Tons of trash crossing state lines, each state's balance of waste in and out, and the landfills and waste-to-energy plants that take it. Every number comes from a state, regional or federal report and is labeled with its year and source. States without a published report show no data.
Loading waste flow data…
The map shows the United States only; waste from other countries is listed in the details and the table, not drawn. Basemap © OpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles, OpenStreetMap contributors. Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau.
The table follows the view and filters above. Full files: flows.csv, facilities.csv, metadata.json.
A script (tools/flows/build.mjs in the site's repository) downloads each report, reads its tables, checks them against the report's own totals and writes the files this page draws. It never estimates a tonnage: a number is copied from a source or added up from copied numbers. Where a source is silent the map says no data. Tonnage is in U.S. short tons per year, as reported.
Arcs connect state centers; their width is the tonnage. In Michigan, zoom in to see waste moving from each county to each landfill. Landfill locations come from EPA; landfills that EPA does not track sit at their county's center and are drawn faded. Facilities are labeled by type and place, with the public record number, not by company name.