World Environment Day will be observed this Saturday, June 5, making it a good time to take a look at how much waste, especially plastic, people are producing around the globe. New research¹ by Compare the Market reveals the countries that are responsible for producing the largest overall amount of plastic waste in kilograms per day, as well as what that equates to in plastic bottles.
Compare the Market took the weight of 10 popular landmarks — Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Christ the Redeemer, Great Pyramid of Giza, Empire State Building, Willis Tower, Sydney Opera House, Burj Khalifa, Golden Gate Bridge, and Tower of Pisa — to highlight the number of times each one could be replicated based on plastic waste in each location.
China is the worst offender with a plastic waste generation equivalent to 5.28 billion bottles per day and 1.92 trillion per year, equaling 828.56 Statues of Liberty or 162.82 Christ the Redeemers every single day. The U.S comes in second, and could re-create the Statue of Liberty 538.71 times and 12 Eiffel Towers based on one days’ waste.
The number of times each nations’ waste could re-create the 10 popular landmarks, according to the research, is shown below:
“Recycling plastic, as well as other materials, is incredibly important. The more plastic recycled and reused each day, the less raw materials will be relied on, which in turn will keep greenhouses gases low and work to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Brett Mifsud, General Manager of Household at Compare the Market. “As our research highlights, there is more that countries can be doing to limit plastic generation and protect the environment.”
Click here to learn more about the study, and to see where each country ranks.
Notes
¹ Per person plastic waste generation was taken from Our World in Data
