Environment
New York Is the World's Most Wasteful Megacity, in 3 Charts
The city consumes more water and energy, and generates more waste, than any other huge metro.
New York, many say, is the greatest city in the world. It also might be the most wasteful.
That's according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The large research team, led by Christopher A. Kennedy of the University of Toronto, examined how 27 "megacities" (metropolitan areas with more than 10 million people) metabolize resources and create waste. Together these monster cities consume 9.3 percent of the world's electricity and produce 12.6 percent of the world's waste—even though they contain only 6.7 percent of the world's population.