US top of
the garbage pile in global waste crisis
3 July 2019
Trucks line up at an incinerator in the
US where rubbish burning is often the only option
The world produces over two billion
tonnes of municipal solid waste every year, enough to fill over 800,000 Olympic
sized swimming pools.
Per head of population the worst
offenders are the US, as Americans produce three times the global average of
waste, including plastic and food.
When it comes to recycling, America
again lags behind other countries, only re-using 35% of solid waste.
Germany is the most efficient
country, recycling 68% of material.
The study has been compiled by
Verisk Maplecroft, a research firm that specialises in global risk,
They've developed two new indices,
on waste generation and recycling.
They've used publically-available
data, plus academic research to develop a global picture of how countries are
coping at a time when the world is facing a mounting crisis, primarily driven
by plastic.
The waste generation index shows per
capita rates of municipal solid waste, plastic, food and hazardous materials.
Media captionWhy is the US so bad at
recycling?
Municipal solid waste is rubbish
that's collected by local authorities from residential, institutional and
commercial sources.
While the world produces 2.1bn
tonnes of this rubbish every year, only 16% is recycled while 46% is disposed
of unsustainably.
In the analysis, China and India
make up over 36% of the global population and account for 27% of the waste.
US citizens produce 773kg per head
of population, roughly 12% of the global total. Their output is three times
that of their Chinese counterparts and seven times more than people living in
Ethiopia.
Other European countries, including
the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Germany, feature on the list. The UK
ranks 14th in the waste index generating 482kg of household waste per person
every year.
The US is the only developed nation
with waste generation that outstrips its ability to recycle.
"Where the US is doing badly is
the relationship between what it generates and its capacity to recycle,"
said Niall Smith, one of the authors of the report.
"And relative to it's high
income peers, that's where it is performing poorly."
When it comes to recycling in the
US, the issue seems to be one of political will and infrastructure.
Image copyright ANDARU Image caption
Containers of rubbish from developed countries are now being turned back by
developing nations
"I think you see in survey
after survey that infrastructure in the US just isn't there to provide the
recycling option," said Will Nichols, head of environmental research at
Verisk Mapelcroft.
"A lot of US waste - now that
it can't get shipped to China - is just getting burnt, there just isn't the
investment in place in infrastructure to deal with this problem."
The banning of waste imports in
China, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia is changing the global dynamic. There
have been tensions between the government of the Philippines which sent back 69
shipping containers containing waste to Canada. Containers of rubbish from developed countries are now
being turned back by developing nations
"They (Asian countries) don't
want to be the world's dumping ground anymore," said Will Nichols.
Cars dumped on the prairie in
the US
"There's a growing middle class
who are not happy with levels of pollution and China because of its political
situation has the policy levers to address these issues more quickly than
others."
The report suggests there may be a
rocky road ahead, especially for businesses. Verisk Maplecroft expects
governments to act on waste issues but with businesses footing the bill.
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