The table illustrates how much waste was manufactured in six different countries at 10 year intervals between 1980 and 2000, measuring in millions of tonnes.
Overall, the waste output in most countries shows an ascending trend, except for Korea, which slightly declined over the period shown. In addition, the US continued to be the country taking the lead in waste production by the end of the examined period.
In 1980, the waste production in the US was the highest, at about 131, which was almost five fold as high as the figure for Japan. About 4 millions of tonnes of waste were released in Poland, followed closely by Portugal’s waste output, at roughly 2. On the other hand, people in Ireland discharged the least waste, at around 0.6 and the figure for Korea was not provided.
Over the next 2 years, the waste generation in the US increased significantly to around 192. Similarly, the amount for Portugal and Ireland rose, but not as dramatically, climbing to roughly 5 of each. In contrast, the figure for Korea declined marginally from 31 in 1990 to 19 at the end of the period whereas the amount of waste produced in Japan and Poland increased steadily, at 53 and 6.6, respectively.