The table below shows the amount of waste production (in millions of tonnes) in six different countries over a twenty-year period.
The table illustrates the amount of waste produced by six nations between 1980 and 2000.
Overall, the period witnessed increases in waste production in the US, Japan, Poland and Portugal, except for Ireland and Korea. The Us had the highest waste output over the period shown.
At the beginning of the period, the US produced 131 million tonnes of waste, which was five times higher than the figure for Japan with 28 million tonnes. Over the next 20 years, the US’s waste disposal increased moderately to 151 million tonnes in 1990 before hitting 192 million tonnes in 2000. Similarly, there was an upward trend in the amount of waste produced in Japan, with its figure standing at 53 million tonnes at the end of the period.
In 1980, between 0.6 to 4 million tonnes of waste was generated in Ireland, Portugal, and Poland but no data was shown in Korea’s figure. From 1980 to 2000, Korea declined by 12 million tonnes of its waste output while the amount of waste produced in Ireland, Poland, and Portugal rose slightly to 5, 6.6, and 5 million tonnes respectively.