Kazakhstan’s municipal waste collection and disposal sector continues to expand both in terms of the number of market participants and the volume of services provided. By the end of 2025, the country had 846 enterprises and organisations operating in this segment.
The growing number of market participants has been accompanied by rising waste collection volumes. In 2025, the total volume of collected waste, including waste from self-hauling enterprises, reached 5.5 million tonnes, compared to 4 million tonnes in 2021. Of this amount, 4.1 million tonnes accounted directly for municipal waste.
The volume of household waste also remains high. In 2025, 2.1 million tonnes of household waste were collected across the country, versus 2 million tonnes a year earlier. The largest volumes traditionally came from the country’s biggest cities and industrial regions.
Almaty led the ranking with 475.1 thousand tonnes, followed by Karaganda Region with 237.8 thousand tonnes and Astana with 212 thousand tonnes. Significant volumes were also recorded in Mangystau Region, at 148.1 thousand tonnes, and Shymkent, at 137.6 thousand tonnes. In a number of less populated regions, the figures were substantially lower: for example, 13.3 thousand tonnes of household waste were collected in Kyzylorda Region, 22.8 thousand tonnes in Zhetysu Region, and 25.9 thousand tonnes in Abai Region.
Against the backdrop of growing service volumes, waste disposal services for households have also continued to become more expensive. Prices in the sector have shown steady growth over recent years. While annual price growth stood at 5.9% in April 2020, the figure had already reached 22.4% by April 2023 and surged to 30.7% in April 2024. In April 2025, the pace of growth slowed somewhat, although waste disposal services still became 16.2% more expensive year-on-year. At the same time, as of April this year, waste disposal prices had increased by just 1.8% year-on-year.
