Re-assessing global municipal solid waste generation

Abstract

This study contributes to estimate the total waste generated at global level. A few studies have provided an efficient and comprehensive global estimate. However, data reporting is globally inconsistent due to varying interpretation of terminology, lacking standardised categories and varying methodologies used to observe and measure waste amounts. This study employs regression analysis and material flow analysis approaches to ensure a cross-comparability of waste generation data. The result implies that total global waste arisings are around 20 billion tonnes in 2017. This corresponds to 2.63 tonnes of total waste per capita (cap) per year. The total global waste generated is expected to grow to 46 billion tonnes by 2050 under a business-as-usual scenario. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a much smaller amount, ranging from 2.3 to 3.1 billion tonnes (average of 2.7 billion tonnes) in 2019. This figure reflects an increase of between 30% and 50% in MSW generated during the last 15 years (2004–2019). MSW generated is expected to grow to 2.89–4.54 billion tonnes by 2050, depending on which assumptions are used. This represents a 26%–45% increase compared to 2019. The overall assessment in this study reveals that almost one-third of the total MSW generated is not collected, and most of what is collected is not treated accordingly to current ideas of sound management. Moreover, almost 42% of MSW goes to open dumping or uncontrolled burning. The finding provides valuable insight for policymakers to design and assess circular economy policy instruments towards achieving sustainable development goals.

Waste management evolution in the last five decades in developing countries – A review

“…A comparison of these reported data conducted by Maalouf and Mavropoulos (2022) revealed that the MSW created during this time period was in the order of 2 billion Mt per year. The stated amount is questionable because the global population rose by about 1 billion people (equal to a 15% rise) yet gross domestic product (GDP) per capita rose by 30% between 2006 and 2018 (Maalouf and Mavropoulos, 2022).…”

“…A comparison of these reported data conducted by Maalouf and Mavropoulos (2022) revealed that the MSW created during this time period was in the order of 2 billion Mt per year. The stated amount is questionable because the global population rose by about 1 billion people (equal to a 15% rise) yet gross domestic product (GDP) per capita rose by 30% between 2006 and 2018 (Maalouf and Mavropoulos, 2022). The findings of this study revealed a continuing inconsistency in predicting worldwide MSW arisings across different reporting schemes, necessitating uniform accounting techniques to achieve accurate waste quantification.…”

“…The material flow analysis (MFA) has become one of the most extensively used approaches for providing a system-oriented perspective of interrelated processes and flows to assist strategic and priority-oriented choices and for devising management solutions (Allesch and Brunner, 2017). The yearly worldwide MSW generation rate was determined using a MFA technique by some studies (Maalouf and Mavropoulos, 2022; Tisserant et al, 2017). The MFA concept is gaining attention as an alternate method to quantifying total waste generated, rather than officially published numbers or literature statistics.…”

Informal sector: A complex link to transform solid waste management in a circular economy system

“…In this particular context, the behaviour change is very important, and public participation is very important and key to a sustainable and functional waste system (Awasthi et al, 2021). There are available potential supports, such as scheming incentives as well as awareness systems to motivate public to minimize the waste generation and help in waste reduction, source collection/separation or source segregation as well as reuse (Awasthi et al, 2022; Maalouf and Mavropoulos, 2022). Clearly, such an effort must be science-based assessments of the overall impact assessment, in order to go with a concept that, and together with ‘zero waste’, is a true support in the solution of the problem (Awasthi et al, 2021).…”

Hydrogen as Potential Primary Energy Fuel for Municipal Solid Waste Incineration for a Sustainable Waste Management

“…According to a study, the global average MSW generation was approximately 2017 MT/year in 2016 which is predicted to rise to 2586 MT/year in 2025 and subsequently 3399 MT/year by 2050 [33]. In 2019, global MSW was generated approximately 3.1 billion tones [34]. By using this study it can be calculated that approximately 129.30MJ energy will be required to incinerate waste by 2025 [35,36] which will be mostly coming from fossil fuels.…”