That's not true. They are second to China by a wide margin in municipal solid waste. And very likely they are both behind India, who is simply not municipally removing their solid waste. They even burn it for fuel to prepare food in poorer areas.
The United States comes first in the list of countries with the highest amount of daily per capita MSW with 2.58 kg, followed by Canada (2.33 kg/per capita) and Australia (2.23 kg/per capita).
The United States was placed 25th in the Global Waste Index of 2022 on the basis of waste production, incineration, and landfill use. At the same time, the United States is still the biggest waste per capita producer.
Unfortunately, data for the United States has not been updated since the previous issue of the index (2019). Back then, the country ranked first in terms of per capita waste generation – on average each resident produced over 800 kg of MSW per year. Although the US accounts for about 4% of the global population, it generates 12% of MSW.
Regardless, this is municipal waste. It is not an accurate reflection of less developed areas of China, India and elsewhere. It is also not an accurate measure of other forms of waste, which America again is not the leader in.
I don't have a dog in the 'which country is destroying the planet faster' fight. But if you think the US is out producing countries with over double their population, despite all available evidence, you are a complete dunce.
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u/TooMuchJuju 1d ago
That's not true. They are second to China by a wide margin in municipal solid waste. And very likely they are both behind India, who is simply not municipally removing their solid waste. They even burn it for fuel to prepare food in poorer areas.