Amid the rapid urbanization and industrial expansion of our era, Solid Waste Management (SWM) emerges as a critical challenge. With booming populations and escalating consumption patterns, the amount of waste produced continues to increase, posing significant threats to our environment and to public health.

Solid waste refers to any type of garbage, trash, refuse, or discarded material. It can be categorized based on its sources, such as Healthcare Waste (HW), electronic waste, and  Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), which comprises everyday items we discard. Globally, the UN Environment Programme estimated that around 11.2 billion tons of solid waste is collected annually. In 2016 alone, humans generated 2.1 billion tons of MSW, and this number is expected to increase by 70% by 2050 to reach a total of 3.4 billion tons. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where total waste generation is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, the World Bank expects MSW to triple and double by 2050, respectively. This figure would account for 35% of the world’s waste overall.

SWM in the Global South

While SWM has become a pressing issue globally, its severity in the Global South warrants special consideration, as this hemisphere is often characterized by the frequent absence of formal waste management infrastructures. While upper-middle income countries collect an average of 85% of their waste, cities in lower-middle countries only collect 40 – 60 percent and properly dispose of only 5 – 30 percent, a figure that drops even lower in suburbs, where as little as 10% is collected, resulting in health and environmental crises. 

In addition to the problem of inadequate waste collection, the labor-intensive nature of waste management in these countries significantly increases health risks. Approximately 24 million people around the world engage in the informal sector of waste management, with a staggering 80% of them working as waste pickers. In Iloilo City, the Philippines, where some 170 tons of waste (about 50% of the total generated) are disposed of in an open dumpsite, approximately 300 households collect recyclable materials and sell them in local markets.

Aside from inadequate and informal waste collection, developing countries often resort to inappropriate practices for SWM due to their affordability. Dumps, landfills, and open burning serve as the general choices for solid waste disposal, despite their costs to human health and the environment. Urbanization in these countries is often fast and unplanned, forming low-income neighborhoods, slums, and other informal settlements. These settlements often lie outside of the cities’ service areas, which results in urgent demands for SWM. 

To meet this demand as expediently as possible, dump sites and open burning sites are often constructed in the vicinity of, or even within, the informal settlements in the name of convenience on the one hand and low transportation costs on the other. In Cambodia, in the capital city of Phnom Penh, where formal MSW management is minimal, households commonly burned, buried or dumped an alarming 361,000 tons of MSW in 2008 and 635,000 tons in 2015, which is approximately 58% of all solid waste generated by the city.

Health implications of informal SWM

Informal SWM practices pose significant health risks, particularly to low-income and marginalized communities in developing countries. Solid waste collection workers and waste pickers are at the forefront of these adverse health impacts. While workers in high-income countries are required to wear protective gear like masks, gloves, and boots, waste pickers in developing countries routinely touch the waste they collect and walk through it wearing only sandals. Their exposure to hazardous waste makes parasitic and enteric infections common, and viral infections like HIV also occur. 

Furthermore, the burial and burning of solid waste without proper treatment can create water, air, and soil pollution. Residents in informal settlements often face exposure to organic dust and unfiltered incineration particles through various environmental sources. These pollutants have compounding effects that drastically increase the risks of pulmonary infections, diarrhea, and even cancer. A study in Rome revealed that exposure to airborne contamination from landfills was positively associated with lung cancer mortality as well as with mortality and morbidity for respiratory diseases. One can expect an even clearer link in countries such as the Philippines and Cambodia, given the limited SWM facilities and mechanisms in the Global South. 

Policy challenges

The obstacles to effective SWM stem from the policy level. First of all, municipal governments everywhere simply pay little attention to informal settlements as they do not contribute to tax revenues, which suffer the most from a lack of public SWM services. Informal dumpsites and landfills are not officially recognized as part of the city, which creates gray areas devoid of regulations or controls. While these informal practices remove solid waste from immediate visibility, they also conceal the health problems associated with them.

Also, residents of the Global South have often come to accept informal SWM practices as part of daily life. Burying and burning garbage is seen as convenient, despite the pollution that results from these behaviors. For many residents, falling ill from environmental hazards has become an acceptable part of life. After all, if someone is struggling to make a living, they may lack the time and resources necessary to consider alternatives for solid waste disposal.

Empower change

Addressing SWM challenges in developing countries requires policy reforms and community engagement. Individual actions matter in driving impactful change for sustainable waste management. Join us in our Great Global Cleanup initiative by calling for a strong Global Plastic Treaty and by participating in global cleanup events!

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What do a witch, a cat, and Superman have in common? They are all costumes you might see when trick-or-treating this Halloween.

Once a year, we have the chance to transform ourselves into characters from our wildest dreams. There is a sense of excitement in the air when we can become something we’re not, just by donning a costume.

But therein lies the problem. Once November 1 hits, we throw the costumes in the back of our closet, where they are never to be seen again. This has a huge environmental impact.

Every year, we throw out 40 million tons of textiles — including used costumes. They end up in landfills where they pollute the air. 

Even the process of making a costume requires a tremendous amount of resources. We cut down 150 million trees each year just to make fabrics. One cotton t-shirt takes nearly 3,000 liters of water to produce. Don’t even get me started on the polyester onesie costume aisle.

The good news is that you can still look cute this Halloween without as much of an environmental impact. If you’re still struggling to put your costume together this year, here are some ideas to create a fun — and sustainable — costume. 

1. Do a costume swap

It’s time to part ways with your dusty ghost sheet and princess tiara. Plan a Halloween swap with your friends or neighbors to exchange last year’s costume for a new outfit. You’ll never know what new accessories you’ll find! 

The best part? It’s free.

2. Use clothes you already have

Instead of throwing out the clothes in the back of your closet, come up with new ways to style them to look like your favorite movie character or spooky spirit. Just add some makeup or accessories, and you’ll regret ever thinking about tossing your clothes in the trash. You might be the best dressed at the party!

3. Thrift a costume

Halloween is the perfect time to put your creativity skills to use. Instead of buying a pre-made costume and looking identical to the trick-or-treaters down the street, head to the thrift store. 

Pick a character idea and find clothes that match your vision or challenge yourself to use the pieces you find to inspire an entirely new costume. One person’s trash is another one’s treasure!

4. Upcycle, upcycle, upcycle

Upcycling is the process of changing an undesirable object into something of greater value. Learning simple sewing skills can help you transform drab pieces into works of art — or terrifying disguises.

You can do this by altering clothes from the thrift store that were a bit too big or gathering art materials from around the house to add unique embellishments to your costume. Snap a picture to share your upcycled masterpiece with the world!

5. Make a trick-or-treat bag

We all know the feeling of having to lug around a huge bag after a long, hard day of candy collecting. We also know the satisfaction of emptying out the bag to claim our prizes: mouth-watering chocolates, lollipops, caramels, and more.

Instead of buying a plastic pumpkin to hold your treats, look around you for household items that can double as candy bags. For an option with a lot of storage, use a pillowcase. For a more functional idea, use a reusable shopping bag.

6. Dress up as your environmental hero

Still out of ideas for what to dress up as? Turn yourself into an environmental hero! 

Dress up as your favorite activist, endangered animal, or even a made-up superhero who fights climate change. When someone asks about your costume, explain the meaning behind your character and why action on climate change is important to you. Tell them how they can make a sustainable costume, too!

Reduce your textile waste, one costume at a time

This Halloween, you can reduce your textile waste, one costume at a time. All it takes is a little curiosity and creativity to get started. Once you’ve picked out your costume, get yourself into the holiday spirit with five of the scariest, most bone-chilling facts about climate change.

If you really want to practice what you preach after Halloween, show your support to enact change in the fashion industry and check out our Sustainable Fashion Campaign for more information.

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Amid our global climate crisis, is there one thing each of us could do individually to make our homes greener? As we often say here in India, “Change begins from home,” and we should practice it. One way to do that is through how we manage our waste.

The sustainable development sector has taught me a lot. By way of living among tribes in villages and with communities, I have noticed that our cities need to learn from our rural populaces if we’re ever to respect the environment.

In cities we have lost that respect, and it is not the individuals who should be blamed — it is our contemporary culture: in general, the busyness of life, stress of jobs and complete disconnect from our traditional roots. For the last 30 years, we have lost a lot of our traditional values in a drive to gain economic prosperity. I think we all now need to pause, take a deep breath and think of what we wish to achieve as a nation. Are we moving in a right direction, or are we falling in traps by following a rat race?

Growing up in a small city, I learned of a deep connection to everything around us — even if it was one’s own household waste! Everyone owned their waste and did not treat it like a rubbish burden. Waste was not discarded in the plastic bags, left to be picked and segregated by another individual. It was owned!

Although there was less consumption, which means less plastic usage, managing the waste still was a part and parcel of daily routine. My mother always either fed vegetable and fruit (organic) waste to cattle or composted it in our small garden to produce manure that then served our plants. Waste was never left to someone else.

Later in my life, as I studied and grew up in New Delhi, I saw a growing disconnect with waste. The responsibility of managing it was completely left to the waste-picker. Here we didn’t give a damn to waste – how it being picked or segregated or where it gets dumped? I am as much at fault as the next person.

The fast pace of life is grueling and managing one’s own waste can be tough. But if we inform ourselves about the immense problem of waste and its mismanagement, we can act with more urgency. We must return to our roots, holding ourselves accountable for our own waste.

So, what’s the solution?

• Forty percent of our household waste comprises of the compostable organic waste that can be made into manure that benefits soil and plants. Additionally, we can collect our waste and feed it to cattle.
• As spacing in flats can be an issue in the cities, RWAs can make composting pits in parks, where households bring their household waste to be converted into a manure.
• Less consumption and separation of waste is a best solution that will take us to a greener and brighter planet. We need to use good judgment whenever we buy something. We can survive with less, but we can’t survive on a choking planet with enormous waste.
• Plastic littering is a major problem that needs an urgent solution. I recently found out that even the way we cut our plastic packets at home leaves tiny portion of plastics, which never get recycled. We should cut milk pouches in a way that no piece is torn off from the larger piece of pouch as the tiny pieces cannot be recycled.

Littering of waste has grown exponentially in our society. This needs to stop so that we leave a green and healthy planet for our next generations. It is important that we inform ourselves and take individual actions. We need to manage the problem first at our own level and then at a societal level. We can’t leave everything for our governments to handle. We must play a firm role in the lifecycle of waste to reduce, refuse, recycle and remove our own waste. Let’s own up our waste!

What do you think is that one thing which will make our planet greener? Write to me with your ideas at kaul@earthday.org.

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