Plastic waste generation, 2010
This measures total plastic waste generation prior to management and therefore does not represent the quantity of plastic at risk of polluting waterways, riversand the ocean environment.
Plastic waste generation (tonnes, total) tonnes
Country/area | 2010 |
|---|---|
| Albania | 73,364 t |
| Algeria | 1,898,343 t |
| Angola | 528,843 t |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 22,804 t |
| Argentina | 2,753,550 t |
| Aruba | 9,352 t |
| Australia | 900,658 t |
| Bahamas | 51,364 t |
| Bahrain | 59,785 t |
| Bangladesh | 1,888,170 t |
| Barbados | 58,164 t |
| Belgium | 318,151 t |
| Belize | 20,191 t |
| Benin | 144,382 t |
| Bermuda | 5,990 t |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 195,633 t |
| Brazil | 11,852,055 t |
| British Virgin Islands | 2,504 t |
| Brunei | 3,688 t |
| Bulgaria | 415,707 t |
| Cambodia | 344,698 t |
| Cameroon | 335,305 t |
| Canada | 1,154,309 t |
| Cape Verde | 11,919 t |
| Cayman Islands | 5,106 t |
| Chile | 738,106 t |
| China | 59,079,741 t |
| Colombia | 2,413,455 t |
| Comoros | 50,599 t |
| Congo | 110,479 t |
| Costa Rica | 428,029 t |
| Cote d'Ivoire | 766,988 t |
| Croatia | 406,347 t |
| Cuba | 368,154 t |
| Curacao | 13,678 t |
| Cyprus | 100,713 t |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | 1,059,795 t |
| Denmark | 95,171 t |
| Djibouti | 31,999 t |
| Dominica | 3,885 t |
| Dominican Republic | 520,238 t |
| Ecuador | 801,321 t |
| Egypt | 5,464,471 t |
| El Salvador | 330,763 t |
| Equatorial Guinea | 49,990 t |
| Eritrea | 72,120 t |
| Estonia | 85,534 t |
| Faroe Islands | 4,466 t |
| Fiji | 59,324 t |
| Finland | 458,084 t |
| France | 4,557,128 t |
| French Polynesia | 24,634 t |
| Gabon | 32,329 t |
| Gambia | 29,646 t |
| Georgia | 97,443 t |
| Germany | 14,476,561 t |
| Ghana | 357,877 t |
| Gibraltar | 3,053 t |
| Greece | 811,858 t |
| Greenland | 5,234 t |
| Grenada | 12,417 t |
| Guam | 14,666 t |
| Guatemala | 1,495,229 t |
| Guinea | 118,196 t |
| Guinea-Bissau | 30,666 t |
| Guyana | 159,681 t |
| Haiti | 328,487 t |
| Honduras | 565,317 t |
| Hong Kong | 1,020,406 t |
| Iceland | 32,620 t |
| India | 4,493,080 t |
| Indonesia | 5,045,714 t |
| Iran | 3,919,268 t |
| Iraq | 1,156,524 t |
| Ireland | 715,716 t |
| Israel | 826,436 t |
| Italy | 2,899,258 t |
| Jamaica | 34,962 t |
| Japan | 7,993,489 t |
| Jordan | 377,506 t |
| Kenya | 407,506 t |
| Kiribati | 3,859 t |
| Kuwait | 750,690 t |
| Latvia | 94,935 t |
| Lebanon | 148,807 t |
| Liberia | 121,050 t |
| Libya | 324,250 t |
| Lithuania | 149,227 t |
| Macao | 72,126 t |
| Madagascar | 123,526 t |
| Malaysia | 2,031,675 t |
| Maldives | 43,134 t |
| Malta | 32,377 t |
| Marshall Islands | 3,674 t |
| Mauritania | 59,287 t |
| Mauritius | 104,971 t |
| Mexico | 3,725,463 t |
| Micronesia (country) | 3,895 t |
| Monaco | 3,412 t |
| Montenegro | 32,557 t |
| Morocco | 863,555 t |
| Mozambique | 132,612 t |
| Myanmar | 1,373,018 t |
| Namibia | 114,222 t |
| Nauru | 527 t |
| Netherlands | 2,571,398 t |
| New Caledonia | 22,995 t |
| New Zealand | 525,630 t |
| Nicaragua | 299,480 t |
| Nigeria | 5,961,750 t |
| North Korea | 484,700 t |
| Northern Mariana Islands | 5,006 t |
| Norway | 499,682 t |
| Oman | 93,251 t |
| Pakistan | 6,412,210 t |
| Palau | 1,076 t |
| Palestine | 87,636 t |
| Panama | 192,818 t |
| Papua New Guinea | 267,234 t |
| Peru | 1,543,879 t |
| Philippines | 2,565,766 t |
| Poland | 1,346,905 t |
| Portugal | 1,022,683 t |
| Puerto Rico | 342,306 t |
| Qatar | 103,933 t |
| Romania | 310,385 t |
| Russia | 5,839,685 t |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | 12,280 t |
| Saint Lucia | 32,882 t |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 8,818 t |
| Samoa | 7,000 t |
| Sao Tome and Principe | 6,571 t |
| Saudi Arabia | 1,561,618 t |
| Senegal | 485,586 t |
| Seychelles | 11,730 t |
| Sierra Leone | 96,655 t |
| Singapore | 359,483 t |
| Sint Maarten (Dutch part) | 3,263 t |
| Slovenia | 108,421 t |
| Solomon Islands | 19,842 t |
| Somalia | 237,569 t |
| South Africa | 4,465,798 t |
| South Korea | 2,025,772 t |
| Spain | 4,709,157 t |
| Sri Lanka | 2,621,606 t |
| Sudan | 1,292,740 t |
| Suriname | 31,300 t |
| Sweden | 164,305 t |
| Syria | 1,365,594 t |
| Tanzania | 386,998 t |
| Thailand | 3,532,495 t |
| Togo | 135,294 t |
| Tonga | 8,476 t |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 1,745,123 t |
| Tunisia | 559,235 t |
| Turkey | 5,596,657 t |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | 2,851 t |
| Tuvalu | 554 t |
| Ukraine | 1,724,509 t |
| United Arab Emirates | 600,741 t |
| United Kingdom | 4,925,590 t |
| United States | 37,825,550 t |
| Uruguay | 310,379 t |
| Vanuatu | 25,443 t |
| Venezuela | 2,669,998 t |
| Vietnam | 3,268,227 t |
| Yemen | 887,497 t |
| Other | |
| Channel Islands | 14,678 t |
Interactive visualization requires JavaScript
Related research and data
- Ocean plastics: How much do rich countries contribute by shipping their waste overseas?
- Where does the plastic in our oceans come from?
Charts
- Amount of plastic waste exported by air
- Amount of plastic waste that is imported by air
- Annual global plastic use
- Annual plastic waste by disposal method
- Beach litter
- Cumulative displaced plastic waste as a result of Chinese import ban
- Cumulative global production of plastics
- Cumulative plastic exports by top ten exporters
- Cumulative recycled plastic export value by top ten exporters
- Decomposition rates of marine debris
- Environmental impacts of different types of grocery bags
- Global plastic production with projections
- Global plastics production
- Global primary plastic production by industrial sector
- Global primary plastic production by polymer
- Global primary plastic waste generation by polymer
- Global share of plastic waste by disposal method with projectionsGeyer et al. (2017)
- Greenhouse gas emissions from plastic by life-cycle stage
- Greenhouse gas emissions from plastics
- Grocery bag comparisons for greenhouse gas emissions
- How much plastic waste did China import?
- Macroplastics in the surface ocean
- Mean product lifetime of plastic uses
- Microplastics in the surface ocean
- Mismanaged plastic waste
- Mismanaged plastic waste per capita
- Mismanaged plastic waste per capita vs. GDP per capita
- Most common items of waste in the ocean by region
- Per capita plastic waste exports and imports by income group
- Per capita plastic waste vs. GDP per capita
- Plastic exports to China by top 10 exporting countries
- Plastic waste accumulated in aquatic environments
- Plastic waste accumulated in rivers and lakes
- Plastic waste accumulated in the oceans
- Plastic waste by disposal method with projectionsOECD
- Plastic waste emitted to the ocean
- Plastic waste emitted to the ocean per capita
- Plastic waste emitted to the ocean per capita vs. GDP per capita
- Plastic waste generation by industrial sector
- Plastic waste generation by region and industrial sector
- Plastic waste generation by region and polymer
- Plastic waste generation per capita
- Plastic waste per capita imports vs. exports
- Plastics collected in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
- Probability of mismanaged plastic waste being emitted to the ocean
- Projections of plastic waste by disposal method
- Rivers that contribute the most to ocean plastic pollution
- Share of cumulative plastic exports by top ten exporters
- Share of global mismanaged plastic waste
- Share of global plastic waste emitted to the ocean
- Share of global plastic waste imports
- Share of plastic waste exports
- Share of plastic waste that is incinerated
- Share of plastic waste that is mismanaged
- Share of plastic waste that is recycled
- Share of plastic waste that is recycled, landfilled, incinerated and mismanaged
- Share of plastic waste that is sent to landfill
- Surface plastic mass across the world's oceans
- Surface plastic particles across the world's oceans
- What are the most common items of waste found in rivers and oceans?
- What items of waste do we find in rivers and the ocean?