🧭 How other countries tackle waste
Countries try very different ways of dealing with waste. Here are three well-documented examples, using what each government or the UN says about them.
🇸🇬 Singapore: one landfill, and a plan to make it last
Singapore has one active landfill, Semakau Landfill, which opened on 1 April 1999. It was built by enclosing 350 hectares of sea between two offshore islands. Waste that can be burned goes to four incineration plants, which reduce its volume by up to 90%. The ash is what goes to Semakau, and some bottom ash is already used as road material.
The government says that at current rates Semakau will run out of space around 2035. Its targets include an overall recycling rate of 70% by 2030 and, under its Zero Waste Masterplan, cutting the waste sent to Semakau each day by 30% by 2030. Priority waste streams are food waste, e-waste and packaging.
Lesson: when you only have a small amount of land, wasting less becomes a national priority.
🇰🇷 South Korea: you pay for the rubbish you throw away
South Korea’s Volume Based Waste Fee system began nationwide on 1 January 1995. General rubbish must go in standard bags that people buy, so the fee is in proportion to how much is thrown away. Recyclables are free to put out. Seoul began charging for food waste by volume or weight in 2013.
A Seoul Solution case study reports early results: waste per person fell from 1.43 kg a day in 1994 to 1.31 kg in 1996, and the recycling rate rose from 20.5% to 29.5% over the same years. These are results from the 1990s, not current figures.
Lesson: charging by amount gives people a direct reason to waste less and sort more.
🇷🇼 Rwanda: banning plastic bags
According to the UN Development Programme, Rwanda banned single-use plastic bags in 2008, becoming one of the first countries in the world to do so. The law covered their production, importation, sale and use. A 2019 law extended the restrictions to other single-use plastics such as bottles, straws, plates and forks.
UNDP also mentions monthly community plastic collection events since 2008. Its article gives no measured results for Rwanda, so we do not claim any.
Lesson: some countries have chosen to stop certain plastics at the source rather than manage them after use.
What this means in the UK
These are examples, not recommendations, and rules differ a lot between countries. For what applies to you, see our UK guides, and for plastic in particular, our plastic bags and wrapping guide.
Information on this page comes from the organisations named in the sources, and statistics are only as good as the data countries report. Different reports use different years and methods, so do not compare their numbers directly.
Sources
- Singapore Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment: Waste management ↗
- Seoul Solution: Volume Based Waste Fee system for municipal solid waste ↗
- UNDP: Rwanda’s remarkable journey on plastic pollution (June 2023) ↗
Spotted something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we will check it.
More from the world section
🌍 Global waste in numbers
How much rubbish the world produces, how fast it is growing, how much is not managed safely and what it costs, from the United Nations and the World Bank.
🔌 E-waste around the world
The world threw away a record 62 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste in 2022, and less than a quarter was documented as properly recycled. UN figures explained.
🍎 Food waste around the world
The world wasted 1.05 billion tonnes of food in 2022, according to the UN Food Waste Index. Where it happens, and what it means.
🧴 The global plastics treaty: where talks have got to
Countries are negotiating a legally binding UN treaty on plastic pollution. A plain-English summary of what has happened so far and where to check the latest.