Nations worldwide produce close to 350 million metric tons of plastic waste annually[1].
WHERE does all this waste go, and WHO does it impact the most?
The export of hazardous and solid waste to poorer countries with lax environmental regulations and inadequate disposal facilities has been a common cost-saving tactic by wealthier nations that are high producers of waste for decades [2]. Countries like Türkiye, Indonesia, Malaysia [3], India, Ghana [4], and others have received huge amounts of plastic, electronic, and even radioactive waste shipments as a result.
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This trend, increasingly being referred to as waste colonialism [5], is an unethical way for wealthy polluters to shift the costs and consequences of their waste generation onto the global poor. The health and environmental burden of disposing waste is being dumped onto impoverished communities that are ill-equipped to handle it safely, and this mismanaged waste can contaminate soil, water supplies, and air. |
The plastics waste trade [6] is an example that presents a striking visualization of this waste redistribution trend.
Where Plastics Waste Production is Highest vs Where It Hits Hardest
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Top Plastic Waste Exporters |
Where Plastic Waste Pollution is Highest |
Charted: Key Countries that Trade in Global Plastic Waste report (2023) additionally reveals just how much of this global waste is plastics, and how it is traded across borders, including which countries are estimated to export and receive the bulk of it.
[1] Monitoring trade in plastic waste and scrap: An OECD Working Paper (Brown, A., F.; Laubinger, & Börkey, 2022).
[2] Discarded: Communities on the Frontlines of the Global Plastic Crisis.
[3] Malaysia is not a “Garbage Dump”: Citizens against corruption, complacency, crime, and climate crisis.
[4] Environmental Injustice and Electronic Waste in Ghana: Challenges and Recommendations (Njoku, et al., 2024).
[5] Waste Colonialism Should Be The Shame Of The Privileged West, Not Its Best Kept Secret (Buxton, A., 2022).
[6] Our World in Data: Plastics Waste Exports, 2000-2022 (United Nations Comtrade Database, 2023).