Waste to Resource

Описание: Economic growth across developing Asian countries has led to a sharp increase in consumption. With higher levels of waste now generated, local governments struggle to cope with solid waste management. Governments are confronted with increasing costs for disposal, while public health and the environment suffer from the damaging effects of untreated solid waste. Solid waste management systems in Asia are strained, and landfill space is fast becoming a rare commodity.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Waste Concern and local partners embarked on a regional project, Pro-Poor and Sustainable Solid Waste Management in Secondary Cities and Small Towns, to find appropriate approaches to waste management that would transform waste products into valuable resources, improve waste collection services and yet still provide better income and working conditions for waste pickers.

By regarding waste as a resource, the project's overarching objective is to enable participating towns to develop and execute solid waste management strategies that are decentralized, particularly beneficial to the urban poor, contribute to low-carbon priorities and can be partly financed through the sale of carbon credits.

The approach recognizes that 60--70 per cent of waste in developing Asian countries is organic and, if managed properly, can be recycled back into the economy in the form of valuable and vital compost. With projects up and running in several towns in the region, including in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam, the approach is demonstrating the waste sector's potential to create opportunities for local entrepreneurs and jobs for the urban poor while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

www.waste2resource.org