Peak Garbage

Just came across an interesting study of The World Bank on MSW (municipal solid waste) generation, collection, composition, and disposal by country and by region.

On a global scale, the amount of MSW has risen from 0.64 kg per person per day in 1993 to 1.2 kg per person per day in 2013. That is, MSW growth outpaces the urbanization rate (people in cities account for the largest part of MSW generation).

Even more worrying is that the forecast doesn't see any peak of daily garbage production. Although historical data indicates that there's kind of a limit of 1.3kg per person per day, humanity will continue to produce more garbage every year due to global population growth and continuing urbanization.

Taking a closer look on the data tables, it's interesting to compare Germany, Mexico, and Japan, as it doesn't meet my expectations at all.

I would have thought that "green" Germany does pretty well on a global comparison, whereas Mexico and Japan would perform poorly. Why I had this expectation? Just subjective impressions I gathered while travelling and living in these countries. I was terrified when I saw single-serve packages for ham slices...

Source: Tokyo Damage Report

 ... and boiled eggs in Japan.

Source: Tokyo Damage Report

And I still can't stand it when seeing the local Mexican convenience stores triple-packing your purchases into plastic bags. Not to mention Mexico City's serious waste problems after shutting down Bordo Poniente, the world's biggest trash dump.

But then again, let's take a look at the actual per capita figures:

• Germany: 2.11kg
• Japan: 1.71kg
• Mexico: 1.24kg

Wow - Germany easily surpasses both, Japan and Mexico. How is this possible?

As for Japan, this report of Joseph Stromberg offers a comprehensible explanation:

The average person in Japan, for example, creates about one-third less trash than an American, even though the two countries have similar levels of GDP per person. This is partly because of higher-density living arrangements and higher prices for imported goods, but also because of norms surrounding consumption. In many Japanese municipalities, trash must be disposed in clear bags (to publicly show who isn’t bothering to recycle) and recyclables are routinely sorted into dozens of categories, policies driven by the limited amount of space for landfills in the small country.

 With Mexico I'm not sure, but I trace it back to the fact that even if people live in cities, there is still so much poverty that huge parts even of the urban population are unlikely to buy heavily processed and hence packed products, rather than fresh produce.

As soon as my schedule allows, I'll dig deeper in this report. Let's see if I can verify my assumption regarding Mexico.