AMS Region
Ver 1.0 (May 23)
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- AMS regional information USA only
- Over 50% of the USA's waste is sent to landfill. The USA has over 2600 landfill sites. The percentage of solid waste required to be diverted has remained at 50% each year
- The biggest landfill in the world is located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Currently, the Apex Regional Landfill covers approximately 2,200 acres of land. The landfill holds approximately 50 million tons of waste and is projected to have a lifetime of about 250 years
- In October 2020 the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) published a draft of the National Recycling Strategy for public comment. The National Recycling Strategy is aligned with and supports implementation of the National Recycling Goal to increase the recycling rate to 50 percent by 2030. The Strategy is organised by five strategic objectives to create a more resilient and cost-effective national recycling system:
- A. Improve Markets for Recycling Commodities
- B. Increase Collection and Improve Materials Management Infrastructure.
- C. Reduce Contamination in the Recycled Materials Stream
- D. Enhance Policies to Support Recycling
- E. Standardise Measurement and Increase Data Collection
- To ensure the U.S. is making progress in advancing recycling, the EPA will work collaboratively with stakeholders to develop a plan for implementing the National Recycling Strategy. The EPA will ensure communities have a seat at the table and are involved in developing the implementation plan, as well as executing the actions in this Strategy. The EPA plans to collaborate across all levels of government, including Tribal Nations, and with public and private stakeholders to achieve these ambitious goals
More and more waste is being diverted from landfills and incinerators and fed back into the economy through recovery and recycling. Mechanical and biological pre-treatment is increasingly used to facilitate recovery, enhance incineration efficiency and reduce the amounts being landfilled. Manufacturers and importers are increasingly encouraged or required to accept responsibility for their products after the point of sale, through so-called “extended producer responsibility” or “product stewardship”.
The European Union, Japan and other countries have introduced recycling targets and monitor progress through indicators. The share of municipal solid waste landfilled in the OECD area has decreased from 54% to 41% between 2000 and 2020, with some countries no longer using landfills (Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Japan). Yet landfilling remains the main waste disposal method in several countries (e.g. in the OECD America region).
The recovery of waste through recycling, composting and incineration with energy recovery shows an encouraging increase since 2000 across the OECD area. Several countries now recycle more than one third of the municipal waste they manage (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Korea, Norway, Slovenia).
Overview - Trends & Development
Source: Environment at a Glance 2020: OECD Indicators - Circular economy - waste and materials". OECD Publishing. 22 May 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2022
EMEA Region
- EMEA regional diversion information averages 27 countries diversion data
- Top performing countries are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland with 0% of waste travelling to landfill. All use a high % of incineration waste to energy recovery but Germany is the top performer of the zero landfill group from a recycling perspective at 48%
- Top performing EMEA country for recycling overall is Slovenia with an impressive 51% recycling rate
- The UK CBRE's largest EMEA client region) diverts waste in the following ways:
- Recycling - 26.9%
- Composting - 17.4%
- Incineration with energy recovery - 39.3%
- Incineration without energy recovery - 2%
- Other recovery - 0.4%
- Landfill - 11.2%
APAC Region
- APAC regional diversion information averages 3 countries - Australia, Japan and South Korea
- Landfill - worst performing country is Australia with 55% of waste going to landfill
- Recycling - best performer is South Korea with 56.6%
- Waste Incineration - Japan has 0% landfill but only a 19.2% recycling rate with the majority of its waste 74.9% going to incineration with energy recovery
Sources: Recycling rates by country - Wikipedia