Search This Page

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Singapore

Ranked: Top 20 Countries by Plastic Waste per Capita

Graphic ranking countries by their plastic waste per capita

Single-use plastic waste is perhaps one of the biggest environmental issues of our time. Every year, millions of tons of plastic end up in oceans and landfills, harming wildlife and ecosystems.

To make matters worse, plastics take hundreds of years to decompose, leading to long-term environmental and health hazards as they break down into microplastics that contaminate water and food sources.

In this graphic, we visualized the top 20 countries that generated the most single-use plastic waste per capita in 2019, measured in kilograms per person. Figures come from research published in May 2021, which we sourced from Statista.

Data and Key Takeaways

The data we used to create this graphic is listed in the table below.

RankCountryKg per personPounds per person
1Singapore76168
2Australia59130
3Oman56123
4Netherlands55121
5Belgium55121
6Israel55121
7Hong Kong55121
8Switzerland53117
9U.S.53117
10UAE52115
11Chile51112
12S. Korea4497
13UK4497
14Kuwait4088
15New Zealand3986
16Ireland3986
17Finland3884
18Japan3782
19France3679
20Slovenia3577

Countries from all around the world are present in this ranking, highlighting how plastic waste isn’t concentrated in any one region.

It’s also interesting to note how most of the countries in this top 20 ranking are wealthier, more developed nations. These nations have higher levels of consumption, with greater access to packaged goods, take-out services, and disposable products, all of which rely on single-use plastics.

Where’s China and India?

Note that we’ve visualized plastic waste per capita, which is different from the total amount of waste produced by a country. It is for this reason that major polluters, such as China and India, are not present in this ranking.

It’s also worth noting that this focuses on the demand side of plastics, rather than where plastic products were initially created or produced.

If you’re interested to see more visuals on plastic waste, check out Which Countries Pollute the Most Ocean Plastic Waste?.

 

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams