The following post is one of two tackling the issue of rethinking the concept of waste in developing countries, more specifically India.
Waste, by definition, is something we no longer want, so it stands to reason that we don’t spend much time thinking about the things we discard. But when you realize that 6 billion people collectively discard 4 billion tons of waste each year, it is getting harder to ignore. Consider this for a moment: 2.6 billion tons of waste is landfilled each year throughout the world, which is something like 82 tons of waste per second.
At best, a landfill is nothing more than a bad idea well executed. More commonly, and in many parts of the world, India included, a landfill is sometimes just a term to describe a large pile of garbage, its leachate meandering its way into rivers and streams, polluting our water and food supplies, spreading disease, and creating harmful greenhouse gas emissions. With all of the advances of mankind in areas of science, medicine, technology, how is it possible that waste management methods haven’t improved in the last 2000 years? Where is the outrage? Where is the leadership around sensible solutions?
At the risk of stating the obvious, the situation with waste is getting worse not better. Solid waste generation and landfilling is increasing year over year…partly because of population growth, but the bigger reason is growth in urbanization and per-capita income, especially in developing nations. According to a recent report by the World Bank, while less than one-third of India’s people live in cities and towns, these areas generate over two-thirds of the country’s GDP and account for 90% of government revenues. What this report doesn’t say is that when people migrate to urban areas, their lifestyles and eating habits change, and they generate more waste. As a related but also separate issue, as per-capita incomes increase, people buy more things that eventually make their way into a landfill, roadside dump, or waterway. It’s that simple.
To be clear, this isn’t a new problem for India or any other country. It’s just a problem that’s now reached epidemic proportion. So perhaps this is a good moment to step back and question the viability of conventional approaches to waste management, which have historically derived from environmentalist advocacy for using a three “R” hierarchy:
Reduce >>> Producers of goods need to find ways to reduce packaging. In the U.S., for example, product packaging accounts for about one-third of all consumer trash.
Re-use >>> While slightly less desirable than reducing waste outright, re-using things we already own is the next step. Even with the best intentions, much of what consumers buy isn’t designed for re-use, which presents a fundamental challenge. Electronic waste is a good example.
Re-cycle >>> Even though recycling is at the bottom of the desired hierarchy, it seems to get the most attention, and by many measures has been the most successful. Developed nations recycle 35- 50% of consumer waste materials. Developing nations have a less formal and quite possibly more effective approach in the form of rag picking. But what about what’s left over? And what about industrial, agricultural, and hazardous waste streams?
All of this is fine, but it is at best a partial solution for India given population growth, urbanization, and per capita income growth. Conventional approaches to waste resolution also defy human nature in the sense that as per capita incomes increase, purchasing power increases which is a driver of both economic growth and waste generation. Lastly, conventional approaches were designed to solve the problem of pollution. In additional to pollution we now face the separate problem of climate change. By some estimates, landfills account for 4% of global greenhouse gas generation, and represent the single largest source of man-made methane emissions.
How can we change this? Our next post will tackle this question.
