Annual Waste Management Survey: Waste Diversion, 2024

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.

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

The data presented in this release account for material that passed initial sorting or processing. Some material types require multiple steps of refining, which may reduce final volumes of recycled materials. Products reused (e.g., refurbished electronics, reused glass bottles, clothes sent for reuse) are not part of this survey's scope. Concrete and asphalt recycling, hazardous waste, imported recycling material, biosolids composting, and clean fill used to cover landfills are also excluded from these estimates.

In certain provinces, some material types have 0 tonne of reported recycled volumes. This reflects collected and existing administrative data, but recycling could still be happening at small scales or outside conventional waste management streams.

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.