What percentage of global plastic waste was recycled, incinerated, or landfilled in 2025?
Executive summary
Available sources report differing total global plastic-waste tonnages for 2025 (Common figures: ~225 Mt to 239–? Mt) but none of the provided documents give a single, authoritative global breakdown by percentage recycled, incinerated, and landfilled for 2025. The datasets and reports in the search results emphasise that recycling rates remain low and disposal is dominated by landfilling, incineration and mismanagement, but a precise global percentage split for 2025 is not stated in the available reporting [1] [2] [3].
1. What the headlines say about 2025 volumes
Multiple organisations put 2025 global plastic-waste generation in roughly the same ballpark but with variation: Earth Action For Impact estimated 225 million tonnes in 2025 (news summary reported by LetsRecycle) [1]. An academic modelling paper projected around 230–239 Mt of municipal plastic waste in 2025 under a business‑as‑usual scenario [2]. These headline tonnages matter because percentage breakdowns (recycling/incineration/landfill) depend on the chosen total and definitions of “waste” versus “post‑consumer” or “municipal” plastic [1] [2].
2. What the sources do say about recycling rates
The consulted sources repeatedly stress that recycling rates are low. For example, industry summaries and sector analyses assert that a large majority of plastic waste is not recycled, with one industry piece noting “91% of the world's plastic waste isn't recycled,” but that appears as an industry claim about historic cumulative rates rather than an explicit 2025 calendar‑year share [4]. The peer‑reviewed and NGO reports emphasise low recycling and the need for systems change rather than supplying a precise global 2025 percentage recycled [2] [5].
3. Disposal trends: incineration and landfilling are dominant
Several reports indicate disposal has shifted toward incineration and landfilling, with trade‑linked flow studies showing recycling “consistently low” while disposal increasingly goes to incineration or landfill [3]. The Pew/Breaking the Plastic Wave coverage and Guardian reporting likewise outline rising pollution and waste‑management system strains but do not tabulate an exact share split among recycling, incineration and landfill for 2025 [5] [6].
4. Why exact 2025 percentage splits are hard to find
Differences in definitions, data collection and scope explain the gap. Studies vary between measuring municipal plastic waste, post‑consumer waste, or total production‑to‑end‑of‑life flows; some include “open burning” and environmental leakage, others do not. Source data are modelled projections, market reports, and NGO tallies that emphasise trends and policy scenarios rather than publishing a single reconciled 2025 global percentage breakdown [2] [5] [7].
5. Competing perspectives and potential agendas
NGO and academic sources frame the problem as a governance and production issue that requires caps and systemic change; industry and market reports focus on market growth for waste‑management services and recycling technology—each perspective highlights different solutions and therefore emphasises different metrics [5] [7] [8]. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste stresses collective action and scaling recycling projects, an agenda that naturally highlights investable interventions [8]. These differing emphases help explain why some sources prioritise tonnage and modelling of pollution trajectories while others foreground market size or pilot projects [7] [8].
6. What you can reliably say, and what’s not in the reporting
Reliable, sourced statements from these materials: 225 Mt of plastic waste is reported for 2025 by Earth Action For Impact (reported by LetsRecycle) [1]; academic modelling suggests ~230–239 Mt of municipal plastic waste by 2025 under business‑as‑usual scenarios [2]; recycling is consistently low and disposal has shifted toward incineration and landfilling [3] [2]. What the available sources do not provide: a single, globally reconciling percentage split for 2025 that lists X% recycled, Y% incinerated and Z% landfilled—those exact percentage figures are not published in the documents supplied here [1] [2] [3].
7. How to get the precise breakdown you asked for
To obtain a defensible percentage split for 2025 you will need a source that explicitly tabulates end‑of‑life fate by method for that year (UN statistical compendium, OECD, or a global material‑flow study with 2025 year‑of‑analysis). None of the current search results contains such a table; the reporting instead offers tonnage estimates, dominant trends and policy recommendations [2] [5] [7]. If you want, I can search the UN, OECD or major material‑flow datasets for a 2025 disposal‑method breakdown and reconcile differences across sources.