy that would be required to extract and
process the virgin materials, which includes the burning of fossil fuels. Every ton of paper recycled can save 322
gallons of gasoline. Recycling one ton of aluminum cans conserves the equivalent energy of 1,024 gallons of
gasoline.11 The materials recycled in 2014 alone, saved 1.1 quadrillion BTUs of energy – the amount consumed by
25 million households in a year.12 Beyond energy savings, recycling more of our waste would reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and conserve natural resources that are extracted and harvested at a cost to manufacturers and
the environment. Over 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are associated with materials management
(extraction or harvest of materials, production and transport of goods, provision of services and disposal). The
94 million tons of waste recycled and composted in 2017 reduced emissions by 184 million tons (equal to the

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amount emitted by 39 million cars in one year).13 Recycling also creates jobs to collect, sort, and process items.
The EPA’s most recent 2016 report on the economic benefits of recycling showed that in 2007, recycling created
over 750,000 jobs and generated over $6 million in tax revenues.14 At a state level, more recent data amplifies the
economic benefits. In California, for every job in recycling, eight jobs are created to manufacture the recovered
material into a new product.15

So why aren’t we recycling and composting more of our waste? Surveys show that most individuals want to be
effective recyclers but sometimes lack current information on what can be recycled in their communities, or
they don’t have convenient access to recycling services. Because recycling is a $200 billion business globally,
driven by supply and demand of raw materials in the marketplace, items that are being recycled can change.16
To be effectively recycled, materials need to be of high quality, meaning that they are not contaminated by
other waste. In order to drive up recycling participation, many communities have opted for “single-stream”
recycling where all recyclables can go into one bin. While this makes it easier for households, single-stream
recycling doubles the contamination rate, so that many items that we think we’ve recycled have to ultimately be
discarded.

In 2018, China banned the imports of dozens of types of solid waste from abroad, including paper and plastics.
For decades, China imported the majority of the world’s scraps, from plastic shampoo bottles to junk mail. The
U.S. is now scrambling to find ways to sort through and process the millions of tons of waste it previously sent
to China each year. Some municipalities have started tossing recycling waste into landfills. Others are using
advertising campaigns to better educate people about what can and cannot be recycled, in an effort to reduce
the work needed to sort through all the waste.17

As far as high-income countries go, the United States is in the middle of the pack for recycling rates although the
U.S. generates far more waste than it recycles compared to other high-income countries. Germany recycles and
composts nearly twice as much (66 percent) of its waste. Other countries that recover more than half of their
nations’ waste include Wales, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Austria, and Slovenia.18

A global problem
Solid waste management is essential for
maintaining public health and is one of the United
Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
However, solid waste is also one of the most
harmful local pollutants worldwide. Uncollected
garbage is typically the leading contributor to
local flooding and air and water pollution. Even
when garbage is collected, it is usually placed
in unsanitary, open dumps. In poorer countries,
where waste is dumped in low-lying areas and
adjacent to slums, there is the potential for
Photo Credit: baranozdemir/[Link]
infectious medical and hazardous waste to
mix with household garbage, contaminating
groundwater and surface water supplies. Over 40 percent of the world’s garbage is burned, which creates air
pollution and countless health issues. For example, about 12 percent of the world’s solid waste is plastic. When
burned, plastic releases toxic fumes, such as dioxins, that settle on crops, soil, waterways, and then enter our food
and bodies. Burning plastic also contributes to black carbon (soot) that fuels climate change.19

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Per capita waste generation in lower income countries is considerably less than for high-income countries (about
one-third of a pound per person per day in Ethiopia, for example, compared to nearly 5 pounds per person per
day in the U.S.).20 But because the world’s poorest countries are experiencing the highest population growth rate,
there is a lack of infrastructure needed to adequately deal with the growing problem of solid waste. Recycling
programs in all but the most developed countries are virtually non-existent.

One of the newest challenges in global waste management is what to do with the burgeoning stream of electronic
waste, or “e-waste,” from discarded cell phones, computers, televisions, and other personal electronics. E-waste
contains toxic materials such as lead, mercury, arsenic and chromium, all of which can threaten wildlife and
human health. The world economy generated over 53 million tons of e-waste in 2019, and worldwide, only 17.4
percent was formally collected and recycled.21 Much of the e-waste collected in the U.S. for alleged “recycling”
or “reuse” is actually exported to less developed countries for unsafe salvage and metals recovery. Most of these
receiving countries lack the capacity to safely recycle and dispose of discarded and used electronics, and as a
result, face health risks from leeching chemicals. Discarded electronics also contain many raw metals, such as
gold, silver, copper and platinum. In 2019, the value of raw materials from all e-waste had an estimated worth of
$57 billion.22 If all of this material was properly recycled and reused, it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions
caused from extracting and processing virgin raw materials from the Earth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken solid waste management practices as the demand for single-use plastic
items, from face masks and latex gloves to takeout containers, has increased.23 Despite this rise, many cities
limited or halted their recycling and composting services. New York City suspended curbside compost pick-up
until further notice, asking residents to instead discard food scraps with their trash. This means more solid waste
ended up in landfills or was incinerated.

The future of cutting waste

Landfills, incinerators, and recycling centers are the
last stops in the lifecycles of all the products the nearly
8 billion of us use. The first stage starts with resource
extraction and harvesting the raw materials – 97 billion
metric tons annually – that then get manufactured
into an astonishing array of goods. “The lifestyles of
people in the richest nations are heavily dependent on
resources extracted from poorer countries,” the United
Nations states.24 Most of the extracted materials are
nonrenewable resources – fossil fuels and minerals.
Environmental costs weigh on every stage of this
lifecycle of our disposable goods. In the long run,
source reduction provides the most environmentally
Source: U.S. EPA
sound way of dealing with our growing solid waste
problem. Even as the rate of global population growth
declines, our rate of materials use continues to grow, as societies become more affluent. Finding ways to boost
economies without producing more waste will be a challenge for individuals and businesses around the globe.

© 2021 POPULATION CONNECTION solid waste unit | WHAT A WASTE! 6

1
The World Bank. (2019). Solid Waste Management [brief]. Retrieved from [Link]
management
2
Wahba, S., Kaza, S. & Ionkova, K. (2019, November 12). A new phenomenon – realizing economic growth while cutting waste. HOW? World Bank blog.
Retrieved from [Link]
3,4
Project Drawdown (n.d.) Landfill methane capture. Retrieved from [Link]
5
Mohai, P. & Saha, R. (2015). Which came first, people or pollution? Assessing the disparate siting and post-siting demographic change hypotheses of
environmental injustice. Environmental Research Letters,10(11). Retrieved from [Link]
6
Vrijheid, M. (2014). Health effects of residence near hazardous waste landfill sites: A review of epidemiologic literature. Environmental Health
Perspectives, 28(1). Retrieved from [Link]
waste_landfill_sites_3v.pdf
7
U.S. Department of Energy (n.d.) Environmental justice history. Office of Legacy Management. Retrieved from [Link]
environmental-justice/environmental-justice-history
8
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2019). Environmental justice. Retrieved from [Link]
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2017, November). Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2017 Fact Sheet. Retrieved from [Link]
9,10

[Link]/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/advancing-sustainable-materials-management
11
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2019). Frequent questions on recycling. Retrieved from [Link]
recycling
12
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2016, November). Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2014 Fact Sheet. Retrieved from [Link]
[Link]/sites/production/files/2016-11/documents/2014_smmfactsheet_508.pdf
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2019). Sustainable Materials Management Basics. Retrieved from [Link]
13

materials-management-basics
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2016, October). Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2016 Recycling Economic Information (REI)
14

Report. Retrieved from [Link]

15
Stanford University (n.d.) Frequently asked questions: benefits of recycling. Retrieved from [Link]
asked-questions/frequently-asked-questions-benefits-recycling
16
Hook, L. & Reed, J. (2018, October 25). Why the world’s recycling system stopped working. Financial Times. Retrieved from [Link]
content/360e2524-d71a-11e8-a854-33d6f82e62f8
17
Chaudhuri, S. (2019, December 19). Recycling rethink: What to do with trash now that China won’t take it. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://
[Link]/articles/recycling-rethink-what-to-do-with-trash-now-china-wont-take-it-11576776536
18
European Environmental Bureau and Eunomia (2017, March 13). Recycling – Who Really Leads the World? (Issue 2). Retrieved from [Link]
[Link]/reports-tools/recycling-who-really-leads-the-world-issue-2/
19
United Nations Environment Program. (2019, May 19). Plastic bag bans can help reduce toxic fumes. Retrieved from [Link]
news-and-stories/story/plastic-bag-bans-can-help-reduce-toxic-fumes
20
The World Bank. (2020). What a waste 2.0. A global snapshot of solid waste management to 2050. Retrieved from [Link]
a-waste/
Forti V., Baldé C.P., Kuehr R., & Bel G. (2020). The global e-waste monitor 2020: quantities, flows and the circular economy potential. Bonn/Geneva/
21,22

Rotterdam: United Nations University (UNU)/United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) – co-hosted SCYCLE Programme, International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) & International Solid Waste Association (ISWA).
23
Meidl, R. (2020, April 14). Pandemic, plastics and the continuing quest for sustainability. Forbes. [Link]
thebakersinstitute/2020/04/14/pandemic-plastics-and-the-continuing-quest-for-sustainability/#6b6801e377b4
24
United Nations. (2020). SDG report goal 12. Retrieved from [Link]

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