the amount of municipal waste around of total waste has decreased by almost over the past decade meanwhile the amount of material and energy recovery from waste has grown thanks to efforts to treat waste as a resource recycling rates are increasing by up to in some cases for important materials such as glass steel aluminium paper and plastics oecd a more sustainable waste management has played its part the country has used effective pricing among other policy measures to reduce municipal waste improve waste recovery and reduce landfill oecd c