Signal Global municipal waste projected to rise from 2.1 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050

Summary

The circular-economy overview cites a projection that global municipal solid waste will surge from 2.1 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion tonnes in 2050. It observes that even in OECD countries about 40 percent of municipal waste is still landfilled. That share remains higher than recycling at 24 percent and composting at 11 percent. The survey uses these figures to show how far current waste systems remain from circular models despite decades of policy attention. It links the gap to the case for recovering resources from waste and for treating material supply as a matter of national security.