The Outlook is an updated assessment on global waste management that includes data analysis on global municipal solid waste management.
We need to act now in order to avoid the worst scenario. The report provides guidance and suggested actions for Multinational development banks, national governments, municipalities, producers and retailers, the waste management sector as well as citizens.
The report was published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA). The report explains what will occur if we continue business-as-usual, exhibited by life cycle assessments, and the result of implementing halfway measures or committing to a circular economy society. All waste is considered to be a valuable resource; there are three scenarios that cover municipal waste generation and management in the report – society, environment, and the global economy.
Principal Findings:
There is expected to be a growth in municipal solid waste from 2.1 billion tonnes to 3.8 million tonnes between 2023-2050. If no action is taken on waste management, the annual global cost of waste management will increase to an astonishing $640.3 billion by 2050. Factors such as poor health, climate change, and pollution all have hidden costs that raised the cost of waste management to $361 billion in 2020.
A fundamental change would be to implement a circular economy model, that will result in economic growth to be decoupled from waste generation through adopting sustainable business practices that accelerates progression rates. The waste management sector, producers, national governments etc… will benefit from the guidance and suggested actions from the report.
Conclusion:
All stakeholders must work in conjunction if we want to achieve a liveable future and protect future generations human rights. Accountability will need to increase in order to reduce waste crime. It is a necessity for people who work with waste to have a safe livelihood that will promote environmental and social justice, this will be achievable if actionable steps are taken towards attaining a less wasteful world. If the steps stated in the report are not adhered to, there will be immense quantities of waste that may have irreversible effects on human health, biodiversity, and climate change. This report is a call for action to scale up efforts to improve waste management capacity, provide an insight into what initiatives can be undertaken to influence actions on a global scale that encompasses a zero-waste approach.
How Can WPSCC Help?
At WPS Compliance Consulting we specialise in waste management; we provide forecasts in waste production, document waste minimisation practices, record all waste arisings in concordance with the Waste Duty of Care (DOC) compliance, and implement the waste hierarchy to identify reuse/recycle/disposal performance.
WPSCC have developed a software tool called SitePlan that enables clients to be self-sufficient and manage their own waste and environmental data.
