U.S. plastic waste exports breakdown 2020, by destination country

The United States exported 1.37 billion pounds of scrap plastic in 2020. Of this amount, roughly a quarter was shipped to neighboring Canada making it the largest export destination of U.S. scrap plastic. This was followed by Malaysia, which imported almost 20 percent of scrap plastics from the U.S. Plastic waste is often exported by wealthy countries to developing countries which have inadequate waste management infrastructures, leading to environmental pollution. Because of this, new regulations regarding plastic shipments were approved under the Basel Convention in 2019, and came into effect in 2021. Despite these new regulations, the U.S. has continued to export scrap plastic to developing nations, shipping 22 million pounds to Malaysia in January 2021.