Humanity is facing a severe crisis: it generates between 2.1 billion and 2.3 billion tons of municipal solid waste per year. A large part of these wastes, from food waste and plastics to electronic products and textiles, emit greenhouse gases or toxic chemicals.
This damages ecosystems, spreads diseases, and threatens economic prosperity, disproportionately affecting women and youth.
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN, stated: “Excessive consumption is killing us. Humanity needs an intervention. Let’s commit to ending the destructive cycle of waste once and for all.”
Eight ways to solve the waste crisis
1. Fight against food waste
Around 19% of food available to consumers is wasted annually, despite 783 million people suffering from hunger. Between 8% and 10% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions come from food production that ends up being wasted.
To reverse this trend, municipal authorities can promote urban agriculture and use food waste in animal husbandry, agriculture, and maintaining green areas. They can also fund food waste composting programs, separate them at the source, and ban them from ending up in landfills.
Consumers can buy only what they need, accept less appealing but still edible fruits and vegetables, store food more intelligently, utilize leftovers, compost food scraps, and donate food before it spoils.
2. Treat textile waste
Less than 1% of the material used to produce clothing is recycled into new items, resulting in an annual material value loss of over $100 billion. Additionally, the textile industry consumes the equivalent of 86 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of water every year.
To counteract this, the fashion industry needs to become more circular. Brands and retailers can offer more circular business models and products that last longer and can be remade. Governments can provide infrastructure to collect and sort used textiles, and consumers can evaluate if their clothing purchases are necessary.
3. Avoid electronic waste
Electrical and electronic devices are clogging landfills worldwide. Through strong policies, governments can encourage consumers to keep their products longer and pressure manufacturers to offer repair services, a change that would bring a range of economic benefits.
4. Reduce resource use in products
The use of raw materials has tripled over the last 50 years. Producers can comply with ecodesign standards to reduce energy and resource consumption and minimize hazardous chemicals in production, ensuring products are durable, repairable, and recyclable.
5. Crack down on plastic pollution
Plastics are commonly used in electronics, textiles, and single-use products. Around 85% of single-use plastic bottles, packaging, and containers end up in landfills or are improperly managed. A global surveillance and notification system can help end plastic pollution.
6. Address hazardous waste
Chemicals present in everyday life, such as mercury in electronics, lead in cosmetics, and persistent organic pollutants in cleaning products, require specialized treatment and disposal.
To address this crisis, governments can commit to multilateral agreements on the environment to ensure the safe disposal of these wastes.
7. Rethink city design and management
By 2050, it is projected that 68% of the world’s population will live in cities. Investing in energy-efficient buildings can reduce construction and demolition waste, which generates significant amounts of waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
8. Strengthen waste management through investment and training
Globally, around 25% of waste is not collected, and 39% is not managed in controlled facilities. Worldwide waste management incurs an annual net cost of $361 billion.
Reducing waste generation and increasing recycling can generate an annual net gain of $108.1 billion by 2050.
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