Waste management is one of the essential civic services underpinning a society. Ensuring proper sanitation and environmentally safe waste management is no less important for citizens than the provision of safe drinking water, shelter, food, energy, transportation, and communications. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), also called trash or garbage, consists of items that we discard regularly, such as clothing, glass jars and bottles, metal cans and containers, food, paper and paper products, plastics, packaging materials, furniture, appliances, electronics, and batteries, etc.
MSW comes from homes, offices, businesses, educational institutions, public and commercial establishments, such as restaurants, grocery stores, vegetable and meat markets, and other businesses; parks; stadiums, hospitals; and small manufacturing and other non-hazardous industrial operations. Solid waste generated in cities, towns, and villages that is managed by the local municipalities or city governments is called municipal solid waste. On the other hand, solid waste generated from agriculture production, crop and food processing, mining, and dredging operations, though examples of solid waste, are not considered MSW because they are managed by the generators, usually on site.
Most developed countries deal with MSW in an environmentally safe way: by separating recyclable components from non-recyclables, and using organics, such as food scraps, garden waste, biodegradables, and other materials, to capture methane for heating and electric power generation. The leftover or residual waste is then disposed of by placing it in an engineered structure, called a sanitary landfill. Hazardous wastes are managed in compliance with specific laws and rules for their storage, transportation, treatment, and disposal.
However, most developing countries in South Asia, Africa, and elsewhere do not follow this approach and mix the household, industrial, health care, and electronic waste together, only a portion of which is collected by the municipal workers and dumped at designated locations, wrongly called landfills. Such open dumping poses a serious threat to human and ecological health, causes air, water, and land pollution, and contributes to greenhouse gases (GHGs), resulting in climate change, besides lost land productivity and high material management costs. Globally, on average, 23 percent of the solid waste produced goes uncollected, while 33 percent is openly dumped. In low-income countries, like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, etc., the problem is even worse, where 60 percent of solid waste goes uncollected, and 93 percent is improperly managed.
Worldwide, 2.1 billion tonnes of MSW are generated each year, and the quantity is projected to increase to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050. While multiple conventions, mostly convened by the United Nations, have emphasized the need for proper waste management, the mandate differs from country to country. In high-income nations, the concept of the circular economy is widely recognized and implemented, while in low-income countries, a lack of financial investment and regulation hinders progress. As waste continues to pose significant environmental challenges, adopting an integrated, circular-economy-driven waste management system is a critical need for all countries. A 2010 UN-Habitat report highlighted it by stating: “Managing solid waste well and affordably is one of the key challenges of the 21st century, and one of the key responsibilities of a city government.”
Nature Preservation and Tourism
Based in Kansas City, USA, the writer is an internationally-acclaimed expert, a two-time winner of the US Govt. Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, and the only scientist in the world who has authored two award-winning college textbooks in the field of waste management. He can be reached at hasans@umkc.edu.
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