When looking forward, global waste is expected to grow to 3.40 billion tonnes by 2050, more than double population growth over the same period. This is developed in the worldbank publication "What a waste 2.0" .
It is a frequent misconception that technology is the solution to the problem of unmanaged and increasing waste. Technology is not a panacea and is usually only one factor to consider when managing solid waste. Countries that advance from open dumping and other rudimentary waste management methods are more likely to succeed when they select locally appropriate solutions. Globally, most waste is currently dumped or disposed of in some form of a landfill. Some 37 percent of waste is disposed of in some form of a landfill, 8 percent of which is disposed of in sanitary landfills with landfill gas collection systems. Open dumping accounts for about 31 percent of waste, 19 percent is recovered through recycling and composting, and 11 percent is incinerated for final disposal.
Adequate waste disposal or treatment, such as controlled landfills or more stringently operated facilities, is almost exclusively the domain of high- and upper-middle-income countries. Lower-income countries generally rely on open dumping; 93 percent of waste is dumped in low-income countries and only 2 percent in high-income countries. Three regions openly dump more than half of their waste—the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. Upper-middle-income countries have the highest percentage of waste in landfills, at 54 percent. This rate decreases in high-income countries to 39 percent, with diversion of 36 percent of waste to recycling and composting and 22 percent to incineration. Incineration is used primarily in high-capacity, high-income, and land-constrained countries.
Projected waste generation, by region (millions of tonnes/year)
