Municipal solid waste disposal by methods in the U.S. 1960-2018
Every year hundreds of millions of tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) is landfilled in the U.S., making it the most common waste disposal method in the country. In 2018, approximately 146 million metric tons of MSW materials were landfilled, accounting for a 50 percent share of total waste disposal that year. In 1960, 5.61 million metric tons of MSW were recycled. Since then the volume of recycled materials has increased massively, rising to 69 million metric tons in 2018. The most recycled material in the U.S. is paper and paperboard.
