The water volume of these bottles could fill up 2,400 Olympic stadiums, 4.8 million Olympic-size swimming pools, or 40 billion bathtubs. Take plastic waste, which is choking our oceans and making up 90% of marine debris. Countries are rapidly developing without adequate systems in place to manage the changing waste composition of citizens.Īccording to the World Bank’s What a Waste 2.0 report,Īn update to a previous edition, the 2018 report projects that While this is a topic that people are aware of, waste generation is increasing at an alarming rate. Ensuring effective and proper solid waste management is critical to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice. “Solid waste management is everyone’s business. Greenhouse gasses from waste are also a key contributor to climate change. “Poorly managed waste is contaminating the world’s oceans, clogging drains and causing flooding, transmitting diseases, increasing respiratory problems from burning, harming animals that consume waste unknowingly, and affecting economic development, such as through tourism,” said Sameh Wahba, World Bank Director for Urban and Territorial Development, Disaster Risk Management and Resilience. And it is the poorest who often live near waste dumps and power their city’s recycling system through waste picking, leaving them susceptible to serious health repercussions. In recent years, landslides of waste dumps have buried homes and people under piles of waste. “Waste not, want not.” This old saying rings so true today, as global leaders and local communities alike increasingly call for a fix for the so-called “throwaway culture.” But beyond individuals and households, waste also represents a broader challenge that affects human health and livelihoods, the environment, and prosperity.Īnd with over 90% of waste openly dumped or burned in low-income countries, it is the poor and most vulnerable who are disproportionately affected.
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