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Ranked: Top 20 Countries by Plastic Waste per Capita
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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
1 Singapore76168
2 Australia59130
3 Oman56123
4 Netherlands55121
5 Belgium55121
6 Israel55121
7 Hong Kong55121
8 Switzerland53117
9 U.S.53117
10 UAE52115
11 Chile51112
12 S. Korea4497
13 UK4497
14 Kuwait4088
15 New Zealand3986
16 Ireland3986
17 Finland3884
18 Japan3782
19 France3679
20 Slovenia3577
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?.
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