Green
Visualizing Mismanaged Plastic Waste by Country
Visualizing Mismanaged Plastic Waste by Country
Plastic is one of the most useful materials around, but its proliferating use has created a ballooning heap of plastic waste, with more than 350 million tonnes generated each year.
Only a fraction of plastic waste is recycled, and about one-fifth ends up in the mismanaged category, meaning that it is dumped or littered without proper waste management practices. Mismanaged plastic waste threatens the land and marine environments, and most of it doesn’t decompose, polluting the environment for hundreds of years.
The above infographic visualizes the largest contributors of mismanaged plastic waste in 2019, based on data from a study by Meijer et al. published in the Science Advances journal.
The Largest Contributors of Mismanaged Plastic Waste
Asian countries account for the majority of global mismanaged plastic waste (MPW), and many of the top plastic-emitting rivers are concentrated in the region.
India and China are the only countries to account for over 10 million tonnes of MPW, although that could partly be driven by their sheer population numbers.
Country/Region | MPW created in 2019 (tonnes) | % of total |
---|---|---|
India 🇮🇳 | 12,994,100 | 21% |
China 🇨🇳 | 12,272,200 | 20% |
Philippines 🇵🇭 | 4,025,300 | 7% |
Brazil 🇧🇷 | 3,296,700 | 5% |
Nigeria 🇳🇬 | 1,948,950 | 3% |
North America 🌎 | 1,927,484 | 3% |
Tanzania 🇹🇿 | 1,716,400 | 3% |
Turkey 🇹🇷 | 1,656,110 | 3% |
Egypt 🇪🇬 | 1,435,510 | 2% |
DR Congo 🇨🇩 | 1,369,730 | 2% |
Thailand 🇹🇭 | 1,361,690 | 2% |
Pakistan 🇵🇰 | 1,346,460 | 2% |
Europe 🌍 | 1,179,881 | 2% |
Vietnam 🇻🇳 | 1,112,790 | 2% |
Bangladesh 🇧🇩 | 1,021,990 | 2% |
Indonesia 🇮🇩 | 824,234 | 1% |
Malaysia 🇲🇾 | 814,454 | 1% |
Sudan 🇸🇩 | 781,625 | 1% |
Algeria 🇩🇿 | 764,578 | 1% |
South Africa 🇿🇦 | 708,467 | 1% |
Venezuela 🇻🇪 | 671,431 | 1% |
Cameroon 🇨🇲 | 578,798 | 1% |
Oceania 🌎 | 136,506 | 0.2% |
Other 🗺 | 7,828,312 | 13% |
Total | 61,773,700 | 100% |
Generally, the top countries in the above table are developing economies that tend to have inadequate waste management infrastructure.
The Philippines is the third-largest contributor and accounts for 37% of all MPW released into the ocean at over 350,000 tonnes per year. Solid waste management remains a major environmental issue in the Philippines. The country recently closed down 335 illegal dumpsites to encourage the use of sanitary landfills and proper waste segregation.
The three continents of North America, Europe, and Oceania together account for just 5% of global mismanaged plastic waste. However, it’s important to note that these figures do not reflect the amount of waste that is exported overseas, and many rich nations are known to export some portions of their waste to poorer nations.
The State of Plastic Waste Trade
In 2019, the Philippines famously shipped back 69 containers of dumped garbage back to Canada, joining other nations in rejecting waste from rich countries.
Until 2017, China was the largest importer of overseas plastic waste, accounting for roughly 50% of global plastic waste imports. Then, it imposed an import ban on almost all types of plastic waste, resulting in a decline in the overall global plastic scrap trade.
In 2021, global plastic waste imports were just over one-third of 2017 levels. However, countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam have been importing more plastic waste since China’s ban, slightly offsetting the impact.
Mismanaged Plastic Waste Per Capita
On a per capita basis, the archipelago of Comoros in East Africa tops the list. Its per capita MPW is equivalent to over 4,500 empty 500ml plastic bottles per person, per year.
Country | MPW per capita | GDP per capita (2021, current US$) |
---|---|---|
Comoros 🇰🇲 | 150lbs (68kg) | $1,495 |
Trinidad and Tobago 🇹🇹 | 115lbs (52kg) | $15,243 |
Suriname 🇸🇷 | 86lbs (39kg) | $4,836 |
Philippines 🇵🇭 | 81lbs (37kg) | $3,549 |
Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 | 78lbs (35kg) | $1,737 |
While there isn’t much information available on waste management in Comoros, it is one of the world’s least-developed nations. In fact, household consumption accounts for almost 100% of its annual gross domestic product.
Trinidad and Tobago is an outlier due to its high-income status, but a lack of waste segregation among households, alongside inefficient waste management systems, contributes to its high per capita figure.
The Impact of Plastic Waste
Plastic waste has various negative implications for the environment, especially as it can take hundreds of years to decompose.
Millions of tonnes of plastic waste flows into the oceans every year, accounting for at least 85% of all marine garbage. This poses a major threat to aquatic life because fish and other organisms can get entangled in plastic waste and ingest plastics.
On land, plastic waste threatens the quality of the soil and its surrounding ecosystem. Additionally, burning plastic waste releases toxic particles that have a detrimental impact on air quality.
If current trends continue, over 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste is expected to end up in landfills by 2050. Although recycling rates are expected to improve, increasing the availability of adequate waste management systems will be important in preventing plastic waste from entering the environment.
Green
Mapping the World’s Forests: How Green is Our Globe?
Where are the world’s forests? These high-resolution maps show how the world’s carbon-sequestering forests are spread.

Mapping the World’s Forests: How Green is our Globe?
According to the United Nations (UN), forests cover 31% of the world’s land surface. They absorb roughly 15.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) every year.
More than half of this green cover is spread across the boreal forests of Russia and Canada, the Amazon in South America, and China’s coniferous and broad-leaved forests. These carbon-sequestering forests purify the air, filter water, prevent soil erosion, and act as an important buffer against climate change.
Rank | Country | Forest Cover (in millions of hectares) |
---|---|---|
#1 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 815 |
#2 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 497 |
#3 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 347 |
#4 | 🇺🇸 United States | 310 |
#5 | 🇨🇳 China | 220 |
#6 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 134 |
#7 | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | 126 |
#8 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 92 |
#9 | 🇵🇪 Peru | 72 |
#10 | 🇮🇳 India | 72 |
This series of maps by Adam Symington uses data sourced from images collected aboard the MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite to reflect the ratio of the world’s surface covered with tree canopy to non-green areas.
To explore the entire high resolution forest map, click the image above. Below we’ll take a closer look at some of the world’s green zones.
Asia
Home to the boreal forests of Russia, China’s broad-leaved forests, the mangrove forests of Indonesia, and the green belt along the mighty Himalayas, Asia boasts some of the richest and most biodiverse green canopies of the world.
Russia holds more than one-fifth of the world’s trees across 815 million hectares—larger than the Amazon’s canopy. Like the country’s geography, most of Russia’s forests are situated in Asia, but spread into Europe as well.
To the southeast and with a forest cover of almost 220 million hectares, China is the fifth greenest country in the world. However, this was not always the case.
In 1990, China’s forests stretched across only 157 million hectares, covering 16.7% of its land. By the end of 2020, this forest cover reached 23.4%, thanks to decades of greening efforts.
On the other hand, the continent’s third most biodiverse country—Indonesia—is losing its green canopy. With a 92 million hectare-wide forest canopy, the country is home to between 10 and 15% of the world’s known plants, mammals, and birds. Unfortunately, over the past 50 years, 74 million hectares of the country’s rainforest have been logged, burned, or degraded.
Meanwhile, the 72 million hectares of Indian forest cover can be followed closely with the eye. From the rainforests along the Himalayas in the northeast, to montane rainforests of the South Western Ghats, and finally to the coastal mangrove forests.
The Amazon and Congolian Rainforests
In South America, Brazil has the second-largest green cover in the world.
Most of its 497 million hectare-wide forest cover falls within “the lungs of the planet”—the Amazon rainforest.
One of the most biodiverse places on the planet, the Amazon rainforest is said to house about 10% of the world’s biodiversity, including over three million wildlife species and over 2,500 tree species.
On the other side of the Atlantic, extending along the Congo River basin and its many tributaries, are the Congolian rainforests.
Spread across nine countries in Central Africa, this collection of tropical moist broadleaf forests is one of the remaining regions in the world that absorbs more carbon than it emits.
With 126 million hectares of the world’s green cover, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) contains the largest part of this rainforest, equal to about 60% of Central Africa’s lowland forest cover.
North American Forests
Canada, the United States, and Mexico combine for 723 million hectares of the world’s forests. The vast stretches of pine and fir trees in the Great White North, coupled with the United States’ mixed variety of forests, make the continent one of the largest carbon sinks in the world.
With over 347 million hectares of forests, Canada ranks third in the list of greenest countries. Approximately 40% of its landmass is tree-covered, representing 9% of the global forest cover.
Its boreal forests store twice as much carbon per unit as tropical forests and help regulate the global carbon footprint.
The United States, on the other hand, holds about 8% of the world’s forests. Spread across 310 million hectares of land, these diverse forests range from the boreal forests of Alaska to pine plantations in the South, and the deciduous forests in the Eastern United States to the dry coniferous forests in the West. The country is also home to temperate rainforests along its West Coast and tropical rainforests in Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
The World’s Lost Forests
While China and a few select countries have proven that there is hope for building out the world’s forests, the story is different in other places around the world. This map by Adam Symington uses data from the University of Maryland to track the changes in the world’s forest cover from 2000 to 2021.
Since 2000, the world lost over 104 million hectares of pristine and intact forest landscapes. In 2020 alone, over 10 thousand square kilometers of the Amazon were destroyed for the development of roads.
Deforestation and fragmentation are caused by a range of human development activities. But they are also exacerbated by climate change, with increasing forest fires, hurricanes, droughts, and other extreme weather events, as well as invasive species and insect outbreaks upsetting forest ecosystems.
At the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) held in Montréal, nations across the world committed to the 30X30 plan, which called for the conservation of the world’s land and marine ecosystems by 2030. Alongside other commitments to end deforestation and grow the world’s canopies, there is still hope for the world’s forests.
-
Economy21 hours ago
The $16 Trillion European Union Economy
-
Markets2 weeks ago
The Biggest Global Risks of 2023
-
Energy20 hours ago
Visualizing U.S. Consumption of Fuel and Materials per Capita
-
Markets4 weeks ago
Top Heavy: Countries by Share of the Global Economy
-
Politics2 weeks ago
Visualizing the World’s Top 25 Fleets of Combat Tanks
-
Misc16 hours ago
Visualizing the Odds of Dying from Various Accidents
-
Money4 weeks ago
U.S. Inflation: How Much Have Prices Increased?
-
Energy1 week ago
The Periodic Table of Commodity Returns (2013-2022)