Waste management industry, or waste industry for short, subsumes all industrial branches concerned with waste management, waste dumping, waste recycling and - to a lesser degree - waste prevention.
Within Germany, waste management has evolved into a large economic sector. There are more than 270,000 people working in some 11,000 companies with an annual turnover of around 70 billion euros (~$78 billion). More than 15,500 waste management facilities help to conserve resources through recycling and other recovery operations.[1] On a global scale, the market size is expected to reach $530.0 billion by 2025 from $330.6 billion in 2017, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.0%.[2] The growth might even continue when, according to a World Bank report, global waste production will grow by 70% from 2018 to 2050, unless severe measures are taken.[3][4]
Among the top companies in the sector are the following:[5]