What is the Most Important Waste Type?

In 2018, over 146.1 million tons of MSW were landfilled. Food accounted for nearly 24% of the total, making it the most significant factor. Rubber, leather, and textiles made up more than 11% of the total, paper and paperboard made up around 12%, and plastics made up more than 18% of the total. Other materials made up less than 10% of the total.

Plastics

Every year, we generate 300 million tones of plastic, half of which is used for single-use items. That’s roughly the same as the total human population’s weight. The majority of plastic garbage is produced in nations such as Japan, the United States, and France, which were among the top net exporters of plastic scrap and waste in 2020. In 2020, Germany, a major exporter in prior years, did not provide any figures.

Turkey, on the other hand, was the world’s top importer of plastic garbage in 2020, accounting for 13% of global imports. The European Union exports a large amount of plastic garbage to Turkey. Malaysia and Vietnam are two more major players in the worldwide plastic garbage trade.

Paper and Paperboard

Every year, we waste away enough wood and paper to heat 50,000,000 houses for 20 years. Every year, over 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away in the United States. A total of 85,000,000 tones of paper are used in the United States each year, or around 680 pounds per person. Paper can account for up to 70% of a company’s overall waste due to printing errors, junk mail, billings, and packaging. A typical office worker uses roughly 10,000 sheets of paper per year, which explains why we generate 85 million tonnes of paper waste each year.

Waste paper is imported from the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. By far the most recovered fibre was brought in from India. During that time, the country purchased 2.4 million short tonnes of scrap fibre, accounting for about a fifth of all scrap fibre exports from the United States. Mexico (1.10 million short tonnes), Thailand (1.04 million), Vietnam (1.02 million), Taiwan (490,000), Canada (483,000), South Korea (403,000), Malaysia (390,000), and Indonesia are among the other top importers for the first half of this year (326,000). Exports, on the other hand, The United States ($366 million), Japan ($130 million), France ($54.7 million), Germany ($53.2 million), and Italy ($44.1 million) were the main exporters of Waste or scrap of paper or board of mechanical pulp in 2020.

Rubber, Leather and Textiles:

Waste rubber originates from three main sources, with worn tires containing vulcanized rubber being the most common. Other sources include waste from manufacturing processes and discarded rubber-containing products like latex examining gloves. Textile waste, which is generated during the manufacturing of textiles and eventually disposed of in landfills, is one of the world’s fastest growing waste streams. Leather is a tough, flexible, and long-lasting material made by chemically treating animal skins and hides to prevent decomposition.

Import The biggest scrap rubber importers in 2020 was the United States ($29.7 million), Singapore ($23.7 million), Hungary ($18.2 million), Germany ($16.6 million), and Poland ($14.7 million). Scrap Rubber’s average tariff in 2018 was 5.38 percent, making it the 773rd lowest tariff in the HS4 product classification. India ($87.2 million), Turkey ($59.9 million), Pakistan ($51.5 million), Germany ($37.8 million), and Bangladesh ($21.6 million) were the major exporters of Cotton Waste in 2020. Germany ($60 million), Chinese Taipei ($29.3 million), France ($26.3 million), India ($21.9 million), and the Netherlands ($17.8 million) were the main importers of Cotton Waste in 2020.

Export Scrap rubber is the one of the most traded product on the planet. China ($37.2 million), the United States ($27.7 million), Canada ($19.5 million), Germany ($17.6 million), and Romania ($17.1 million) were the major exporters of Scrap Rubber in 2020.

Trash trade, according to the global waste trade, is an economic transaction that can help countries who have little to offer the global economy. Countries that lack the manufacturing capacity to produce high-quality goods can import garbage to boost their economies. If you like this article you may also like: The Most Successful AD Campaign for Recycling