A global review of solid waste management

In 1999 the World Bank published What a Waste: Solid Waste Management in Asia (Hoornweg and Thomas 1999), with an estimate of waste quantities and composition for Asia. In the intervening
decade more accurate and comprehensive data became available for most regions of the world.
OECD-country estimates are typically reliable and consistent added to these were comprehensive
studies for China and India and the Pan-American Health Orgnization’s study for Latin America.
Therefore a global update of the 1999 report is possible, and timely.
Municipal solid waste managers are charged with an enormous task: get the waste out from underfoot
and do so in the most economically, socially, and environmentally optimal manner possible. Solid
waste management is almost always the responsibility of local governments and is often their
single largest budget item, particularly in developing countries. Solid waste management and
street sweeping is also often the city’s single largest source of employment.
Additionally, solid waste is one of the most pernicious local pollutants uncollected solid waste is usually the leading contributor to local flooding and air and water pollution. And if that task were not large enough, local waste management officials also need to deal with the integrated and international aspects of solid waste, and increasingly with demographic change in the work force, employment generation,
and management of staff both formal and informal.
Solid waste management informal and informal represents 1% to 5% of
all urban employment. As formality increases so do issues of labor organi￾zation, health and safety, ageing demographics (solid waste workers tend to be younger), the friction between ‘sanctioned’ and ‘unsanctioned’ recycling, and producer pay arguments and apportioning costs and responsibilities.
Managing municipal solid waste is an intensive service. Municipalities need capacities in
procurement, contract management, professional and often unionized labor management,
and ongoing expertise in capital and operating budgeting and finance. MSW also requires a
strong social contract between the municipality and community. All of these skills are prerequi￾sites for other municipal services. The original What a Waste Report provided waste estimates for South and East Asia. This waste stream represents about 33% of the world’s total quantities. Most growth predictions made in What a Waste: Solid Waste Management in Asia were reasonably accurate and in most cases, even taking into account the recent economic contraction, waste growth estimates were conservative. This is especially true in China. In 2004, China surpassed the US as the world’s largest waste generator. In
2030, China will likely produce twice as much municipal solid waste as the United States.

source:

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/1a464650-9d7a-58bb-b0ea-33ac4cd1f73c