Issues - Integrated Waste & Resource Management

Solid waste

  • In developed countries:
    the environmental impact of solid waste has been reduced in recent years but the volume of waste generated is steadily growing.
  • In the developing world:
    few cities have adequate solid waste collection and disposal systems, and the accumulating waste threatens health, damages the environment, and detracts from the quality of life.

:: Material efficiency

Material efficiency can be defined as achieving the minimum material input per unit output of a particular product, given existing technologies. Material efficiency can be improved either by reducing the amount of the material contained in the final product (“lightweighting”) or by reducing the amount of material that enters the production process but ends up in the waste stream.

:: Solid waste

Solid waste is a growing problem in all countries, and a critical problem in many world cities.

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This paper considers solid waste issues including

  1. waste collection and disposal, and
  2. waste reduction and recycling.

It focuses on industrial and household solid waste, with attention to air and water pollution and climate change as they relate to such waste. The paper does not address sewage, agricultural waste, mining waste or industrial waste prevention (cleaner production), some of which are addressed in other issues papers.