Earth Today | Waste fueling triple planetary crisis
Published:Thursday | March 28, 2024 | 12:07 AM
GROWING WASTE generation is fueling the triple planetary crisis of pollution, nature loss and climate change.
This is according to the recent Waste Management Outlook 2024, titled Beyond an age of waste: Turning rubbish into a resource.
“Between 400,000 and one million people die every year as a result of diseases related to mismanaged waste that includes diarrhoea, malaria, heart disease and cancer,” the report said.
“Waste disposed of on land can cause long-term pollution of freshwater sources by pathogens, heavy metals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals and other hazardous compounds. Open burning of waste releases Unintentional Persistent Organic Pollutants, ‘forever chemicals’ that can be carried long distances in the air, persist in the environment, biomagnify and bio accumulate in ecosystems, and have significant negative effects on human health and the environment,” it added, citing existing research work.
On nature loss, the report said the “indiscriminate waste disposal practices can introduce hazardous chemicals into soil, water bodies and the air, causing long-term, potentially irreversible damage to local flora and fauna, negatively impacting biodiversity, harming entire ecosystems, and entering the human food chain”.
“The long-term pollution of land and aquatic ecosystems by waste has been recognised as one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss and puts the integrity of entire ecosystems at risk. It is estimated that 90 per cent of all biodiversity loss is caused by land-use change and related consumption of resources,” the report said.
As for climate change, “transporting, processing and disposing of waste” generate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that fuel the warming of the planet.
“Methane is released from the decomposition of organic waste in landfills and dumpsites, with short-term effects on global warming (UNEP and Climate and Clean Air Coalition,” the report explained.
“The open burning of waste releases black carbon (soot). When black carbon settles on the surface of sea ice it contributes to the acceleration of sea ice melting by absorbing rather than reflecting sunlight. Black carbon has a strong contribution to current global warming, second only to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide,” it added.
It is therefore necessary, the report said, to implement both upstream and downstream measures that tackle resource use and waste generation and associated environmental impacts.
Upstream measures have to do with prevention, use and reuse while downstream measures include recycling, disposal as well as energy recovery and emissions control.
“To achieve Waste Under Control, upstream and downstream measures will be required in order to prevent waste generation; products and materials will need to be used more efficiently and longer; and global recycling capacity will need to double from 660 to 1,200 milliontonnes. The greatest increases in recycling capacity will be needed in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Americawith corresponding investments in waste management infrastructure,” the report said.
There is, too, a need for scaled-up efforts to achieve and sustain a circular economy that sees products and materials designed to enable reuse, remanufacturing, recycling or recovery and maintained in the economy for as long as possible.
“The circular economy scenario will require economic growth to be entirely decoupled from resource use, with government policies and producer actions fully aligned. Investments in recycling will need to be even more significant, with a three-fold increase in global capacity to recycle MSW, from around 400 million tonnes in 2020 to more than 1.2 billion tonnes in 2050,” the report said.