Plastics Waste Generated

3.5 Plastics Waste Generated

3.5.1 Definitions and Scope

1Plastics waste generated: The total quantity of plastic materials discarded as waste by a population and their economic activities within defined system boundaries during a specified time period. It represents the amount of plastics entering the waste stream before any treatment, recovery, disposal, or leakage processes occur. This includes all plastic polymer types and applications that are discarded after their intended use, expressed typically in mass units (kilograms or tonnes) per specified timeframe. For effective measurement and analysis, plastics waste generation is typically categorised into three main streams:

• 2

  Household municipal waste: Plastics discarded from homes and residential settings

• 3

  Non-household municipal waste: Household-like plastic waste that arises outside the home, including from public spaces, tourism activities, and institutional settings such as schools, hospitals, and government buildings.

• 4

  Commercial and industrial waste: Plastics discarded from manufacturing processes, commercial activities, construction and demolition operations, and other industrial sectors.

5Scope note: waste generation is intended to capture plastic waste from all sectors, activities and populations within the economy – including waste arising from government and institutional operations. Some countries may also wish to report separately the plastic waste generated by tourism, given its scale and seasonality in certain economies.

3.5.2 Why waste generation data matters

1Waste generation is a pivotal stage in the plastics life cycle: it links what is consumed to what must be collected, treated, recycled or, if mismanaged, left to leak into the environment. A credible waste-generation figure is the denominator for recycling rates, collection coverage and leakage estimates.

2Reliable waste-generation data supports several uses: setting baselines and reduction or recycling targets; sizing collection and treatment infrastructure; reporting against SDG indicator 11.6.1 and the global plastics instrument under negotiation; and targeting the polymers, products and sectors that dominate the waste stream.

3.5.3 Methods for generating waste generation data

1To obtain data on plastics waste generation, users could consider applying one (or several) of the methods in Table 3.5. The methods are grouped by who is most likely to lead or supply the data:

• 2

  Government: methods that rely on government oversight, funding or regulatory authority – for example household and business surveys, waste-composition audits, and national or municipal waste-reporting systems.

• 3

  Private sector: data from businesses and other non-governmental actors – for example corporate waste audits, and NGO and citizen-science initiatives.

• 4

  Research and academia: studies by universities and research institutes, such as modelling approaches and material flow analysis

5Table 3.5. Tools for developing waste generation data

Method	Description	Key advantages	Limitations
Government — Surveys, including direct measurement through waste audits. Examples: WasteDataFlow and DEFRA (UK); Environmental Protection Agency (USA); Canada–Sri Lanka Municipal Cooperation Program; UN-Habitat Waste Wise Cities (Africa and Asia).	Collection of data on waste generation patterns of household, household-like and industrial waste through questionnaires and waste sampling. Can be used to understand waste generated regardless of whether it ends up being managed formally or informally.	Provides detailed information about the quantity and composition of waste at household and business level; captures variations in waste generation across socioeconomic groups, housing types and seasons.	Labour-intensive: staffing is required for waste collection, sorting and interviewing. Staff may lack expertise in identifying different plastic types, requiring training on material identification, with multilayer and composite packaging particularly challenging to classify correctly. Participants may alter their normal waste behaviours when under observation, or not make an accurate statement.
Private sector — Corporate waste audits. Example: Chemical Waste Management Environment Group (CHWMEG).	Companies conducting their own waste assessments for compliance or sustainability reporting.	Provides detailed facility-level data; can identify waste reduction opportunities.	Methodology may vary between companies; data may be proprietary.
Private sector — Social initiatives (NGOs, global programmes). Examples: The Big Plastic Count (UK); Break Free From Plastic Global Brand Audit.	Citizen science and community-led waste monitoring programmes where volunteers collect and analyse waste data through standardised protocols, often supported by NGOs or international organisations.	High public engagement and awareness-raising potential; cost-effective data collection through volunteer participation; builds community capacity and environmental stewardship; can reach areas with limited formal waste management systems; generates grassroots support for policy change.	Data quality may vary due to inconsistent training or methodology application; volunteer availability and retention affect data continuity; limited technical expertise compared with professional assessments; potential bias based on volunteer demographics or locations; difficulty standardising methods across groups or regions.
Research and academia — Modelling approaches. Examples: SPOT model (India); Edirisinghe et al. (2023), Sri Lanka; Breaking the Plastic Wave (Pew/SYSTEMIQ); OECD Global Plastics Outlook.	Using mathematical models to project waste generation.	Can integrate multiple data sources into a cohesive framework for more comprehensive analysis.	Accuracy depends heavily on the quality of both the model design and the input data; may oversimplify complex waste generation behaviours when data inputs are limited.
Research and academia — Material flow analysis. Example: National Plastic Waste Inventory MFA (Sri Lanka).	See Part IV, Material Flow Analysis, for detailed guidance.	—	—

3.5.4 Disaggregating waste generation data

1As with the other life cycle stages, a single waste-generation total is more useful when broken down. Wherever the source data allows, waste-generation data should be disaggregated along the following dimensions:

• 2

  Source stream: household municipal, non-household municipal, and commercial and industrial waste (as defined in 5.4.1), with tourism shown separately where significant.

• 3

  Polymer and product type: e.g., PET, HDPE, LDPE, PP, PS, PVC, and applications such as packaging, single-use items and textiles.

• 4

  Format: rigid versus flexible, and mono-material versus multilayer or composite packaging (the hardest to classify).

• 5

  Socio-economic and spatial breakdown: by income group, urban versus rural, and season.

• 6

  Formal versus informal: waste captured by formal systems versus that handled by the informal sector or self-managed (burned, buried or dumped).

7Further detail on these categories is provided in the Disaggregating Data section.

3.5.5 Data challenges and a tiered approach to getting started

1Waste-generation data carries specific challenges. Waste audits are labour-intensive and seasonal; multilayer and composite items are easily mis-classified; the informal sector and self-managed waste (burning, burying, dumping) are often invisible to official figures; and “waste generated” is frequently confused with “waste collected,” which understates generation where collection coverage is incomplete. Methods should be combined and clearly documented.

2A practical way to begin is to match the method to current data capacity and strengthen it over time:

• 3

  Basic: estimate total waste generation from per-capita generation rates and population, applying a plastic fraction from a single waste-composition study or a regional default (e.g., What a Waste 3.0).

• 4

  Intermediate: conduct periodic waste-characterisation studies and audits across representative households and key non-household and commercial sources, using a standard protocol such as the UN-Habitat Waste Wise Cities Tool.

• 5

  Advanced: combine audit, survey and administrative data in a material flow analysis that reconciles generation with consumption, collection and treatment, disaggregated by stream and polymer, with routine validation.

6Countries can move up the tiers as capacity grows; the priority at every stage is a transparent, repeatable method, and consistency in whether figures refer to waste generated or waste collected.

3.5.6 Further materials

• 1

  Eurostat Waste Statistics - the EU’s waste statistics database, covering generation, treatment and management data for member states, including circular-economy Sankey flows.

• 2

  UN-Habitat Waste Wise Cities Tool - a step-by-step method for collecting data on municipal solid waste generated, collected and managed in controlled facilities, aligned with SDG indicator 11.6.1.

• 3

  Basel Convention plastic-waste reporting - the annual national reporting system for transboundary movements of hazardous and plastic wastes, including exports, imports and disposal methods.

• 4

  UNEP Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter (GPML) Digital Platform - country dashboards with plastic-flow data, policy tracking and consolidated global datasets to support evidence-based policymaking.

• 5

  World Bank What a Waste 3.0 - a global waste database covering 217 countries, with generation, composition and treatment data and projections to 2050.

• 6

  The Waste Flow Diagram (WFD) Toolkit - an Excel-based rapid-assessment tool that maps municipal waste flows and quantifies plastic leakage, supporting SDG indicator 11.6.1.

• 7

  The Waste Flow Diagram (WFD) User Manual - guidance on applying the WFD toolkit, including data collection and plastic-leakage estimation methods.

• 8

  SPOT model (University of Leeds) - a GIS-based model for identifying plastic-pollution hotspots, applicable globally or at higher resolution with local data.

• 9

  Guidance on conducting a successful waste audit (ENGIE Impact) - practical guidance on planning and running a waste audit.

• 10

  IUCN/UNEP Plastic Pollution Hotspotting - a UNEP/IUCN/Life Cycle Initiative methodology to identify leakage hotspots by polymer, application and sector and to prioritise interventions.