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There is a glaring lack of tracking for global recycling. Poor waste management is deeply connected to globally.

Economies also suffer from the lack of tracking. We extract, process and then . Instead, these could be recirculating, and .

To shift to alternative, circular models, .

My research demonstrates that . It could help track hyper-local recycling and reuse, initiatives that are usually considered too small and burdensome to include in national waste tracking efforts.

And compared to national waste tracking, localized waste tracking could also provide more timely and relevant insights on the effectiveness of policies, infrastructure investments and education.

Measuring waste

The units for measuring waste are fairly standard across the world. Quantity of waste is measured by weight (tons) and waste performance is the percent of total waste not sent for landfill and incineration.

However, across both academia and industry. In some settings, "recycling" may mean that the material was collected for recycling, but not necessarily recycled. A term like "municipal waste" . This confusion makes global waste tracking challenging.

Regular global reporting on waste is sorely lacking. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for global action on waste management, but . This is likely due to the lack of available, reliable data.

are compiled from sources using a wide variety of formats; a source may represent annual or daily waste, and total waste or waste per capita. Data is often from different years, making it useful for trend analysis but not strict comparisons.

Estimations and incomplete data are common; only 39% of populations in developing countries are . Double-counting is another risk when data comes from varied sources like waste collectors, processors and local governments.

With all these challenges, global waste reports require years to compile, leading to multiyear gaps in published reports.

Insufficient data

Even nations with consistent reporting are not immune to methodological gaps. The and both require annual reporting on waste, but allow for a wide variety of methods in data sourcing, including estimation.

In the United States, annual waste data is reported by states to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on a . No new nationwide reports have been .

Another challenge is that reporting focuses on the weight of waste, but there is a lack of data on its composition. Much of what is collected is not recycled due to , or .

is the process of determining waste composition, and when reporting waste, this information is often optional. In the U.S., . The EU and Canada require reporting on composition but don't specify requirements for how to determine the composition.

Reliable waste characterization requires the waste to be audited: sampled, weighed, separated into categories, and then weighed again. It's a , which might explain why American states haven't provided updated waste characterizations to the EPA since 2018.

Estimating recycling stats

The oft-cited fact that nine percent of global plastics are recycled comes from a . It was calculated in several steps, each with significant uncertainties, including how much plastic was produced globally, how long it was used for, and how much was collected and likely to have been recycled.

The nine percent figure is very much an estimate, representing global plastic waste in 2019. And now, it is an outdated figure.

Global plastic trade is likely 40% higher than previously estimated. And 40% of textiles .

In South Korea, for example, a country renowned for its waste policies and programs, reports a 73% recycling rate for plastics, while because much of what is collected is not recycled.

In Canada, plastic recycling tracking suffers from the same lack of standardization and transparency as recycling in general.

A much-needed global consensus

Material consumption and management is a global problem requiring international collaboration, commitments and adequate tracking.

Consensus on how to define and measure waste data is important, as well as commitments from nations to regularize reporting. The upcoming might catalyze these steps, at least for plastics.

To track the quality of waste handled, governments should adopt guidelines for waste characterization, like the . Traceability needs to be integrated into waste management methods. Digital solutions like blockchain and artificial intelligence could , .

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