Countries by Plastic Waste Generation 2024
About This Dataset
Countries by Plastic Waste Generation 2024
Countries ranked by total plastic waste generated annually in 2024, measured in millions of metric tons according to OECD Global Plastics Outlook data. The United States generates the most plastic waste of any country in absolute terms — approximately 42 million metric tons per year — while simultaneously having some of the lowest recycling rates among wealthy nations, with the majority of American plastic waste ending up in landfill or incineration rather than being recycled.
Analysis
United States heads the table on 42, ahead of China (21.6) and India (9.30) in Plastic Waste Generated (Million Metric Tons) in 2024. United States and China together hold 63% of the combined total of all 8 entities. Places 3 to 8 are close together, spanning 9.30 to 3.80. It takes the next 4 entities (China, India, Brazil, Germany) added together to match United States.
Source:
Wikipedia
Key Findings
🏆
United States leads in Plastic Waste Generated (Million Metric Tons) with 42 in 2024.
📊
Average Plastic Waste Generated (Million Metric Tons) in 2024: 13 · median: 7.
↔️
Gap in 2024: United States is 11.1× larger than United Kingdom.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Wikipedia
- Coverage
- 8 entities · 2024 · 8 observations
- Measure
- Plastic Waste Generated (Million Metric Tons)
- 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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