New Report Details a Record 58 million tons of Waste Moving Between States

Date: November 11, 2026

Source: News Room

A new report details the increasing movement of waste across state borders to ever more distant landfills.

 

A record 58 million tons shipped across state lines in 2025, up 3.3% in a single year.

 

The interstate movement of solid waste has become an increasingly important component of the U.S. waste management industry, driven by the closure of smaller local landfills, consolidation of disposal capacity, growing private-sector ownership, and the economic advantages of transporting waste to large regional disposal facilities.

According to Waste Business Journal estimates, the United States generated approximately 436 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2025, equivalent to 7 pounds per person per day.

Total waste receipts from outside state boundaries, including international shipments, primarily from Canada, reached 65.15 million tons. That reflects the growing dependence of major metropolitan areas on disposal facilities located beyond their borders.

Ohio remained the nation's largest waste-importing state in 2025, receiving approximately 8.77 million tons, primarily from the Northeast, followed by Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, Indiana, and Oregon.

New York was the largest exporting state, shipping approximately 10.38 million tons to disposal facilities elsewhere, followed by New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland, and Washington state.

Packed with detailed statistics in 15 tables and 8 figures, the report maps the busiest waste corridors, tracks the rise of waste-by-rail, reveals landfill-level import data, and shows how the map has shifted from 2005 to 2025.

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