Where Data Tells the Story
© Voronoi 2026. All rights reserved.
Effective waste management systems are something that many of us living in high-income countries take for granted. Our waste is collected from bins in our street and taken to controlled or sanitary landfills, incinerators, or recycling centers.
But in many low- and middle-income countries, this is not the case.
In some of them, less than half of the waste (from households, shops, and other sources) is collected by management services at all.
In many countries, even when waste is collected, most of it — sometimes over 80% — is taken to open dumps or is openly burned. You can see this in the chart.
Both methods cause pollution, either through waste leaking from open dumps or toxic air pollution generated when plastics and other materials are burned.
While these numbers show that huge amounts of the world’s waste are mismanaged, they also tell a story of opportunity. Countries that invest in waste management can do so effectively, so that very little wastepollutes the environment, and the air is far cleaner.