The bar chart illustrates the changes in three different waste disposal methods—landfill, burning, and dumping at sea—in a European country between 2005 and 2008. The data is measured in million tonnes.
Overall, it is clear that landfill was the most common disposal method at the start of the period, but it saw a consistent decline. Conversely, burning became increasingly popular, while dumping at sea remained relatively stable throughout the four years.
In 2005, landfill was the dominant method, accounting for 1800 million tonnes of waste. However, this figure dropped sharply to 1200 million tonnes in 2006, followed by further decreases to 900 million tonnes in 2007 and 600 million tonnes by 2008. In contrast, the amount of waste disposed of by burning started at 500 million tonnes in 2005 and rose steadily each year, reaching 900 million tonnes by 2008, thereby overtaking landfill as the primary disposal method.
Dumping at sea remained the most consistent category. It stayed at a plateau of 600 million tonnes from 2005 to 2007, before experiencing a slight decline to 550 million tonnes in the final year of the period.