Abstract: “In this paper, the trends of waste collection coverage, intermediate treatment, and final disposal of solid waste in the world are analyzed based on the cross-country analysis of waste management statistics. As a result, the improvement of waste collection service coverage strongly correlates with the increase of Human Development Index (HDI) and economic growth (GDP/capita). The introduction of intermediate treatments also correlates with economic growth, in which compost production and material recycling firstly become widespread in the low to middle-income stages, then following these, waste-to-energy incineration technology surges from middle to high-income stages. Anaerobic digestion also emerges from middle to high-income stages but in a limited scale. The method of final disposal of solid waste widely varies but in general open dumping decreases according to the economic growth, and sanitary landfilling increases”

Keywords: waste management service coverage, intermediate treatment, final disposal, economic growth, human development index