Papua New Guinea Waste Data Profile - June 2025

Abstract

Given Papua New Guinea’s size and number of local councils, the waste management practices vary greatly, especially between urban and rural areas. In urban areas, households typically have access to collection services, whereas in rural areas households are likely to dump, burn, or bury waste. Waste recovery is managed by private operators who target scrap metals, e-waste, used oil, used lead-acid batteries, and PET plastic for export. There is also informal waste recovery by waste pickers that recover metals and plastic and take to landfills to sell