This year’s World Cup kicked off in Qatar at the weekend, but as fans gather to eat and drink whilst they get behind their country’s team we may forget that it adds millions of food and drink packaging to landfills across the world.
As Qatar vows to recycle 60% of World Cup waste and pledges to host the first carbon-neutral Fifa World Cup by reducing emissions1. But whilst you’re watching the game at home, how wasteful is your home country compared to others worldwide?
To highlight the scale of the waste issue, one of the UK’s leading waste and recycling companies BusinessWaste.co.ukreveals which of the 32 countries in the tournament produce the most rubbish.
| Rank | Country | The rubbish produced per person per day (kg) |
| 1 | Canada | 2.7 |
| 2 | Switzerland | 2.61 |
| 3 | Qatar | 2.5 |
| 4 | Denmark | 2.34 |
| 5 | Australia | 2.23 |
| 6 | USA | 2.22 |
| 7 | Portugal | 2.21 |
| 8 | Spain | 2.13 |
| 9 | Germany | 2.11 |
| 10 | France | 1.92 |
| 11 | England | 1.79 |
| 12 | Japan | 1.71 |
| 13 | Morocco | 1.46 |
| 14 | Netherlands | 1.4 |
| 15 | Costa Rica | 1.36 |
| 16 | Belgium | 1.33 |
| 17 | Saudi Arabia | 1.3 |
| 18 | Mexico | 1.24 |
| 19 | South Korea | 1.23 |
| 20 | Argentina | 1.22 |
| 21 | Brazil | 1.03 |
| 22 | Poland | 0.88 |
| 23 | Ecuador | 0.86 |
| 24 | Tunisia | 0.81 |
| 25 | Serbia | 0.79 |
| 26 | Cameroon | 0.55 |
| 27 | Senegal | 0.52 |
| 28 | Wales | 0.5 |
| 29 | Ghana | 0.47 |
| 30 | Croatia | 0.29 |
| 31 | Iran | 0.16 |
| 32 | Uruguay | 0.11 |
Out of all the Qatar-qualified World Cup Countries, Canada comes out on top as the most wasteful nation. The average Canadian produces 2.7kg of waste per day.
Whilst Switzerland is known for its natural beauty and clean air it may come as a surprise that it is the 2nd most wasteful country, producing over 2.6kg of waste per person per day.
The World Cup hosts Qatar don’t sit too far behind as the 3rd most wasteful country with the average Qatari producing 2.5kg of waste per day.
However, on the other end of the spectrum, Uruguay is the least wasteful World Cup-qualifying country producing 110g per person per day.
The top 10 booziest World Cup Nations
Whilst football fans at the stadium in Qatar won’t be able to drink, lots of football fans will be tuning into the matches at home, and around 16 million UK fans will flock to the pub to watch the match on a big screen. But which countries have the booziest fan base? Using data compiled from the Global Beer Consumption report, BusinessWaste.co.uk reveals the top 10 World-Cup-bound nations with the highest consumption of beer per capita every year.
| Rank | Country | Number of pints per person per year |
| 1 | Poland | 172 |
| 2 | Germany | 163 |
| 3 | Spain | 144 |
| 4 | Croatia | 125 |
| 5 | Australia | 126 |
| 6 | Netherlands | 118 |
| 7 | Brazil | 115 |
| 8 | Mexico | 113 |
| 9 | Denmark | 109 |
| 10 | United Kingdom | 106 |
Poland comes top of the rankings as the biggest beer drinkers out of all the Qatar-qualified World Cup countries, with the Polish consuming 96 litres per year per capita that’s equivalent to 172 pints per person, per year.
Even though the Brits are among the biggest boozers in the world, each downing 106 pints of beer a year, it may come as a surprise that the UK comes 10thin the rankings.
Mark Hall, co-founder of BusinessWaste.co.uk comments on the findings “Waste sorting is crucial and whilst it’s clear that sustainable targets are important for major sporting events it’s clear that football fans need to do their bit to help save the planet and reduce waste. And we urge sporting organisers to consider its environmental targets when planning future events.”
Using data from World Bank’s What a waste report to produce a ranking of competing countries by how much waste the produce at home. Data source – https://datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/
Data collated for the countries that have the highest consumption of beer was collated from the Global Beer Consumption report by Kirin Holdings. Data source – https://dohanews.co/qatar-vows-to-recycle-60-of-world-cup-2022-waste/
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