Annual Waste Management Survey: Waste Diversion, 2023

Table 38-10-0138 has been replaced on the Statistics Canada website and will no longer be updated but may still be viewed. The successor table is 38-10-0179.

Starting with the 2023 cycle of the Waste Management Survey, collection and publication of diverted waste (recycled and composted) data will become annual.

The survey provides comprehensive information about waste disposed of in landfills and diverted from its sources. This information is collected from businesses and municipalities that provide waste management services.

The Waste Management Survey data presented in this release account for material brought to sorting or processing facilities. As some of this material is deemed unrecyclable during sorting, not all of it ends up being recycled or composted.

Measurement of plastic diversion and disposal is also available through the Physical Flow Account for Plastic Material (PFAPM). The Waste Management Survey is one of multiple components of this account. The PFAPM considers the plastic content of internationally imported and exported products, as well as international imports and exports of sorted and baled plastic waste, disposed plastic waste and scrap. The Waste Management Survey accounts for plastics diverted from residential and non-residential sources and managed by municipalities or businesses specialized in waste management. It does not account for imported plastic waste and does not collect information on the types of material found in disposed waste.