Countries Generating the Most Plastic Waste
About This Dataset
Countries Generating the Most Plastic Waste
Countries ranked by total plastic waste generation in 2024, measured in millions of metric tonnes according to Our World in Data and UNEP data. The United States generates more plastic waste than any other country — both in absolute terms and per capita — though China and India produce the largest quantities in Asia due to population scale.
Analysis
United States (42), India (26.3) and China (21.6) take the top three in Plastic Waste (Million Tonnes/year) in 2024. United States and India together hold 53% of the combined total of all 8 entities. Only 3 of the 8 reach even half the leader's figure (21 or more).
Source:
Our World in Data
Key Findings
🏆
United States leads in Plastic Waste (Million Tonnes/year) with 42 in 2024.
📊
Average Plastic Waste (Million Tonnes/year) in 2024: 16 · median: 10.
↔️
Gap in 2024: United States is 8.6× larger than United Kingdom.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Our World in Data
- Coverage
- 8 entities · 2024 · 8 observations
- Measure
- Plastic Waste (Million Tonnes/year)
- Last updated
- 6 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2024.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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