April 22 is Earth Day, the day folks around the world post appreciation pics of our planet. However, on April 23, the planet slips to the back of many people’s minds, though this isn’t the case for everyone. Europeans and folks living in East Asia celebrate the Earth year-round by recycling and composting as if their lives depended on it (and they kind of do). Other countries, like Japan, minimize human impact by incinerating their trash. This is better than sending large amounts of trash to landfills as heat from incineration can be used to generate electric power. Then there are the countries that love sending almost all of their waste to the landfill. Clearly some countries are more environmentally aware than others. Let’s take a look at countries doing the most and those that could try a little harder when it comes to waste management and our planet.
Which countries reduce, reuse, and recycle and which are garbage at disposing of their own? Sort the map by recycling and composting rates, different methods of incineration, and landfilling to find out. Then, read on for trashy trends we’d be rubbish at spotting without the help of a map.

Europe’s Bin Recycling and Composting, Have You?

Unlike the map of the worst statistics about the United States which highlighted some negative environmental impacts of certain U.S. states (Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware, and North Carolina), we’re focusing on locations doing good for the planet. Europe, for example, is slaying the recycling and composting game compared to the rest of the world. It seems that saying au revoir to daylight savings time in 2019 leaves Europeans enough spare time to recycle and compost. Below is the list of countries with recycling and composting rates of 55% or higher, four of which are located in Europe:

• Germany
• South Korea
• Austria
• Slovenia
• Belgium
• Taiwan

The six countries above have the highest recycling and composting rates in the world. Germany takes the cake, recycling and composting 65% of waste. South Korea is second best, ethically getting rid of 59% of its waste. Coming in close behind are Austria and Slovenia, which tie for third place at rates of 58%. Belgium and Taiwan close out the top environmental do-gooders with a 55% rate of recycling and composting. Plus, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg deserve honorary mentions for recycling and composting rates 45% of trash.

Japan Incinerates the Competition

Incineration is just a fancy way of saying “burning trash.” While incineration does not eliminate the need for landfills, it does convert trash to smaller, more manageable levels. Incineration reduces waste mass by 83% and its volume by 96% which is why it’s popular in countries where space is limited. Some countries have expressed concerns about incinerators and their effect on the environment. However, not only do incinerators significantly reduce the amount of waste for disposal at landfills, the high temperatures of incinerators can also destroy pathogens and toxins that would alternatively fester in the landfill.

The top three incinerators — incineration without energy recovery on the map — include:

• Germany
• Japan
• Canada

These three countries limit the amount of space waste takes up in landfills by incinerating a percentage of it. Just like with the highest rate of recycling and composting, Germany has the best rate of incineration without energy recovery: 13%. Japan comes in second with a rate of 6%, though this isn’t the last we’ll hear of Japan’s aptitude for incineration. Third place goes to Canada. Canada incinerates 4% of its waste without energy recovery.

Incinerating is a step above landfilling, even more so when utilizing incineration with energy recovery. This type of incineration generates energy that can be used for other purposes like electricity or heat.

The largest incinerators with energy recovery are:

• Japan
• Norway
• Denmark

These countries incinerate their trash in the most environmentally-friendly way possible: with energy recovery. Japan does it the best at a rate of 71%. If you recall, Japan also had the second highest rate of incineration without energy recovery. Japan’s tendency to incinerate its trash may be because incineration is extra popular in countries with limited space, like Japan. Norway has the next highest incineration with recovery rate: 57%. Denmark follows with 54% of its waste being incinerated with energy recovery. Sweden — at 50% — also deserves recognition as it is the last country with a rate of incineration with energy recovery over 49%.

Remember when we noted that Austria and Slovenia tied for third when it comes to recycling and composting? They also tied with 0% rates of incineration without energy recovery. But while these two countries have identical recycling and composting rates and the same incineration without energy recovery rate, their incineration with energy recovery rates aren’t anywhere close. Austria has Slovenia beat big time when it comes to incineration with energy recovery. Austria does this at a rate of 35% while Slovenia incinerates with energy recovery just 1% of the time.

Countries that Love Landfills

We mostly focused on the positives up until now. But when it comes to landfills, there are only negatives. Air pollution, contaminated water, unwanted health effects, unworkable soil and land, high economic costs, and fires are only a few drawbacks of landfills. So when you group the map by landfills, keep in mind that countries with higher rates aren’t the ones doing the most for the environment. The countries that appear to love landfills include:

• New Zealand
• Turkey
• Chile
• Mexico
• Israel
• Greece

New Zealand, Turkey, Chile, Mexico, Israel, and Greece certainly have some explaining to do. With landfilling rates like New Zealand’s (100%), Turkey and Chile’s (99%), Mexico’s (95%), and Israel and Greece’s (81%), who needs enemies! But we also have some explaining to do. The data we used to make the map is from a Wikipedia table. Wikipedia is a great resource to find data that can be easily transported to a spreadsheet and copied and pasted into our spreadsheet data mapper. However, we’re also aware Wikipedia’s data may not be 100% accurate. Though it’s safe to say the countries with high rates of landfilling —according to Wikipedia — likely aren’t the most environmentally friendly places.

We noted that Austria and Slovenia tie when it comes to rates of recycling and incineration without energy recovery. Yet, Austria’s rate of incineration with energy recovery (35%) is much better than Slovenia’s (1%). Just like their un-identical incineration with energy recovery rates, Austria and Slovenia aren’t close when it comes to landfilling. Once again, Slovenia falls behind Austria. Slovenia sends a whopping 36% of its trash to the landfill while Austria does the same with just 4% of its waste. In addition to Austria, let’s give it up for the eight countries that have landfilling rates below 5%: Germany and Switzerland (0%), Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Japan (1% each), and Denmark and Norway (2%).

---

For U.S. mappers, let’s aim to get our country higher up in the ranks. We’re currently ranked 15th in both recycling and landfilling. And be sure to check out the world’s highest electricity usage to see which countries may want to consider relying on incineration with energy recovery to bring their electricity rates down. A lower electric bill and less in the landfill is a win-win in our book. We also wonder if the many different drinking ages across the globe have any effect on recycling rates. Beer cans are recyclable, right?

Destination weddings are great, but what happens when your guests have downtime in between the loved-up festivities? You and your partner-to-be can’t play tour guide to everyone. After all, you’ll both be busy with wedding preparations, and you know, tying the knot. Even if you opt for a local wedding, you’re likely to invite a few out-of-towners who are unfamiliar with the area. So what can you do to help your guests navigate the area surrounding your wedding venue? Create a paperless, easy-to-make virtual wedding guide! Whether your guests are looking for lodging options, restaurants, a quick stop at a grocery store, fun things to do, or wedding day location logistics, a virtual wedding guide is a great tool to ensure your wedding goes smoothly.

View Hawaiian Wedding Guide in a full screen map

Just like a map of your location and favorite places, a wedding guide can help guests navigate the area surrounding your venue and take some stress off your shoulders. So keep reading for instructions on how to make your own virtual wedding guide for your friends and family.

Determine What to Do in the Surrounding Area

The first step of creating a virtual wedding guide is to determine what there is to do in the area surrounding your wedding venue. It’s helpful in your mapping endeavors if you already know all about the nighttime scene, unique hikes, or famous botanical gardens of the area. Perhaps you’ve already mapped your highlights from hiking, geocaching, or walking around the area! However, unfamiliarity with the area shouldn’t stop you from creating a virtual wedding guide. Turn to Google to help you determine what places to add to your wedding guide.

For example, if your wedding venue is the beautiful Haiku Mill located in Hawaii, enter that into Google Maps. Here, you can select the “Nearby” option to see the restaurants, hotels, bars, and pubs near the venue you may want your guests to know about. Then, jot them down! A spreadsheet is a perfect place to keep track of all the spots your guests might like to check out.

Create a Spreadsheet and Copy & Paste into the Mapping Tool

Now you can go ahead and add all of the amazing places you discovered to a spreadsheet. You’ll want to use column headings like the name of the location and “type” or “category.” These group-able categories (like restaurants, hotels, or fun thing to do) will come in handy later. Of course, don’t forget to note the address of these places since we’re going to be plotting them on a map! Below is an example of our spreadsheet:

Location	Address	Type
Haiku Mill	250 Haiku Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Wedding Venue
St Rita’s Church	655 Haiku Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Fun Things To Do
Twin Falls	6280 Hana Hwy, Haiku, HI 96708	Fun Things To Do
The Gardens	800 Haumana Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Fun Things To Do
Ho’okipa Beach Park	Hana Hwy, Paia, HI 96779	Fun Things To Do
Haiku Market	810 Haiku Rd #143, Haiku, HI 96708	Grocery
Fukushima Store	815 Haiku Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Grocery
Pauwela Store	375 W Kuiaha Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Grocery
Haiku Plantation Inn: Maui Bed and Breakfast	555 Haiku Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Hotel
Bamboo Valley Inn	1444 W Kuiaha Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Hotel
The Inn At Mama’s Fish House	799 Poho Pl, Paia, HI 96779	Hotel
Maui Adventure Villa	190 Kaokoa Way, Haiku, HI 96708	Hotel
Kaiholo Hale	25 Kaiholo Pl, Paia, HI 96779	Hotel
Veg Out	810 Kokomo Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Restaurant
Colleen’s At the Cannery	810 Haiku Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Restaurant
Nuka	780 Haiku Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Restaurant
Maui Kombucha	810 Kokomo Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Restaurant
Mediterranean Grill	810 Haiku Rd #1, Haiku, HI 96708	Restaurant
Bailey’s Café	810 Haiku Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Restaurant
Kings BBQ	810 Kokomo Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Restaurant
Mangala Yoga	810 Kokomo Rd #102, Haiku, HI 96708	Wellness
Three Treasures Inc.	718 Haiku Rd, Haiku, HI 96708	Wellness
MALIE DAY SPA	810 Kokomo Rd #201, Haiku, HI 96708	Wellness

Now that you’ve gathered the exciting places guests can visit in a spreadsheet, simply copy and paste your data into our map-making tool for a wedding guide that looks something like this:

Guests Can Calculate Distances Between Important Locations

With your new paperless wedding guide your guests can calculate the distance between two markers on the map. To enable this option, right click on your map and select “Edit Map.” Then, scroll down and click “Validate and Set Options.” Next, select “Show Advanced Options.” Check the box for “Calculate (straight line) distance from first address” and note your preferred units of measurement. Finally, click “Make Map,” and you’re good to go!

Since this is a wedding guide, we recommend the first address (from which the map will now automatically calculate distances) be your wedding venue. After all, it is the most important point on a wedding map! Now, if Uncle Bucky intends to stay at the Inn At Mama’s Fish House, he’s easily able to see it’s 2.47 miles away from the venue.

Moreover, your guests may want to calculate the distance from a marker on the wedding guide other than the first address. And with BatchGeo Pro, they can easily do that! Measure on the fly with the measuring tool (it looks like a ruler!) in the top left corner of your wedding map. Using the measuring tool, drag a line between any two markers on the map and BatchGeo will let you know exactly how far apart they are. As when we calculated distances from the first address, you’re able to toggle between units of measurement with the measuring tool. To do so, click the scale on the bottom right of your map to switch between feet and meters. The measuring tool and the option to calculate distances from the first address are available with the Advanced Mode in BatchGeo Pro which opens up more opportunities for data insight.

---

Now that a virtual wedding map solved the problem of playing tour guide to your wedding guests, you’ve got more time to move — literally — on to other ways maps can help with important relationship milestones: moving in together.

This map has got everything you need to make the most financially-informed decision about moving. Then, once you’ve identified the new city or state with the best rent prices, you can apartment hunt visually with a custom map or even make an open house map if you and your spouse are looking to buy a home.

Many of us in the U.S. take pride in our home state or the state in which we currently reside. After all, we’re not likely to move to a state we absolutely despise unless a job opportunity outweighs the negatives. And trust us, each state certainly has its negatives. From preventable hospitalizations and the smallest increase in newborn life expectancy to dismal unemployment rates and a future $223 million going towards preventing rising sea level damage, we’re shining a light on some of the darkest state statistics. The map helped us identify regions of the U.S. with the worst health as well as which side of the nation, East versus West, faces similar issues.

View The Worst Statistic About Your State in a full screen map

Take a look at the map above for the different categories of negative state statistics including natural disasters, environmental negatives, and crime levels. Then read on for the fascinating trends you can pull from the data.

The South Could Be Healthier

Using the map grouping feature to group by health, it’s clear the South’s health struggles rise to the top. Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia all face health-related concerns serious enough to be considered the worst fact about these Southern states.

State	Details
Alabama	Alabama has fewer than 85 mental health providers per 100,000 people, the least of any state and well below the national average of 212.8 mental health providers per 100,000 people.
Arkansas	Nearly a quarter of state adults report having fair or poor health, compared to 16.0% of Americans.
Kentucky	Preventable hospitalizations are a sign of poor health habits and a suboptimal medical system. Kentucky has an estimated 76.56 preventable hospitalizations per 100,000 Medicare enrollees, the highest of any state.
Oklahoma	Between 1980 and 2014, life expectancy at birth improved by only 3.4 years in Oklahoma, the smallest improvement of any state and less than half the 7.2 year national increase.
South Carolina	Just 54.2% of South Carolina residents have access to places for physical activity like park parks and recreation centers, the smallest share of any state.
Tennessee	According to the CDC, 9.8% of Tennessee adults have a major cardiovascular disease of some kind, compared to the national prevalence of 6.9%.
Texas	In Texas, 17.3% of the population lacks health insurance, the highest uninsured rate of any state.
West Virginia	West Virginia’s 35.5% adult obesity rate is the highest of any state. The national obesity rate is 28.0%.

Unhealthy Outliers: South Dakota and Montana

South Dakota and Montana also make an appearance on the map when you group by health issues. South Dakota’s government spent just $1,022 per capita on health in the most recent fiscal year, the lowest of any U.S. state. In fact, New Mexico spends over three times as much as South Dakota on health. Plus, the national average for state health spending is $1,884 per capita.

As for Montana, the state has the highest suicide rate of any state at 26 incidents per 100,000 people. And while rising suicide rates aren’t new, between 1999 and 2016 Montana saw a 38% increase in suicides. To put it in perspective, the national average increased by 25%. The National Alliance on Mental Montana’s executive director suspects the state’s high suicide rate is because of Montana’s particular residential makeup. Many gun owners, Native Americans, and military veterans call Montana home. Unfortunately, these folks are at high risk of suicide. Additionally, as is the case in Alabama, Montana doesn’t have enough mental health care providers for their population and Montana recently faced further mental-health budget cuts. This seems counterintuitive since Montana’s residential makeup and ruralness resulting in geographic isolation, high rate of heavy alcohol consumption, and lack of daylight during the winter are all linked to depression.

Financial Woes of the Eastern United States

It appears that more than other region, the Eastern United States struggles financially. If you group the map by finances, the right side of the nation including Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, New York, and Virginia all light up with a financial-related issue. For example, both Connecticut and Illinois struggle with debt. The average credit card debt in Connecticut is $7,258, the highest of any of the mainland U.S. states. Illinois also has a history of debt. In fact, Illinois’s debt is so serious that the state itself is at risk of a financial crisis or even bankruptcy. In its most recent fiscal year, the state had $244.9 billion in obligations and just $28.8 billion in assets.

When it comes to real estate, Indiana has something in common with the only non-Eastern state struggling financially: Hawaii. The cost of living in Hawaii is 18.4% higher than the average cost of living nationwide. Indiana’s real estate dilemma? Its home values. Indiana homes are some of the least
valuable in the nation as most are worth
less than $142,000. The typical home
nationwide is worth $217,600.

The Eastern U.S. Also Battles Environment & Transportation Issues

The Eastern United States battles another bad trend or two. If you group the map by both environment and transportation, it’s apparent the East also has trouble with these categories. Delaware, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Ohio all face environmental issues. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island struggle with roadside transportation.

Environmentally-speaking, just 2.4% of Delaware’s energy comes from renewable sources, one of the lowest shares of any U.S. state. Nationally, 11.7% of energy production comes from renewable non-hydro sources. New Jersey is one of the least environmentally friendly states as nearly all residents live in high ozone areas. Air high in ozone can be harmful to health. Maybe New Jersey should also be classified as an Eastern state that is not ideal for those seeking optimal health. Also not great for health: the air pollution problem in Ohio. The average daily concentration of PM2.5, a harmful substance, is the highest concentration of any state. Lastly, North Carolina has over 300 miles of coastline that is susceptible to damage from rising sea levels. By some estimates, rising sea levels could cost $223 million per year by 2080 in southern North Carolina alone.

As for transportation, 48.7% of Marylanders drive to work by themselves for more than 30 minutes each day, the highest of any state. We too noted this on our map of the U.S. city commute times. But it’s not too shocking Maryland has such a high solo commuter rate. This can be attributed to Washington D.C.’s infamous gridlock. On the other hand, residents of Pennsylvania likely opt out of driving as often since Pennsylvania has the highest gas tax. And we hear the roads in Rhode Island are pretty beat up.

Does the West Even Struggle?

So what do the Western states even struggle with? Unlike when we found that the West faces the most extreme high and low temperatures in the U.S. and the most NBA finals wins per team and opportunity, we don’t see many trends with the worst state statistics in the West. However, that doesn’t mean these states don’t have negatives. Washington and California face weather and natural disaster-related problems. Arizona and Colorado both have serious racial disparities they need to address. There are also a couple of Western states with negative lifestyle-related facts. Take Nevada’s sky-high divorce rate for example — though, who doesn’t get married and subsequently divorced in Vegas nowadays? Further lifestyle negatives include Utah’s lack of social spaces and Idaho’s lack of children in preschool. Other Western state stats: New Mexico’s got lots of crime while Oregonians and North Dakotans love their drugs. We guess the West’s trend is that they don’t have any trends.

---

Once you recover from seeing the worst statistic about your state laid out clearly on a map, check out some more popular maps related to the worst statistic categories like how to map local crime data online, different drinking ages around the world on a map, or the most disastrous natural disasters mapped. Then, make a map of your own. Just enter the spreadsheet information you want mapped into our data-mapping tool and you too can delve into the world of insight opportunities.