Global Waste Index 2025

These are the biggest waste polluters worldwide

The Global Waste Index by Sensoneo compares waste management across the 38 member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Launched in 2019, it highlighted top waste producers and key global trends. The 2022 edition reflected the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact – straining systems and increasing disposable waste like masks and test kits. It also introduced “The Recycling Myth,” revealing how reported recycling rates, especially for plastics, can be misleading.

The 2025 update now reflects a world shaped by inflation, conflict, and uncertainty, offering fresh data on waste generation, recycling, incineration, and landfilling. All four factors are measured as mass in kilograms per inhabitant per year. The result is the following Global Waste Index 2025:

GWI 2025 ranks countries in descending order, starting with those performing the worst, based on the most recent data available in each country. Click on the table headers to sort by generated waste, recycling, incineration, or landfill. 
All values represent kilograms per capita per year.

Biggest waste polluters worldwide 

After a comprehensive analysis of waste management in 38 countries, Israel has emerged as the country with the highest per capita waste generation, producing up to 650 kg of municipal waste per person annually. Of this amount, 524 kg is landfilled, representing 80% of the country’s total waste  – the highest landfill share among all analyzed nations. Consistent with data from 2019 and 2022, Chile and the United States continue to rank among the world’s most significant waste polluters. 

On the other end of the spectrum are two Asian countries. Japan jumped to first place from seventh in 2022, thanks to low rates of waste generation and landfilling. South Korea secured second place with the highest recycling rate among all nations – 54%. Surprisingly, Estonia joined the top three with almost no waste sent to landfills. Positive rankings were also achieved by Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Finland, as well as by DACH region countries, Germany and Austria. 

American waste management horror story

As in 2022, the country generating the most municipal solid waste remains unchanged: the United States has even increased its output from 811 kilograms to 951 kilograms per capita. Along with its neighbor Canada, both North American nations rank at the bottom in terms of waste management, with alarming rates of landfill disposal.

The United States sends 447 kg of its 951 kg of waste per capita to landfills, while Canada has an even higher proportion: 486 kg out of 684 kg of all generated waste ends up in landfills. We dedicated a separate article on our website to waste management practices in North America, organizing the data state by state and exploring the reasons behind the region’s poor ranking.

Read more about waste production in the USA

How waste production trends shifted

There are several noteworthy observations when examining how the figures have changed since the last edition of the Global Waste Index in 2022. Belgium and Austria recorded the largest increases in per capita waste generation, both rising by more than 200 kilograms over the observed period. Austria, despite this noticeable growth, achieved the highest increase in recycling  – reaching a total of 334 kilograms per capita, which represents 42% of its generated waste, even before the introduction of a national deposit return scheme.

 

New Zealand achieved a remarkable reduction in landfilling over the past few years, decreasing the amount of waste sent to landfill by 423 kilograms per capita per year. This significant progress reflects a clear shift away from landfill disposal. At the same time, Belgium and Lithuania increased their use of waste-to-energy incineration by over 100 kilograms per person within few years. Hungary, the United States, and Israel recorded a notable rise in landfilling rates. 

The Positive Impact of DRS

Well-designed and efficiently functioning Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) could significantly improve recycling rates of secondary raw materials from the non-alcoholic beverage sector. When looking at the GWI ranking, it becomes clear that countries with established DRS rank among the highest in overall waste management performance. Nations such as Estonia, Germany, Finland, Sweden, and Norway consistently achieve top scores. On the other end of the spectrum are countries like Turkey, Chile, Greece, and Mexico, where no DRS is currently in place.

The trend of implementing such a circular economy system is on the rise. Since the 2022 edition of GWI, new countries from the ranking have introduced Deposit Refund Systems: Romania in 2023, Ireland and Hungary in 2024, and Austria in 2025. All of these countries are using an IT system for DRS powered by Sensoneo. In this way, we can assume that countries with active Deposit Refund Systems also adopt a more sustainable and environmentally friendly stance toward other waste management practices, such as incineration or landfilling. More interesting insights and data on the impact of DRS on collection rates of PET bottles and overall waste management practices are explored in the full article on our website.

Read more about the impact of Deposit Return Schemes

Incineration vs. Landfill 

Incineration has emerged as a viable and efficient waste management method, particularly for materials that cannot be easily recycled. This process involves the controlled burning of waste at high temperatures, significantly reducing waste volume by up to 90% minimizing the need for landfills. One of the key benefits of this method is energy recovery: modern waste-to-energy plants convert the heat generated during incineration into electricity or district heating, providing a renewable energy source for thousands of homes and businesses. Many of today’s incineration technologies are equipped with advanced filtration systems that limit harmful emissions, making the process cleaner and safer than in the past. 

Nineteen of the 38 countries in the report incinerate more than they landfill. On the other end of the waste management approach are countries where more than 50% of waste ends up in landfills, which is particularly alarming. These include Israel, Canada, Greece, Chile, Turkey, Costa Rica, Colombia, Hungary, Portugal, Mexico, and Australia. 

Conclusion 

With the new edition of the Global Waste Index, we at Sensoneo aim once again to draw attention to the growing global waste problem. This updated evaluation, based on the latest data, allows us to compare waste volumes and waste management practices between 2019 and 2022. The comparison reveals both positive and negative trend. Many countries succeeded in reducing their waste production, while others saw increases.

We would like to emphasize that the Global Waste Index serves as an indicator of the world’s largest waste producers. A good score in the index does not necessarily mean that a country’s waste management practices are optimal or do not require improvement. The overarching goal must be to generate as little waste as possible. That is why, in this year’s index, we have adjusted the weighting of the factors and placing greater importance on smaller waste generation and higher recycling rates.

To ensure waste is managed as efficiently as possible, it is essential that companies, public entities, and individuals take responsibility and contribute their part. At Sensoneo, we focus on developing solutions that digitally transform waste management, ensuring traceability, data reliability and accuracy, and operational efficiency.

View Global Waste Index 2022 for comparison 

 

Methodology  

The Global Waste Index 2025 provides a comparative analysis of waste management across the 38 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) based on the most recent data available in each country. First compiled in 2019 and subsequently updated in 2022, the index now includes data up to 2025. This allows for a comparison of global waste disposal trends from 2019 to the present.  

The 2025 Global Waste Index differs from the 2022 edition in that the categories “unaccounted waste” and “open dumping” were excluded due to insufficient recent data. Another difference from the 2022 index is that the weighting of each factor was adjusted in this ranking, i.e. giving one factor more weight in the final sum than the others, therefore emphasizing certain factors for the final scoring. Factors were adjusted with the following weighting:

  • Municipal waste: 4
  • Recycling: 3
  • Waste incineration: 2
  • Landfill: 1  

As a result, a revised version of the 2022 Global Waste Index, omitting these two factors and adjusted by weighting factors, has also been created and can be accessed here.  

The following four factors were examined: 

  • Recycling – Mass in kilograms per inhabitant per year that is declared to become new raw materials  
  • Waste incineration – Mass in kilograms per inhabitant per year that is incinerated in a controlled manner  
  • Landfill – Mass in kilograms per inhabitant per year that is landfilled in a controlled and uncontrolled manner  
  • Waste generated – Mass in kilograms per inhabitant per year.

Municipal waste refers to a wide range of everyday materials such as paper and cardboard, plastic items, glass, metals, organic waste like food scraps and garden clippings, as well as textiles. This type of waste is typically generated by households, businesses, offices, and public institutions including schools, hospitals, and government facilities. It includes bulky waste, garden waste, street sweepings and contents collected from public litter bins.

This analysis does not include composting, open dumping, or other forms of waste processing due to insufficient recent data across all countries. As a result, the total amount of municipal solid waste from recycling, incineration, and landfill does not always add up to 100%.

Sources  

Data from the following sources were used to calculate the ranking:  

  1. Eurostat: Municipal waste by waste management operations  
  2. OECD: Municipal waste (Australia, United Kingdom, Israel)  
  3. OECD: Municipal waste by treatment operation (Costa Rica, Japan, South Korea)  
  4. Government of Canada, Made in CA: Recycling Statistics in Canada (Canada)  
  5. OECD Data Explorer: Municipal waste: generation and treatment (Chile, Colombia, Mexico)  
  6. Ministry of Environment New Zealand, New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, BERL Waste to Energy Report (New Zealand)  
  7. Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland)  

USA  

Due to the absence of recent national data for the United States, we conducted a comprehensive data collection process by directly sourcing information from each of the 50 individual U.S. states. This state-level data was then aggregated to produce a representative national figure. The MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) generated by each state including the year of the source can be found here. 

Calculation of the ranking/scoring  

The scoring for the 2025 Global Waste Index uses the same points system as the 2022 Global Waste Index.  

  • Municipal waste: Environmentally harmful; the higher the mass per inhabitant, the more points (from 0 to 5) were subtracted  
  • Recycling: Environmentally friendly; the higher the mass per inhabitant, the more points (from 0 to 6.66) were added  
  • Waste incineration (energy extraction): Relatively environmentally friendly; the higher the mass per inhabitant, the more points (from 0 to 1.66) were added  
  • Landfill: Environmentally harmful; the higher the mass per inhabitant, the more points (from 0 to 5) were subtracted.  

Final Evaluation  

Similar to the previous scoring in 2022, the formula standardizes each factor, but now between 0 and 100 in order to later adjust more easily the weighting of each factor.  

The total score was then standardized on a scale of 0-100. The country with the lowest score overall received a score of 0, and represents the country whose waste management has the greatest impact on the environment. The country with the highest score received a score of 100 and represents the country whose waste management impacts the environment the least. All other countries were ranked between 0-100 according to their evaluation score. This results in the ranking of the Global Waste Index 2025.  

About Sensoneo  

Sensoneo provides smart, enterprise-grade waste management solutions for cities, businesses, and countries to cost-efficiently manage the waste lifecycle and improve the environment and the well-being of people. Through its unique smart waste management technology, Sensoneo is redefining the way waste is managed. It helps address the biggest challenges in today’s world of waste management – increasing waste production and the lack of efficiency and transparency.