Globalization's Impact on Waste Management

Globalization
& Waste
Management
FOREWORD
Globalization is one of the major challenges for the long-term sustainability of waste management. And
vice-versa appropriate waste management is one of the key-conditions for a sustainable globalization.
There is an increasing need to focus on the linkages between globalization and waste management, and
to understand their nature.
Recognizing that globalization creates substantial changes and puts new unprecedented challenges for
waste management, ISWA has established a Task Force (TFGSWM) to study the linkages between
Globalization and Solid Waste Management, as of September 2010. The first results of this ongoing work
are presented in this report with the title Phase 1: Concepts and facts. The final report will be
provided in 2013.
This report presents the outcomes that have been achieved up to now, through dedicated research, a
workshop on Informal Sector Recyclers (Buenos Aires, June 2011) and a Beacon Conference on
Globalization, Urban Metabolism and Waste Management (Singapore, July 2012). All the documents are
available on line through ISWAs Knowledge Base web page.
The TFGSWM members are the following.
Project Coordinator: Antonis Mavropoulos, ISWA STC Chair, CEO D-Waste
Scientific Coordinator: David Wilson, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial College
Jeff Cooper, ISWAs President
Costas Velis, University of Leeds
Bjorn Appelqvist, ISWA WGRWM Vice-Chair, Copenhagen Municipality
On behalf of the TFGSWM I would like to express my gratefulness to the scientists and practitioners that
have contributed up to now, either through scientific papers and presentations or through suggestions
and experiences gained from real waste management situations. A list of them is presented at the next
page.
I would like also to thank ISWAs Board of Directors and General Secretariat for supporting this project.
I hope that the readers will find this report interesting and useful. The TFGSWM members encourage
everyone to provide feedback, comments and proposals for further research at Ms Rachael Williams,
rwilliams@iswa.org
For the TFGSWM
Antonis Mavropoulos
ISWA 2012
CONTENTS
Contributors
Acronyms
Synopsis
Global Figures
Interconnectivity & Governance
Informal Sector Recyclers
Megacities & Waste Management
Global Recycling Markets
Official Development Assistance
Introduction
10
Globalization & Waste Management Linkages
13
Global Facts & Figures for Waste Management
17
Global Interconnectivity
20
Internationalization of Science & Technology
23
Informal Sector as a Recycling Partner
26
Waste Management in Megacities
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International Aid Tools
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Suggested Reading
LISTS OF TABLES & FIGURES

List of Tables
Table 1: Key-aspects to study the globalization and waste management linkages
Table 2: Ways of extracting and adding value to recovered waste materials
Table 3: Challenges in waste management in emerging transition megacities and mature ones
Table 4: Suggestions regarding waste management in megacities
Table 5: Benchmarking indicators for waste management
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List of Figures
Figure 1: The contrast between the added value of an i-Pad and the e-waste paths identified
Figure 2: Globalization and waste management linkages
Figure 3: Distribution of population without access to elementary waste management services
Figure 4: Relation between per capita waste generation, development level and income level
Figure 5: Internet penetration rates per region
Figure 6: Internet users per region
Figure 7: Remotest places on earth
Figure 8: Triadic patents families distribution per million of population
Figure 9: Trends in scientific cooperation as expressed by authorship
Figure 10: Trends in export market shares of environmental goods
Figure 11: Proportion of patenting in environmental technologies in overall patenting
Figure 12: Overall analytical framework & typology of interventions, showing the interdependencies
Figure 13: Linkages between Globalization - Megacities & Waste Management
Figure 14: Generation & Transboundary Movement of Waste in Asia and the Pacific
Figure 15: Factors influencing Global Recycling Market
Figure 16: Trends in major ODA sectors related with waste management as % of the overall ODA
Figure 17: Waste management projects share in total Water Supply & Sanitation ODA
Figure 18: Changes in different ODA sectors 2006-2010
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CONTRIBUTORS
CONTRIBUTORS
Participants of the Informal Sector Recycling Workshop June 2011, Buenos Aires,
supported by ARS
Pablo Schamber, National Institute for Politic Training Argentina
Sergio Sanchez, El Amanecer de los Cartoneros, MTE, BsA Argentina
Cristina Lescano, El Ceibo cooperative-BsAs Argentina
Ana Corbi, Adviser at Environmental Secretariat Argentina
Andrea Ferrarazzo, Fundacin Ciudad Argentina
Soledad Garavelli, ARS Argentina
Lucia Fernandez, WIEGO France
Janya Sang-Arun, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies Japan
Ashish Chaturvedi, GIZ India
Jose Penido Monteiro, Web-Resol Brazil
Carlos Silva Fihlo, ABRELPE Brazil
Alberto Bianchini, ISWA, ABRELPE Brazil
Viviana Basata, Ministerio de Desarrollo Social Uruguay
Ondina Rocca, Imperial College London Italy/UK
Bjorn Appelqvist, ISWA WGRWM Vice-Chair, Copenhagen Municipality
Jeff Cooper, ISWAs President
Antonis Mavropoulos, ISWA STC Chair, CEO D-Waste
Speakers at Beacon Conference on Globalization, Urban Metabolism and Waste

Management, supported by WasteMet Asia 2012
Arab Hoballah, Chief of the Sustainable Consumption & Production (SCP) Branch, Division of Technology,
Industry and Economics, of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), France
Antonis Mavropoulos, ISWA STC Chair, CEO D-Waste
David Newman, ISWA Vice President & CIC Managing Director (Council of Italian Composters), Italy
Paul Brunner, Professor & Head of Waste and Resources Management Group, Vienna University, Austria
Masaru Tanaka, Professor and Director, Sustainability Research Institute, Tottori University of
Environmental Studies, Japan
Mie Kodwo, Head of Research and Development Department of Zoomlion and a consultant in The
Institute of Sanitation and Waste Management (TISWM), Ghana
Ong Seng Eng, Director, Waste & Resource Management Department, National Environment Agency,
Singapore
Prasad Modak, Executive President, Environmental Management Centre LLP, India
Carlo Ratti, Associate Professor of the Practice, Director, SENSEable City Laboratory, MIT, USA
Dimitris Kaliampakos, Professor, Mining Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Michael Batty, Professor of Planning, University College London, UK
Derek Greedy, President CIWM, UK
Hermann Koller, Managing Director ISWA, Austria
GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT
Nickolas J Themelis, Director, Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University & Chair, Global WTERT
Council, USA
Speakers at ISWA's session "A Global Perspective on Current Developments in Solid

Waste Management", IFAT ENTSORGA, May 2012, Munich, Germany
Jeff Cooper (ISWA President)
Antonis Mavropoulos (ISWA STC Chair)
Hermann Koller (ISWA MD)
Vivek Agrawal (WG Collection and Transportation Technology)
Bettina Kamuk (Chair WG Energy Recovery)
Maarten Goorhuis (Chair WG Recycling and Waste Minimisation
Dipak R. Pant (Interdisciplinary Unit for Sustainable Economy Universit Carlo Cattaneo)
Patrick Dorvil (European Investment Bank)
David Newman (ISWA Vice President)
ISWA 2012
ACRONYMS
ACRONYMS
AD Anaerobic Digestion
EU European Union
FDI Foreign Direct Investments
GDP Gross Domestic Products
GHG Green House Gases
GNI Gross National Income
HDI Human Development Index
ISR Informal Sector Recyclers
ISWA International Solid Waste Association
MBT Biological Treatment
NGO Non Governmental Association
ODA Official Development Assistance
OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
SWM Solid Waste Management
TFGWM Task Force on Globalization & Waste Management
WtE Waste to Energy
ISWA 2012
SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS
Recognizing that globalization creates substantial changes and puts new unprecedented challenges for
waste management, ISWA has established a Task Force (TFGWM) to study the linkages between
Globalization and Solid Waste Management, as of September 2010. The first results of this ongoing work
are presented in this report with the title Phase 1: Concepts and facts. The final report will be
provided in 2013.
This report presents the outcomes that have been achieved up to now, through dedicated research, a
workshop on Informal Sector Recyclers (Buenos Aires, June 2011) and a Beacon Conference on
Globalization, Urban Metabolism and Waste Management (Singapore, July 2012). All the documents are
available on line through ISWAs Knowledge Base web page. The major findings are the following.
Global Figures
Today, the total amount of waste generated annually worldwide (municipal, industrial, hazardous) is
more than 4 billion tons. The municipal solid waste is between 1.6-2.0 billion tons and due to both the
increase of population and the increasing GNI/capita growth in developing countries, new tremendous
amounts of municipal, industrial and hazardous waste are entering into the waste stream every day. As
an example it has been estimated that globally, urban food waste is going to increase by 44% from 2005
to 2025. As a global measure of the expected impacts, if present waste management trends are
maintained, landfilled food waste is predicted to increase the landfill share of global anthropogenic
Greenhouse Gas emissions from 8 to 10%.
The global value of the waste industry is estimated in US$433 billion annually.
Around 70% of the municipal waste produced worldwide is driven to dumpsites and sanitary landfills,
11% is treated to thermal and Waste to Energy (WtE) facilities and the rest 19% is recycled or treated by
Mechanical and Biological Treatment (MBT), including composting.
It is estimated that more than 3.5 billion or more than 52% of the 2008 Earths population does not have
access to the most elementary Waste Management services like e.g. a sound waste collection and
removal out of the residential areas and at least a controlled disposal. The problem is mainly urban and
it is expected to be further increase due to the rapid urbanization process that will take place next 15
years. The lack of waste collection services and the use of open dumps is evidenced by the amounts of
plastic waste ending up in our oceans, over 7 million tons annually.
These shocking figures clearly demonstrate both the serious health and environmental risks related to
waste management and the need for upgrading waste management in the global and local agendas.
ISWA is committed to deliver a global action plan and several particular activities dedicated to increase
the awareness regarding waste management among leading international organizations and keygovernments.
Interconnectivity & Governance

The report puts special emphasis on the increasing interconnectivity of the world and its implications to
waste management. ISWA says that a new global landscape has been created by the 2.7 billion Internet
users, the almost 650 million websites, the almost 1 billion users of different social media and the 6
billion users of cellular phones.
As an example the rapidly increasing international cooperation between scientists, professionals and
multinational companies has resulted in a serious internationalization of science and technology. This
trend is evidenced by a) the almost 25% increase (in just 3 years) of the patents that are globally
registered, b) the important increase of the international co-authorship of scientific articles which has
tripled between 1985-2007 and c) the rapid growth of the environmental goods and services share in
exports which were more than 370 billion US $ at 2006 in OECD countries.
ISWA says that this landscape provides new challenges for waste management that have not been
studied and discussed yet. Those challenges include advanced opportunities for a better interaction
between citizens, authorities and waste management stakeholders that will result in substantial waste
prevention and recycling activities utilizing the advanced interconnectivity.
This growing interconnectivity both supports further globalization and flow of cultures, ideas and trends
and at the same time it results in serious impacts to waste management governance patterns. First,
globalisation makes it increasingly difficult for states to rely only on national regulation about waste
management in order to ensure the wellbeing of their citizens and their environment. Second, there is a
growing demand and need for global regulation, especially the means to enforce existing agreements
and build upon their authority to improve environmental performance. Third, globalisation facilitates
the involvement of a growing diversity of participants and their coalitions in addressing waste
management issues, including other governments and international organizations, global market players
and local-global civil society actors. Fourth, the direct increase of international financial flows dedicated
to waste management creates a new arena for local decision-making, especially for the countries that
are receivers of grants, FDI and loans.
The report also provides key-insights regarding the Informal Sector Recyclers (ISR), the waste
management in megacities, the global recycling markets and the Official Development Assistance (ODA).
Informal Sector Recyclers

It is estimated that Informal Sector Recyclers (ISR) are around 20 million worldwide, almost 50% of the
labour force involved in waste management. Despite the difficult, risky and problematic conditions
where ISR are working, it has to be mentioned that, especially in transition countries and the emerging
megacities, their contribution to recycling and recovery rates is important and in many cases the only
organized one.
ISWA 2012
SYNOPSIS
ISWA identifies a major opportunity for win-win solutions building recycling rates, protecting and
developing peoples livelihoods, addressing the negative aspects of current informal recycling on health
and the environment, and reducing costs to the city of managing its wastes if the informal sector can
be included more successfully within an integrated and sustainable waste management system.
Megacities & Waste Management

Megacities (cities with a total population in excess of 10 million people) are a product of the continuous
urbanization process. The number of megacities is increasing and by 2015, there will be 33 mega-cities,
27 of them in the developing world. Megacities population is estimated to increase by 280,000 people
per day and in the year 2015 the total population of megacities worldwide will be about 359 million.
Waste management in megacities is one of the most important environmental challenges and due to
their interface with the global economy, it has a global dimension. The quality of waste management
services is a good indicator of a citys governance. The way in which waste is produced and discarded
gives us a key insight into how people live.
It is obvious that a waste management system in any city but especially in a megacity is much more than
a local system. Megacities, as it is well established, represent the key-nodes of this global network. Part
of the sustainability agenda seems to be en effort for more self-reliance of cities, trying to contain waste
flows, reduce energy and resource consumption and increase local and global recycling and reuse of
materials. Consequently, waste prevention is becoming also an increasing importance trend worldwide.
A major barrier comes from the complex interactions between the hundreds of stakeholders involved in
a megacity waste management. Another serious barrier comes from the lack of initiatives to integrate
the informal sector into waste management activities.
ISWA calls for a more systemic approach of waste management in megacities and global cities. Another
interesting point is the lack of global benchmarking techniques and methods regarding waste
management. ISWA is seeking ways to contribute for an appropriate waste management benchmarking
system.
Despite the serious problems of waste management in megacities, there is also the other side of them.
Megacities are also places of intensive human interaction and this creates scaled results (innovation,
growth, living standards) that otherwise will never be created. The increased interconnectivity of
populations in megacities and their character as innovation hubs must be further discussed, analyzed
and utilized for a better waste management.

The last decades a great number of consumer products are transported worldwide in order to be sold
and used. In addition a huge amount of waste has been traded due to the latest emergence of China, as
the new workshop of the World, and of other SE Asian Tiger economies. From all waste streams trade of
plastic is increasingly coming through at intercontinental level. More than 50% of plastics, paper and
scrap ferrous metals are being exported to South East Asia and this trend is not expected to decline.
In 2010 China imported more than 7.4 million tonnes of plastics waste and around 28 million tonnes of
waste paper and over 5.8 million tonnes of steel scrap. Apparently, the EU is increasingly acting like a
single market in terms of hazardous and problematic waste treatment. In 2005 nearly 20% of the waste
shipped was for disposal while the remaining 80% was shipped for recovery operations.
Waste trade of specific streams has been significantly affected by waste shipment regulations and
market forces. In general there are a number of factors which influencing global network of raw
materials and recyclables flows such as the global economic cycle, the supply and demand for raw and
secondary materials, the recycling technologies available, the design of products, the market
fluctuations and speculations etc.
Besides global recycling markets which contribute to the recovery of huge quantities of materials, waste
trafficking activities are developed. ISWA regards the need to fight against waste trafficking as a
necessary and fully integrated part in establishing of a sound, global system for solid waste
management.
ISWA calls for a global strategy against waste trafficking that includes:
Awareness raising, information and communication about the problems related to waste
trafficking
Making necessary information (e.g. rules and regulations related to proper waste handling in
general and trans-boundary shipments) easily accessible to waste producers
Simplifying the administration related to trans-boundary waste shipments
Providing means for waste producers to more easily able to identify and get in contact with
serious, law-abiding waste brokers and handlers
Official Development Assistance

Overall, according OECDs database Official Development Assistance (ODA) increased by 25% between
2006 and 2010, reaching almost 164 billion $ in 2010. Straightforward waste management projects
count between 0.16-0.32% of the total ODA, ranging between 257-415 million $/year for the same
years.
Overall, it seems that there is a declining trend in the relevant importance of waste management
projects within the ODA financial flows. Waste management remains a very small part of the overall
ODA, less than 0.5% which is a disappointing sign for the importance of waste management in global
decision making and especially in ODA. Although the overall ODA is steadily increasing (despite the
2008-2009 crisis), waste management is marginally increased just about almost 5%. This second remark
is definitely linked with the fact that the successful preparation and implementation of a serious waste
management project is definitely much more difficult and time consuming than other ODA sectors
projects.
Regarding the lessons learnt by ODA waste management projects, waste management projects are
welcomed thanks to increased awareness, but their relative priority is not high enough to be fully
supported by the recipient governments and societies. The necessity for more emphasis on the creation
ISWA 2012
SYNOPSIS
of waste management systems rather than facilities is another key-issue. For example, many fully
mechanized treatment facilities have been abandoned due to high operation and maintenance cost,
which are known as "white elephants".
It seems that conventional technological approaches to waste management are not working in emerging
and transitional megacities because they involve imported solutions that are centralized and suitable for
different socio-economic conditions and so the possibility of decentralized models must be examined.
ISWA believes financing of waste management projects in economically developing countries is an
international priority waste badly managed in developing countries affects the populations of all
nations eventually. Mechanisms for financing through the international treaties, such as Climate
Change, Desertification, Biodiversity, Ocean Protection, etc., should be put on the agenda immediately
and developed nations should ensure an adequate portion of their ODA is destined to waste
management.
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INTRODUCTION
Until today the overall interactions between globalization as a dominant worldwide process and waste
management activities on a local and global scale have not been discussed and investigated in details.
There are at least three main reasons that explain this lack of relevant research and associated
literature. First, waste management is often underestimated as a global problem; it is rather faced as a
national or local one by most decision makers and institutional bodies. Second, global recycling and
recovery activities are usually dealt with in the framework of the economy and resource management,
even when the environmental benefits are highlighted. Third, the overall relationship between
environment and globalization is not yet fully explored and understood.
Even so, there are strong arguments which indicate that a conceptual framework for understanding the
relation between globalization and waste management is required. Until some decades ago, products
were largely produced near their areas of consumption and wastes were managed near their source of
production. Nowadays, a lot of popular and mass produced consumer products are being distributed
worldwide. Waste management is linked increasingly to resource management and so it has evolved
into a complicated global network of material and recyclable waste flows, affecting various aspects of
the environment and the life of citizens, raising questions on practices that need to be deeply explored
and managed in a sustainable way. As waste management becomes more and more integrated with
resource management, the globalization process becomes an internal aspect of many decisions that
affect local waste management practices. The collapse of many recycling programs in different countries
during the 2008 global economic crisis highlighted that effect. Waste trafficking provides also another
argument for the necessity for a deeper analysis of the relation between waste management and
globalization. And there are examples like e-waste management where any progress is almost
impossible without a thorough understanding of the global landscape and context.
Figure 1 provides the contrast between the global value distribution of one of the most modern and
trendy gadgets and the global e-waste distribution identified. It seems that the global community can
measure all the details, with a high accuracy, about the costs and profits distribution of an I-Pad but
the routes and the impacts of e-waste trafficking are not even accountable yet.
ISWA 2012
INTRODUCTION
The distribution value of an i-Pad (Kraemer, 2011)
The distribution of e-waste (http://www.ierc.info/e-waste-dumping-an-interactive-map/)
Figure 1: The contrast between the added value of an i-Pad and the e-waste paths identified. Notice that the profits are
realized in countries-sources of e-waste trafficking
The volume and the diversity of waste streams are rising, and in this framework many countries are
facing serious degradation of their natural and urban environments, especially in the developing world.
Increasing waste volume is not just a waste management issue. It is a symptom of inadequate methods
of producing and consuming products and goods worldwide. Waste represents not only an
environmental threat but also a loss of valuable resources and energy that could be reused or
recovered. Also now on most occasions the impacts of resource extraction are thousands miles away
from the places where products are consumed.
Climate change is the essence of the interconnection, interdependence and interaction of economy and
ecology on a global level. Solutions that will mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases and help to adapt
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to its unavoidable consequences must be found. The complexity of the issue requires the acceptance of
a common responsibility from both the public and private sectors, on a global scale. Thus, the progress
of climate change science, and the relative contribution of waste management, is a perfect mean to
demonstrate how local waste management practices contribute to global scale effects (ISWA 2010a).
Globalization has been developed together with the process of rapid urbanization. The nodes of the
global economic network are the existing, and emerging megacities, where waste management is
usually a very difficult problem, hardly to be understood without having an idea of the global dynamics
of megacities and urbanization.
ISWA 2012
GLOBALISATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT LINKAGES

There are two way linkages between globalization and waste management: not only does globalization
influence and change waste management practices (e.g. consumerism trends, Basel convention,
worldwide spread of recycling), but also waste management practices affect the way globalization
progresses (e.g. establishing global recycling markets, waste trafficking). At the very least, this happens
because both primary, and recovered resources, provide the fuel for economic globalization, but also
because social and policy responses to global environmental challenges constrain and influence the
context in which globalization happens.
Increased international trade in the last few decades has reduced poverty in many developing countries
and raised living standards and purchasing power. At the same time it creates a remarkable footprint to
waste management. First, it has de-linked production centres from consumption places. The globalized
economy can in addition create globalized externalities and reinforce international inequalities. Local
environmental and financial decisions can contribute in global solutions and to the growth of prosperity,
but the environmental impacts and the financial consequences can be externalised in sites and among
people that are far away. Another effect of globalization is the incorporation of environmental standards
in trade agreements, which now represent a major issue for negotiation between developed and
developing countries.
It is mentioned (Pant, 2012) that due to globalization process, even the remote and marginal territories
become important as these extreme lands are most likely to offer precious mineral, energy or timber
resources. Being mostly out of sight and out of mind the extreme lands also serve as the dumping sites
of wastes that nobody wants in their backyard.
Globalization has also created the global recycling market and network, which is increasingly integrated
into resource supply chains. It has also created serious waste trafficking problems. This evolution of the
recycling market has created global recycling hubs, like China and SE Asia, which really support waste
recovery efforts worldwide. At the same time new problems and challenges concerning the quality and
the final use of recyclables have emerged. A key-issue regarding the global recycling market is the role of
informal sector as a major provider of recyclable wastes. Serious efforts have started in order to
incorporate Informal Sector Recyclers in the supply chains of several products.
Due to globalization, a remarkably improved GNI/capita, in a lot of developing countries has been
achieved, which, in combination with the rapid population increase, creates conditions for growing
mountains of waste, in those countries with the less infrastructure in place to receive them. Since
globalization goes together with marginalization phenomena (in all levels e.g. within continents, nations,
countries, cities and individuals livelihoods), in both the economic and the environmental dimension
(poverty-environmental degradation nexus), serious health and environmental problems due to
inappropriate waste management might become permanent for many marginalized areas.
Globalization created a new framework in which the linkages between waste management and climate
change have become clearer, and a universal understanding for how local decisions in SWM contribute
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to global phenomena has been concerned. In fact, the global impacts of SWM (as highlighted by GHGs)
are an obvious exemplification of the need for scientific tools and methods of global acceptance, the
need of organisations, and mechanisms, to disperse globally the current state of the art of knowledge
and technologies regarding SWM, and the necessity of global action, and coordination, for a more
sustainable SWM.
Globalization has also resulted in a direct increase of international financial flows including foreign direct
investments (FDI), grants, as well as loans by international institutions such as the World Bank. Official
Development Assistance (ODA) is usually one of the major ways where those financial flows take place.
Technologies of environmental care can move across boundaries quicker, but so can technologies of
environmental degradation. Information flows can connect workers and citizens across boundaries and
oceans, such as the rise of global social movements as well as of outsourcing, but they can also threaten
social and economic networks at the local level. Environmentalism, as a norm, has become truly global,
but so has mass consumerism.
Global interactions facilitate exchange of environmental knowledge and best practice. That is true for
waste management as well, where a lot of international scientific and professional networks do exist,
providing an enormous amount of information every year.
Environmental consciousness increases with emergence of global environmental networks and civil
society movements. NGOs play a very important role in that, especially the global ones. Therefore
accidents, failures and waste mismanagement stories are rapidly spread worldwide providing arguments
to local discussions and food for thought for local decision-makers. The example of Naples waste
management is representative.
Globalization facilitates the spread of existing technologies, and the emergence of new technologies is
often replacing existing technologies with more resource extractive alternatives. The adoption of
greener technologies may also be spurred. In the case of waste management technologies, it is obvious
that more recycling, more composting, more landfills but also more MBT, AD, and thermal treatment
must be expected as a result of the increased prosperity emerging in developing countries. On the other
hand, there might be local solutions developed for local providers which could be more appropriate for
specific waste management purposes, such as customized collection vehicles in several emerging
megacities for example, than the already commercially available.
Globalization places great stress on existing patterns of global governance with the shrinking of both
time and space, the expanding role of non-state actors and increasingly complex inter-state interactions.
The global nature of the environment demands global environmental governance. Indeed a worldwide
infrastructure of international agreements and institutions has emerged and continues to grow. But
many of todays global environmental problems have outgrown the governance systems designed to
solve them. Many of these institutions, however, struggle as they have to respond to an ever increasing
set of global challenges, while remaining constrained by institutional design principles inherited from an
earlier, more state-centric, world.
ISWA 2012
Urbanization is also a major tend directly linked with globalization. Since 2007 the majority of the
human population was concentrated in urban areas. According official reports by 2007 3.2 billion people
- a number larger than the entire global population of 1967 - live in cities. From the 3 billion increase of
the population expected until 2030-2040, 60-65% will be housed in urban and metropolitan areas. By
2050, an estimated two-thirds of the worlds population will live in urban areas, imposing even more
pressure on the space, infrastructure and resources of cities, leading to social disintegration and horrific
urban poverty.
Figure 2 summarizes the globalization and waste management linkages as described. Urbanization is not
presented at Figure 2 because it will be further discussed in details.
Figure 2: Globalization and waste management linkages (Mavropoulos 2011c)
Taking into account the previous discussion and in order to address the globalization and waste
management linkages in a more specific way, ISWAs Task Force on Globalization and Waste
Management decided to focus its work at the key-aspects presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Key-aspects to study the globalization and waste management linkages
KEY-ASPECTS
COMMENTS
Informal sector as a global recycling partner
Informal sector plays a crucial role in building global

recycling rates (Wilson 2006, 2009, 2012)
It is a global problem, especially in transition economies
and it is directly affected by globalization process
It directly affects recycling activities worldwide and
becomes crucial
for the sustainability of waste
management systems
Megacities and waste management

Global recycling markets and resource recovery
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International aid tools and their application to waste

management
As Official Development Assistance and Foreign Direct

Investment flows are increasing, there is a need to
assess major experiences related to waste management
projects
The results that have been achieved up to now will be presented and discussed at the next paragraphs.
ISWA 2012
GLOBAL FACTS & FIGURES FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT

According to the UN around 2025, the world population will be 8 billion inhabitants, and around 2050,
the total population will be around 9.5 billion, 50% more than the current one. 97% of this growth will
be realized in Asia and Africa. The rising middle class in emerging countries will shape both the
economic, and the political landscape. In this framework, waste management is one of the key global
and local challenges, directly related not only with the daily life of people but also with the global
changes and perspectives.
Today, the total amount of waste generated annually worldwide (municipal, industrial, hazardous) is
more than 4 billion tons (Veolia, 2009). Almost 45% of it is considered as municipal solid waste, while
the rest is industrial waste, including hazardous one. Both the increase of population and the
GDP/capita growth in developing countries will create new tremendous amounts of municipal, industrial
and hazardous waste. It has been estimated that globally, urban food waste is going to increase by 44%
from 2005 to 2025. As a global measure of the expected impacts, if present waste management trends
are maintained, landfilled food waste is predicted to increase the landfill share of global anthropogenic
emissions from 8 to 10%.5 (Adhikari et al, 2006).
In developing countries, millions of people are working in informal recycling activities making their living
in difficult and risky conditions. On the other hand, their activities contribute to global recycling rates
and create employment opportunities for marginalized populations. Recycling is one of the most
important sectors in terms of employment creation and currently employs 12 million people in just
three countries - Brazil, China and the United States. Overall, including the informal sector, the number
of people working in recycling is assessed to more than 20 millions.
Waste management industry is one of the most dynamic ones on a global scale. With an annual turnover
above 430 billion $ and around 40 million workers (including informal recyclers), the industry covers a
huge variety of operations for different waste streams and different phases of the waste life-cycle. It is
considered that the industry will further grow, especially in developing countries, and recycling business
will be the cornerstone of it.
Based on different ways of assessment, it was estimated that the global population without access to
Elementary Waste Management (meaning sound waste collection and removal out of the residential
areas, and at least controlled disposal in engineered landfills) is more than 3.5 billion or more than
52% of the 2008 Earths population (D-Waste 2012a). Figure 3 presents the geographical distribution of
the population without access to Elementary Waste Management.
Per capita waste generation increases with both the development level (expressed by the Human
Development Index) and the income level (GNI/capita) of the country (Wilson et al, 2012). Figure 4
presents this relation.
17
18
Figure 3: Distribution of population (2008 data) without access to elementary waste management services (D-Waste 2012a)
Comparing data from 20 different cities (Wilson et al, 2012) it seems that there are several global
patterns related to waste composition. Paper percentages appear relatively low outside of the highincome countries. The detailed data show 14 cities reporting 3-10%, with only four cities reporting more
than 15%. Glass and metals are both relatively low, with 16 of the cities in the range 0-4% for both.
Plastic levels appear generally higher, but do not show the perhaps expected increase with income level.
Finally organic levels generally follow expectations, with the five cities in Europe, North America and
Australia (i.e. the four high-income cities plus Varna in Bulgaria) reporting 24-34% (average 28%) and 13
of the 15 Southern middle- and low-income countries within the range 48-81% (average 67%). This
reflects both the lower consumption of seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables and the higher prevalence of
packaging and other consumer products that end up in the waste stream in high income countries.
Figure 4: Relation between per capita waste generation, development level (expressed by HDI) and income level (expressed
by GNI/cap) (Wilson et al, 2012)
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From the same 20 cities, it seems that collection coverage is probably more than it was expected as a
result of the systematic efforts of cities to increase service coverage. Almost half of the reference cities,
including all but two of the cities with a GNI/capita above US$1600 (or an HDI of 0.75), report coverage
rates of 99-100%; the exceptions being the two South American cities.
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20
GLOBAL INTERCONNECTIVITY
The growing interconnectivity is a crucial characteristic of the current world, and its impact to waste
management is multidimensional. Interconnectivity is related to internet, social media, mobile phone
users, etc. Extremely fast growing of such technologies affects in plural dimensions the life of people
globally and unavoidably it affects waste management as well.
According the INTERNET WORLD STATS between 1995 and 2011 Internet has evolved exponentially
reaching almost 2.27 billion users at the end of 2011, namely 32.7% of the global population. Figure 5
and 6 present Internet penetration and users per region.
But apart from reaching every corner of our planet, Internet applications, sites and networks are
multiplying with fast rhythms. Characteristically, it is mentioned that in March 2012 there were detected
644,275,754 websites whereas the same number for December 2011 was 582,716,657. Only in March
2012 there were initiated 31.4 million websites, which comes to around 5.1% as compared to the total
number of websites in the world until February 2012.
The statistics for some social media are also quite impressive. Google+ growth keeps accelerating. From
the 10 million users that it was reporting on 13th July 2011, it reached around 62 million users at the end
of 2011. As for Facebook, the total number of its users was 835,525,280 at the end of March 2012,
namely its penetration to the global population reaches around 12.1%.
Internet Penetration rates per region (percentage %)

90,00%
80,00%
78,67%
68,57%
70,00%
61,40%
60,00%
50,00%
39,53%
40,00%
35,65%
26,21%
30,00%
13,49%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
North America
Oceania /
Australia
Europe
Latin America / Middle East

Carib.
Asia
Africa
Figure 5: Internet penetration rates per region (IWS 2012)
According the current trends around 2020 more than 10 billions of different gadgets, including mobile
phones, laptops, PCs, tablets, smart phones and wireless car and home appliances will be used
worldwide. This tremendous number of interconnected gadgets and people will reshape the way
internet and mobile phones are used in daily life.
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GLOBAL INTERCONNECTIVITY
Internet users in 2011 (in million)

600
500
485
400
300
245
200
100
99,18
100
75,98
65,13
59,7
51,44
45,26
43,98
Brazil
Germany
Russia
United
Kingdom
France
Nigeria
0
China
United
States
India
Japan
Figure 6: Internet users per region (IWS 2012)
In three years there have been developed more than 300,000 mobile applications, which have been
downloaded 10.9 billion times. Some of the most popular mobile applications include money transfer,
Location-Based Services, Mobile browsing, Mobile Payment (m-payment), Mobile music and others.
Another dimension regards the spatial interconnectivity. Special maps have been prepared by
researchers at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, and the World Bank.
Plotted onto a map, the results throw up surprises (Figure 7).
First, less than 10 % of the world's land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest
city. What's more, many areas considered remote and inaccessible are not as far from civilization as it
used to be considered. In the Amazon, for example, extensive river networks and an increasing number
of roads mean that only 20 % of the land is more than two days from a city - around the same
proportion as Canada's Quebec province. The maps were created to show how the distribution of
people affects their access to resources such as education and medical care, and how we are
increasingly pushing wildlife out of even the wildest corners of our planet.
Figure 7: Remotest places on earth - only 10% of our planet is considered remote which means more than 48 hours away
from a city! Dark areas are the ones with less population density. Bright areas represent high population density. Tibetan
plateau is considered the remotest place in the world (New Scientist 2009)
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22
This growing interconnectivity both supports further globalization and flow of cultures, ideas and trends
and at the same time it results to serious impacts to governance patterns. One can identify four more
specific areas where interconnectivity is obviously affecting waste management. First, globalisation
makes it increasingly difficult for states to rely only on national regulation about waste management in
order to ensure the wellbeing of their citizens and their environment. Second, there is a growing
demand and need for global regulation, especially the means to enforce existing agreements and build
upon their authority to improve environmental performance. This is more than obvious in the case of
hazardous wastes but not only of course those wastes. Third, globalisation facilitates the involvement of
a growing diversity of participants and their coalitions in addressing waste management issues, including
other governments and international organizations, global market players and local-global civil society
actors. Fourth, the direct increase of international financial flows dedicated to waste management
creates a new arena for local decision-making, especially for the countries that are receivers of grants,
FDI and loans.
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INTERNATIOLISATION OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Interconnectivity also drives the internationalization of science and technology. There are certain
indicators that outline the rapid internationalization of science and technology.
The first is the number of triadic patents families. According OECD triadic patents families are defined as
a set of patents taken at the European Patent Office, the Japan Patent Office and the US Patent and
trademark Office that protect a same invention. The increasing number of triadic patent families reflects
the rapid internationalization of science and technology. In 2007 about 52,000 were filed, compared to
less than 42,000 three years ago. Figure 8 presents the distribution of triadic patents at 2007 per million
of population per country. USA accounted for almost 31% of triadic patents families, with EU and Japan
being the other two regions that hold the majority of them. The surge of innovative activities in Asia is
clearly reflected in growing country shares although in absolute numbers the distance from the leading
countries is remarkable. Korea and China were among the top 12 countries in 2007 and India has also
climbed up a lot in rankings. However, relatively to total population (Figure 6), the importance of
developing countries is less clear, with China having less that 0.5 patent families per million of
population.
Switzerland
Japan
Sweden
Germany
Israel (2)
Netherlands
Finland
Denmark
United States
Austria
Korea
OECD total
Luxembourg
Belgium
France
United Kingdom
Norway
Canada
Ireland
Australia
Iceland
Italy
New Zealand
Slovenia
Spain
Hungary
Estonia
Czech Republic
Greece
Portugal
Slovak Republic
Poland
Russian Federation
China
Brazil
Turkey
Chile
India
Mexico
25
50
75
100
125
Figure 8: Triadic patents families distribution per million of population, 2007 (OECD 2010)
Another interesting indicator of the globalization of science and technology is the amount of the coauthored articles. Figure 9 presents the trends in cooperation regarding scientific articles for four
different types of authorship (single, single institution co-authorship, domestic authorship and
international co-authorship), for the years 1982 2007. International co-authorship has been growing as
23
fast as domestic one. In 2007, 21.9% of scientific articles involved international co-authorship, a figure
three times higher than in 1985 (OECD 2010). This important increase in both domestic and
international co-authorship reflects the crucial role of interconnectivity and interaction between
researchers as a way to diversify their sources of knowledge.
Thousands
300
Domestic
co-authorship
250
200
Single-institution
co-authorship
150
International
co-authorship
100
Single author
50
0
Figure 9: Trends in scientific cooperation as expressed by authorship (OECD 2010)
Environmental technology international flows are also important. Figure 10 (OECD 2010) presents the
trends in export market share of environmental goods.
OECD merchandise exports
OECD EG exports
BRICS merchandise exports
BRICS EG exports
400
350
Index 2002 = 100
24
300
250
200
150
100
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Figure 10: Trends in export market shares of environmental goods 2002-2006 (OECD 2010)
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Exports of environmental goods include business segments (services and products) like Pollution
Management, Resource Management and Clean Technologies. Exports of environmental goods in OECD
area reached 370 billion $ in 2006, or 1% of its GDP or nearly 6% of its merchandise exports. In the same
years BRICs group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) exported almost 43 billion $, accounted
also for 1% of their GDP and 2.7% of their total merchandise exports. However, BRICs dynamics in
environmental goods export is obvious. It increases much faster than their total merchandise rate,
reaching an annual average growth of 35%.
As for the kind of goods exported, more than 25% of the exports concern wastewater treatment, which
is the fastest growing market segment, followed by air pollution control, waste management and
environmental monitoring equipment.
Figure 11 (OECD 2010) presents the participation of different environmental technologies in overall
patenting, as a measure of the generation of innovative environmental technologies.
Air
Water
Waste
Czech Republic
Slovak Republic
Belarus
Ukraine
Poland
Luxembourg
Venezuela
Russian Federation
Portugal
Iran
Indonesia
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
Figure 11: Proportion of patenting in environmental technologies in overall patenting 1990- 2005
Most innovation in environmental technologies takes place in OECD countries. Between 1978 and 2006
almost all 98% of the patents related to air pollution and wastewater treatment were deposited by
investors from OECD countries. In recent years, non-OECD countries have started to become important
innovators. Comparing the inventive activity (in air, water and waste sectors) in OECD countries with
those of enhanced engagement and accession countries clearly shows that the latter have become very
active.
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INFORMAL SECTOR AS A RECYCLING PARTNER

The outcomes regarding the Informal sector work stream are still under further elaboration. However,
the data presented below is based on the article InteRa - a new analytical framework and tool for
integrating the informal sector recycling in waste and resource management systems in developing
countries (Velis et al, 2012) which is under the review process in Waste Management & Research
Journal.
Solid waste recycling in most low- and middle-income developing countries is generally carried out by
the informal sector, which also often provides primary collection services (Medina 2008). Activities vary
widely, ranging from groups organized in cooperatives providing door-to-door collection of either
recyclates separated at-source or of mixed waste which they then sort, to individuals scavenging in open
dumps, transfer stations and communal bins (Wilson 2006). Notably, by informal sector recycling (ISR)
we refer to individuals or enterprises who are involved in recycling and waste management activities
but are not sponsored, financed, recognized or allowed by the formal solid waste authorities, or who
operate in violation of or in competition with formal authorities (Scheinberg 2010), which is quite
different to than in other contexts, where the term may be synonymous with the black economy.
Namely, informal sector waste and recycling workers and businesses can be and often are registering
with the authorities and pay taxes: in this case, the definition of informality relates to their lack of
recognized status within the solid waste sector. There is increasing consensus among all stakeholders
and experts that the informal recycling sector should not and in fact cannot be ignored while attempting
to improve waste and resource management systems in developing countries (Chaturvedi 2011, SangArun 2011).
Accumulating evidence suggests that these activities can be beneficial to formal municipal waste and
resource management, in addition to providing a livelihood to around 0.5% of the urban population
(Scheinberg 2010, Wilson 2012). Specifically, informal sector and micro-enterprise recycling, reuse and
repair systems achieve considerable recycling rates often 20-30% wt. in low-income countries (Wilson
2009; Wilson 2012); are entirely market driven, their only income coming from selling the collected
segregated and often reprocessed materials; and can, thus, save local authorities around 20% or more
of what they would otherwise need to spend on waste management, representing many $ millions per
annum in large cities. Table 2 (Wilson et al 2006) presents the added value of the informal sector in
materials recovery.
The attitude of public authorities and formal waste management sector to informal recycling is often
very negative regarding it as backward, unhygienic and generally incompatible with modern waste
management systems. On the other hand it has been noted that it would be ironic to eliminate already
existing and well performing recycling systems trying to apply the waste hierarchy framework.
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INFORMAL SECTOR AS A RECYCLING PARTNER
Table 2: Ways of extracting and adding value to recovered waste materials (Wilson et al 2006)
Collection
Sorting
Accumulation
of volume
Pre-processing
Small
manufacturing
craftsmanship
Market
intelligence
Trading
Identification and picking of items or collecting mixed waste allows the sector to acquire the waste and
turn it into a resource. Most primary materials recovered from refuse, such as paper, plastics, rags,
metal, glass, and food leftovers, constitute a commodity as they all have a market price
Main process that increases the value of the waste recovered. The deeper the sorting differentiation,
the higher the value of waste. For instance, if plastic is grouped into one major category, its value is
lower than when it is further separated into sub-categories of hard and soft, then HDPE, PET, LDPE,
etc. Sorting according to color, size, shape and potential use or re-use of the materials so as to meet
the end-users quality specifications
Additional volume adds value: larger volumes command higher per-unit prices. The greater the quantity,
the better bargaining power the trader has. For small quantities, transactions costs, such as checking
quality, arranging transport and paying the seller, reduce the profit margin. Industrial feedstock is
massive in volume. It follows that storage space is required
For instance: washing, changing in shape-cutting, granulating, compacting, baling
Creation of micro-enterprises that use the special skills of informal recyclers to transform recyclates
into articles traded directly to the community and being affordable by the poor
Proximity to markets where informal recyclers and traders conduct business allows for the flow of
information which allows decisions to be made on accurate market prices, competitors, trading
partners, etc
In informal or formal markets. Links to the secondary materials network are crucial. Traders should be
financially capable to add and conserve value of recyclates. Difference between buying and selling
should also provide buffer against risk
The story of Cairo (Fahmi 2010) is an emblematic one regarding the failures to modernize waste
management and it has failed just because the actual role and contribution of informal sector was
completely underestimated or ignored both in collection and recycling activities. As it has been
mentioned for Cairo (Iskadar 2009) Traditional waste management systems are embedded in realities
which are too complex for official, conventional systems to understand. They are socially constructed
and thus also difficult for engineers to understand (Informal systems) are market based and derive
from knowledge and information about popular market and trading systemsThey achieve the highest
recycling rates and generate employment for significantly higher numbers of people than official
systems doThe question posed to waste manager of cities therefore should be: how can we give these
people their rightful place in a more efficient system to serve the city, the economy of the poor and
the environment?
However, persistent factual and perceived issues with the activities of the informal sector (such as
occupational and public health and safety, child labour, uncontrolled pollutant flows, untaxed activities,
association with crime and political collusion, incompatible with the image of a modern city) result in
poor inclusion/integration into official systems, despite the long-standing efforts of external support
organizations, such as international donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
There is a major opportunity for win-win solutions building recycling rates, protecting and developing
peoples livelihoods, addressing the negative aspects of current informal recycling on health and the
environment, and reducing costs to the city of managing its wastes if the informal sector can be
included more successfully within an integrated and sustainable waste management system.
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The ISWA Task Force on Globalization and Waste Management has been working towards preparing
guidelines on how best to promote the inclusion/integration of the informal sector within a citys waste
management system. To provide a sound basis for such guidance, a novel framework for classifying and
analyzing, along with a tool for rapidly evaluating and visualizing possible interventions to promote
inclusion and integration of ISR in a citys solid waste management system. This aims to be a
comprehensive, integrated, and structured systems approach, for the first time drawing from and
bringing together all aspects of the phenomenon into a practically applicable tool, designed to maximize
chances of success and deliver benefits to all stakeholders.
Figure 12 summarizes the overall analytical framework and typology of the Intera tool and depicts its
interdependencies, in the form of a Venn diagram. The three interfaces (Solid waste management
interface, Social interface, Materials value chain interface) are shown as 3 intersecting sets, each
sitting on the background of the organizational aspects which are considered the major structural
component of any intervention related to informal sector.
Figure 12: Overall analytical framework and typology of interventions, showing the interdependencies (Velis et al 2012)
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WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MEGACITIES

Megacities are a product of the continuous urbanization process. A megacity is usually defined as a
metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people. Megacities can be distinguished
from global cities by their rapid growth, new forms of spatial population density, and both formal and
informal economy, as well as poverty, crime, and high levels of social fragmentation. A megacity can be
a single metropolitan area, or two, or more metropolitan areas that converge.
The number of megacities is increasing worldwide: 1950: 2, 1975: 4, 2003: 21. By 2015, there will be 33
mega-cities, 27 of them in the developing world. Two third of them are situated in developing countries,
especially in South-East-Asia. In 2003 already 283 million people lived in megacities, 207 million of them
in developing countries, more than 171 million in Asia.
Megacities population is estimated to increase by 280.000 people per day. In the year 2015 the total
population of megacities worldwide will be about 359 million and the future rate of growth will be high.
Their population tripled between 1975 and 2003.
Megacities face tremendous environmental challenges and threats for human health. Regardless of the
context, managing solid waste is one of biggest challenges of the urban areas of all sizes, from megacities to the small towns and large villages, which are home to the majority of humankind. It is almost
always in the top five of the most challenging problems for city managers. It is somewhat strange that it
receives so little attention compared to other urban management issues. The quality of waste
management services is a good indicator of a citys governance. The way in which waste is produced,
and discarded, gives us a key insight into how people live.
A milestone of the recent literature is the UN HABITAT book Solid Waste Management in the Worlds
Cities which has been awarded with ISWAs publication award 2010 (Scheinberg et al 2010). The
analysis of 20 reference cities which are presented in more details resulted in three major conclusions.
First, there is no one size fits all solution. Second, any successful solution must address both the
physical elements (Hardware) and the governance issues (Software) of the Integrated Sustainable Waste
management approach (Anschutz et al 2004). Third, a reliable approach, has to start from existing
strengths of the city and built upon them; to involve all the stakeholders to design their own models;
and to pick and mix adopting and adapting the solutions that will work in any particular situation.
A very frequent problem is the collection of information regarding the actors involved in the waste
management system, and how the material and resource flow in a megacity is a great challenge in any
large urban centre in developing countries, because of the complexity of the system. Furthermore, the
difficulty of the task is compounded by the fact that a large part of the waste and resources are
managed and recovered informally, or at the interface, between the informal and formal sectors.
Another useful view is the view of urban metabolism (Brunner, 2007, 2010). As it has been mentioned
with megacities having a population exceeding 10 million inhabitants, and a material turnover of
more than 200 tons per capita and year, the question arises if such intense metabolic systems are
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30
limited by the availability of sinks in water, air and soil. The focus lies not on the traditional issues of
waste and wastewater treatment or air and soil pollution control. The centre of attention is an integral
assessment of entire substance flows form a city over time (Brunner 2010). According this, the need
for final sinks has been demonstrated as a key-concept for waste management in megacities.
The different challenges for waste management in emerging- transition megacities and the mature ones
(differences in growth rates and in their stage of economic and social development) are presented in
Table 3.
Table 3: Challenges in waste management in emerging transition megacities and mature ones (Mavropoulos 2010)
Characteristics
Emerging Transitional Megacities
Mature Megacities
Growth
Faster economic and population growth

Younger populations
Spatial growth cannot be predicted
Waste quantities will increase for many
years
More organic fraction is expected
Land is almost not available
Poverty
Extended slams
Restricted access to big areas
Collection coverage between 10-70%
Informal sector involved in waste
management
Health risks are still serious
Lack of information for planning almost
impossible to get it
Multiple
authorities
with
similar
responsibilities
Infrastructure delivery and increasing
capacity is a key-issue
Financial cost will be substantially
increased as waste management services
will be better
Global nodes
Global Risk areas
Waste trafficking problems
Stabilized economic and limited population

growth
Aged populations
Decline of traditional city centres
Suburban spatial growth
Waste quantities might be reduced
Land has been occupied by current
infrastructure
Slams are more controlled and limited
Waste management is organized and delivered
in certain patterns
Collection coverage goes up to 100%
Environmental protection and aesthetics are
important
There are plans in place
Waste management authorities with more
clear responsibilities and limited overlaps
Infrastructure maintenance and upgrade is a
key-issue
Financial cost is already relatively high and
efforts are made to reduce it
Governance
Globalization
Global nodes
Recyclables exported to emerging transitional
megacities
Other major differences between industrialized and developing countries and cities have been
mentioned, including availability of capital and labour, physical characteristics of cities, informal sector
participation to waste management activities and waste composition.
Waste composition is of special importance for any effort to resolve the waste management problem in
emerging and transitional megacities. It has been mentioned (Wilson et al 2012) that the high organic
content in medium- and low-income cities generally means very dense waste, high moisture content
and reduced heating values, as opposed to relatively light waste with low organic content in the highincome or European countries. These differences alone are enough to raise a fundamental question, as
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to whether certain technologies for modern waste management developed over the last 40 years in the
North are indeed appropriate for export to the rest of the world. Specifically, compactor trucks
designed for light Northern waste with a high content of voluminous packaging materials are both
unnecessary and inappropriate in many developing countries. High organic content may suggest that
valorizing (recovering organic waste) should be seen as the baseline technology rather than landfill
disposal. A combination of high organic content, and often high tropical rainfall, which increases the
moisture content even further, should advise against thermal treatment of unprocessed MSW that
would require additional fuel to support combustion.
Although it is very difficult to find out conclusions of general importance from the different
technological systems applied in different megacities, it is substantially easier to outline conclusions
from negative experiences. Table 4 summarizes some of the most important suggestions about waste
management in megacities.
Table 4: Suggestions regarding waste management in megacities (Mavropoulos 2010, 2011c)
PROBLEM
Huge waste quantities
Megacities are a patchwork of cities

within the megacity and livelihoods
within the cities
Infrastructure comes always late
Lack of data to plan and implement
Informal sector activities

Plethora of institutions involved
Lack of space for infrastructure

Health risks from slams
SUGGESTION
Put emphasis to waste prevention and recycling programs without ignoring
the need for infrastructure delivery. Develop decentralized recycling
initiatives, including the organic fraction of waste that will provide a
medium to long term relief of the waste management systems.
The overall solution for waste management will be a patchwork too, but
with minimum standards that will protect health and environment
Develop a variety of solutions that fit different city parts do not wait for
central infrastructure delivery without developing low-cost decentralized
solutions utilize the creativity of local contractors and informal sector as
much as possible
Implement Strategic Waste Management Plans instead of detailed masterplans. Create a core of responsible officers and entities that will have the
capacity to understand and propose suitable solutions neighbourhood by
neighbourhood
Integrate informal sector to waste management plans , analyzing local
market dynamics and creating appropriate initiatives
Create metropolitan authorities to coordinate activities and try to keep legal
responsibilities as clear as possible, without overlaps. Create representative
waste management platforms to share the responsibilities with all the
stakeholders involved.
Define land uses and occupy spaces for waste management activities as
soon as possible examine possibilities for underground developments
Prioritize areas of the city that are most vulnerable and require on-going
monitoring and proactive intervention. Emergency response planning is
required in relation with waste management activities
Figure 13 presents the overall conceptual relations and linkages that characterize the triangle
globalisation, megacities and waste management.
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Figure 13: Linkages between Globalization Megacities & Waste Management (Mavropoulos 2011c)
It is obvious that a waste management system in any city but especially in a megacity is much more than
a local system because a. It is part of the global network of material flows b. It is highly affected by
global consumerism trends and c. it is directly influenced by global regulations and initiatives related to
waste management. On the other hand it has been mentioned (Brunner, 2010) that While the supply of
goods to cities is mostly controlled by market systems, the disposal depends more on regulation and
technical and natural attenuation processes. For any city this means that global and local markets
determine the input materials. Local waste management practices determine the transformation of
used materials to waste, including recycling programs that will deliver secondary materials to global and
local markets.
It seems that there is a need for a more systemic approach. Megacities, as it is well established,
represent the key-nodes of this global network. Part of the sustainability agenda seems to be en effort
for more self-reliance of cities, trying to contain waste flows, reduce energy and resource consumption
and increase local and global recycling and reuse of materials. Consequently, waste prevention is
becoming also an increasing importance trend worldwide. A major barrier comes from the complex
interactions between the hundreds stakeholders involved in a megacity waste management. Another
serious barrier comes from the lack of initiatives to integrate informal sector to waste management
activities.
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As a result of those trends, it is obvious that in megacities the Software elements (institutional
development, social support and participation and financial sustainability) are becoming more and more
important especially for the success of recycling, reuse and waste prevention initiatives. They are highly
sensitive to the continuous change of the neighbourhoods and cities within the megacity, especially to
the poorest ones where inadequate waste management practices create serious health and
environmental risks. Clearly, the Software elements (institutional development, financial viability and
social inclusiveness) control the social behaviour of citizens and thus they are the most important for the
success of recycling, reuse and waste prevention programs.
All those interactions are hardly described by the traditional waste management approaches which are
based on engineering and logistics. Especially in a megacity, the overall waste management system
should be considered as complex system, which means a system composed of interconnected parts
that as a whole exhibit one or more properties (behaviour among the possible properties) not obvious
from the properties of the individual parts (Joslyn, 2000). Cities as a whole may be considered as
emerging entities existing near a critical point of self organization, far from equilibrium and qualitatively
different from their constituent residents and subsystems (Baynes, 2009).
Waste management systems in megacities might be better studied with the contribution of the
complexity theory and complex systems science (Mavropoulos 2011c) because the overall performance
of a megacity waste management system is the result of complex interactions between global and local
stakeholders, global and local material flows, global and local recycling markets, global and local
governance etc.
Another interesting point is the lack of global benchmarking techniques and methods. It has been
commented that (Mvulirwenande 2012) Benchmarking of waste management services is far from a
straightforward exercise; even within a single small country with uniform regulations, level of
development, culture, governance system, and climatic conditions, as 12 years of benchmarking
experience in the Netherlands confirm.
The use of process flow diagram (PFD) to represent a citys solid waste and recycling system including
both formal and informal elements and operations is highly suggested. . As previously demonstrated
(Brunner 2007), a PFD is a relatively powerful way of presenting the system as a whole in a
comprehensive but concise way.
As a step towards a global benchmarking approach, indicators of global importance have been proposed
and analyzed in details (Wilson 2012) and they create a basis on which further development might be
delivered. The set of indicators proposed is briefly presented in Table 5.
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34
Table 5: Benchmarking indicators for waste management (Wilson 2012)
CRITERIA
WASTE MANAGEMENT DRIVERS
Public health
Environmental control
Resource management
GOVERNANCE PATTERNS
User inclusivity
Provider inclusivity
Financial sustainability
Institutional coherence
INDICATORS
Waste collection and sweeping coverage
Controlled disposal
Materials recycled or recovered (valorized)
Degree of user inclusivity
Degree of provider inclusivity
Population using and paying for collection
Degree of institutional coherence
Despite the serious problems of waste management in megacities, there is also the other side of them.
Megacities are also places of intensive human interaction and this creates scaled results (innovation,
growth, living standards) that otherwise will never be created. It has been proven (Bettencour 2007)
that cities belonging to the same urban system obey pervasive scaling relations with population size,
characterizing rates of innovation, wealth creation, patterns of consumption and human behaviour as
well as properties of urban infrastructure. Most of these indicators deal with temporal processes
associated with the social dimension of cities as spaces for intense interaction across the spectrum of
human activities. It is remarkable that it is principally in terms of these rhythms that cities are selfsimilar organizations, indicating a universality of human social dynamics, despite enormous variability in
urban form.
According Bettencour, The tension between economies of scale and wealth creation represents a
phenomenon where innovation occurs on time scales that are now shorter than individual life spans and
are predicted to become even shorter as populations increase and become more connected, in contrast
to biology where the innovation time scales of natural selection greatly exceed individual life spans. Our
analysis suggests uniquely human social dynamics that transcend biology and redefine metaphors of
urban metabolism.
ISWA 2012
GLOBAL RECYCLING MARKETS
in thousand tonnes
The last decades a great number of consumer products are transported worldwide in order to be sold
and used. In addition a huge amount of secondary materials has been traded due to the latest
emergence of China, as the new workshop of the World, and of other SE Asian Tiger economies. From all
waste streams trade of plastic is increasingly becoming a global issue. More than 50% of plastics, paper
and scrap ferrous metals are being exported to South East Asia and this trend is not expected to decline.
At Asia and the Pacific imports of waste are extremely high comparing to waste exports. In 2006, Korea,
Malaysia and Philippines were the main importers while Singapore and Japan were considered to be the
biggest exporter in the region. In 2010 China imported more than 7.4 million tonnes of plastics waste
and around 28 million tonnes of waste paper and over 5.8 million tonnes of steel scrap. Apparently, the
EU is increasingly acting like a single market in terms of hazardous and problematic waste treatment. In
2005 nearly 20% of the waste shipped was for disposal while the remaining 80% was shipped for
recovery operations.
Figure 14: Generation & Transboundary Movement of Waste in Asia and the Pacific (Visvanathan, 2012)
At present, the establishing global market seems to act in parallel to waste trafficking and therefore any
action to control waste trafficking might act as an inhibitor for the global recycling market.
Waste trade of specific stream has been significantly affected by waste shipment regulations and market
forces. In general there are a number of factors which influencing global network of raw materials and
recyclables flows. These factors are divided in two main categories the supply and demand factors as
being presented in Figure 15.
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36
It is characteristic that up until the mid-1900s most countries around the world maintained
protectionists trade policies due to the belief that imports were threats to domestic industries and
should be kept out (supply driven approach). However this has changed and from the mid 1900s since
present development paradigm switched to focus on promoting trade liberalization as the means by
which competitiveness can be enhance and efficiency gains can be generated for the benefit of
consumers (demand-driven approach). Export-led economic growth has since become the major tenant
of most national development strategy since it is strongly believed that trade is the way to benefit from
globalization and to achieve economic growth.
Figure 15: Factors influencing Global Recycling Market (D-Waste, 2012b)
However, in most developing countries recycling and recovery activities are carried out through low-end
means such as crude backyard recycling with comparatively low yields. Such handling often causes
serious harm to the environment, human health as well as to society and the economy.
ISWA 2012
As a prime example, the majority of electrical and electronic waste (ee-waste) exported to China is
processed and treated in backyards or small, primitive workshops (Liu et al, 2006). Processing often
includes methods such as manual disassembly, cyanide leaching and uncontrolled open burning for the
purpose of extracting the valuable metals from the ee-waste. Any remains of this waste that has no
value are usually dumped (Nnorom et al, 2007). This handling results in serious pollution, since the
substances in question are, for example: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polyhydrochlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) as well as heavy metals (such as mercury,
lead and zinc). Similar handling of ee-waste has also been reported to take place in other Asian countries
such as India and Pakistan (BAN, 2002) as well as in West African countries such as Nigeria (BAN, 2005).
This type of handling endangers the health of the recyclers and residents living near the sites.
Furthermore, the improper handling also causes harm to humans living further away from the sites and
the environment through contamination of soil, water and ecosystems. In addition to the imminent
threats to the environment and human health noted above, poor management of waste, especially the
use of ineffective methods for recycling and recovery means poor resource management and loss of
valuable resources that undoubtedly will contribute to the depletion of our planets natural resources.
Furthermore, exporting waste for unsound and unacceptable treatment abroad instead of complying
with the regulations creates an uneven playing field that impairs sound market mechanisms (Comte,
2006). This gives irresponsible waste producers and dubious waste processors an unfair economic
advantage over soundly based and environmentally conscientious waste producers and waste
managers. The skewed market mechanisms are very likely to delay or hinder the establishment of
facilities and infrastructure needed for proper solid waste management throughout the world.
In order to prevent the unwanted effects to the environment, human health and society as described
above, legislation has been implemented at an international as well as on regional and national levels.
On an international level, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (EU, 1993) and the OECD Council Decision on the Control of
Transfrontier Movements of Waste Destined for Recovery Operations regulate trans-boundary
movements of waste (OECD, 1992). Export of waste from the European Union is regulated by the
Regulation on the Supervision and Control of Shipments of Waste within, into and out of the European
Community (259/93/EEC), often referred to as the European Waste Shipments Regulation and in the
United States, regulations regarding import and export of hazardous waste can be found in the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act.
Despite the regulations in place, large amounts of waste are unlawfully exported to transition and
developing countries, such as China, other Asian and West African countries (Nnorom et al, 2007;
Terazono et al, 2004). The illegal trade in waste is estimated at a value of between US$ 10 and $ 12
billion annually and generates very high revenues to the criminal actors involved in the trade (Comte,
2006). A report from IMPEL (the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of
Environmental Law) suggest that as much as 85% of the non-hazardous waste exported from the
European Union is shipped illegally or in non-compliance with regulations. Irregularities include among
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others: the use of incorrect classification, false classification of waste products or unchecked items as reusable products and other kinds of fraudulent shipment declarations (IMPEL, 2005). Furthermore,
Greenpeace (2010) reports that between 1988 and 1994, 94 attempted or actual cases of illegal export
of altogether 10 million tons of hazardous waste residues were identified and Massari and Monzini
(2004) report illegal export of hazardous waste from Italy to Romania, the Black Sea region, Lebanon and
several African countries, such as Somalia and Mozambique. Finally, during the Sky Hole Patching
project carried out in the Asia-Pacific region from March 2007 until September2009, 260 seizures on
hazardous waste was recorded (Visvanathan, 2012).
Naturally, there are cases where waste producers or waste transporters break the law unintentionally,
for example by producing incorrect transport documents or misinterpreting existing law. Some of these
misunderstandings and errors might be explained by the complexity of the present laws and regulations
(OKeefe and Hall, 2000), but even so a large fraction of the illegal exports of waste is suspected to be
the result of consciously and continuously committed illegal action.
Reports from IMPEL such as Seaport Project (IMPEL, 2006) and the Threat Assessment Project (IMPEL,
2005) point out barriers for effective enforcement of the regulations. Most enforcement activities today
are reactive in nature and rely on the cooperation between environmental agencies, customs and police
networks in a number of countries. Such cooperation still seems to be partly restrained by lack of
priority, interest or capacity within some of the organizations. Furthermore, effective collection, use and
exchange of information and intelligence are found to be essential for better and more effective
enforcement. Delivering the intelligence material needed constitutes a large challenge since it demands
transnational and cross-organizational cooperation. Altogether, a large number of actors with most
probably different views of an intelligence organization, the use of intelligence material, secrecy and
other issues related to intelligence and intelligence organizations have to be involved. Furthermore
IMPEL (2006) identifies the lack of proper coordination and allocation of resources between different
national authorities as one of the main bottlenecks for effective and efficient enforcement of the
regulations on transfrontier shipments of waste.
The issue of illegal international traffic of waste is of considerable complexity including in relation to
defining the illegality of such traffic. The lack of appropriate data and the difficulty to define waste
trafficking is a major problem and a number of financial and monetary values need to be considered
(Terazono et al, 2004; Comte, 2006 IMPEL, 2006; SAICW, 2010).
The basic mechanism to control transnational movement, the Basel Convention, is 20 years old. At the
time it was amended, the basic problem was the movement of chemical waste, while today the main
problem is ee-waste. Nnorom et al (2007) points out that the possibility to import of second-hand
electronics makes such devices available to those who cannot afford new products. However, due to the
difficulty in distinguish second-hand products from ee-waste and since many developing countries may
not easily acquire the know-how needed for environmentally sound material recovery from ee-waste,
the trade in second-hand electronics should be strictly restricted to products with confirmed
functionality. Therefore, an international method for of testing and certification is needed to ensure that
ISWA 2012
that exported secondhand devices are functional. The current guidance for regulatory authorities in the
EU for Used Electrical and Electronic Equipment (UEEE), stating that the exported devices have to be
fully functional and properly packaged in shipping containers not to be be regarded as ee-waste and that
repairable items only can be exported if there are no hazardous components to be dealt with (Cooper,
2012), might provide a ground-stone for such a method.
As pointed out by Nnorom et al (2007), the establishment of formal recycling facilities for ee-waste in
the developing countries will ensure resource utilization with both economical and ecological gains.
Although a vast majority of all waste producers are believed to act in good faith, they face complexity in
determining what should be the most appropriate means of meeting their obligations. Therefore,
criminals and criminal organizations are able to take advantage of this complexity and producers lack of
knowledge or lack of care. In addition, the complexity of the present legislation and regulations, as well
as complicated administrative environmental and customs procedures, might lead to unintentional
illegal waste handling and export of waste. In this sense it is of great importance to enable waste
producers by making it easier to do right is an important step in reducing the amount of waste illegally
exported. Initiatives supporting this strategy are (ISWA, 2010b):
Awareness raising, information and communication about the problems related to waste
trafficking and improper handling in the receiving countries as well as information about the
criminal structures involved in and criminal methods used for waste trafficking
Making information and counselling on the rules and regulations related to proper waste
handling in general and trans-boundary shipments of waste in particular easily accessible to
waste producers
Simplifying the administration related to trans-boundary waste shipments and, if possible,
making the different regulations in place more clear, understandable and co-ordinated
Providing means for waste producers to more easily able to identify and get in contact with
serious, law-abiding waste brokers and handlers, for example through a waste brokers
certification or accreditation system.
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INTERNATIONAL AID TOOLS

This specific work stream is still under elaboration. However there are some outcomes to be presented.
Using the OECD database for the Official Development Assistance (ODA) (available at
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=ODA_SECTOR), a more or less clear picture can be
formulated regarding the evolution of waste management related ODA.
Overall, according OECDs database ODA increased by 25% between 2006 and 2010, reaching almost
164 billion $ in 2010. Straightforward waste management projects (code 14050: Waste
management/disposal) count between 0,16-0,32% of the total ODA, ranging between 257-415 million
$/year between 2006-2010.
Although waste management ODA projects are certainly not limited at the field 14050: Waste
management/disposal and several (but not many) projects are included in other codes like 41010:
Environmental policy and admin. Management or under the generic code 140: I.4. Water Supply &
Sanitation, Total, it seems that there is a declining trend in the relevant importance of waste
management projects within the ODA financial flows. Figure 14 presents the trends in major ODA
sectors that are related to waste management. The figures per category are percentages in the overall
ODA.
% of ODA in different sectors

7,00%
6,00%
5,00%
4,00%
3,00%
2,00%
1,00%
0,00%
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
120: I.2. Health, Total

410: IV.1. General Environment Protection, Total
140: I.4. Water Supply & Sanitation, Total
Figure 16: Trends in major ODA sectors related with waste management as % of the overall ODA. Straightforward waste
management projects are included in code 140:I.4 Water Supply & Sanitation
It is obvious that General Environment protection is almost doubled as percentage of the total ODA
between 2006 -2010 while Health and Water are more or less at the same levels.
ISWA 2012
INTERNATIONAL AID TOOLS
Waste management share in the total Water Supply & Sanitation (code 140:I.4) is presented at Figure 17
and Figure 18 the overall changes in different ODA sectors between 2006-2010.
% of Waste management in total Water ODA

7,00%
6,32%
6,00%
5,00%
4,07%
4,00%
3,47%
2,95%
3,00%
2,06%
2,00%
1,00%
0,00%
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Figure 17: Waste management projects share in total Water Supply & Sanitation ODA
% Change in global ODA 2006-2010

600,00%
504,57%
500,00%
400,00%
300,00%
200,00%
100,00%
180,44%
131,05%
25,12%
23,10%
22,83%
4,86%
0,00%
Figure 18: Changes in different ODA sectors 2006-2010
All the data mentioned above outline two conclusions. First, waste management remains a very small
part of the overall ODA, less than 0.5% which is a disappointing sign for the importance of waste
management in global decision making and especially in ODA. Second, although the overall ODA is
steadily increasing (despite the 2008-2009 crisis), waste management is marginally increased just about
almost 5%. This second remark is definitely linked with the fact that the successful preparation and
41
42
implementation of a serious waste management project is definitely much more difficult and time
consuming than other ODA sectors projects.
Regarding the lessons learnt by ODA waste management projects, it has been mentioned (Park 2011)
that waste management projects are welcomed thanks to increased awareness, but their relative
priority is not high enough to be fully supported by the recipient governments and societies. The
necessity for more emphasis on the creation of waste management systems rather than facilities is
another key-issue.
According the Japanese ODA (Kitawaki 2011), one of the most important worldwide, they have faced a
lot of difficulties to leave "ruins of foreign aid", which are negative legacies of inappropriate technology
transfer. For example, many fully mechanized treatment facilities have been abandoned due to high
operation and maintenance cost, which are known as "white elephants". With this concern, Japan's ODA
is not keen to construct treatment facilities, with exceptions discussed only under specific conditions.
In the same line of thinking, it has been mentioned (Medina 2000) that conventional technological
approaches to waste management are not working in emerging and transitional megacities because
they involve imported solutions that are centralized, bureaucratic and suitable for different socioeconomic conditions and so the possibility of decentralized models must be examined. In most of the
cases those conventional solutions are promoted (Scheinberg 2010) by international donors and aid
programs in an effort to export Western type technologies. A usual way of such a promotion is the
adaptation of certain environmental and technical standards as a condition for funding.
ISWA 2012
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ISWA 2012

Globalization's Impact on Waste Management

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Globalization's Impact on Waste Management

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Globalization

Interconnectivity & Governance

Informal Sector Recyclers

Megacities & Waste Management

Global Recycling Markets

Official Development Assistance

Globalization & Waste Management Linkages

Global Facts & Figures for Waste Management

Internationalization of Science & Technology

Informal Sector as a Recycling Partner

Waste Management in Megacities

Global Recycling Markets

International Aid Tools

LISTS OF TABLES & FIGURES

Speakers at Beacon Conference on Globalization, Urban Metabolism and Waste

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

Speakers at ISWA's session "A Global Perspective on Current Developments in Solid

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

Interconnectivity & Governance

Informal Sector Recyclers

Megacities & Waste Management

Global Recycling Markets

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

Official Development Assistance

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

The distribution value of an i-Pad (Kraemer, 2011)

The distribution of e-waste (http://www.ierc.info/e-waste-dumping-an-interactive-map/)

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

GLOBALISATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT LINKAGES

GLOBALISATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT LINKAGES

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

GLOBALISATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT LINKAGES

Figure 2: Globalization and waste management linkages (Mavropoulos 2011c)

Informal sector as a global recycling partner

Informal sector plays a crucial role in building global

Megacities and waste management

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

International aid tools and their application to waste

As Official Development Assistance and Foreign Direct

GLOBAL FACTS & FIGURES FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT

GLOBAL FACTS & FIGURES FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

GLOBAL FACTS & FIGURES FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

Internet Penetration rates per region (percentage %)

Latin America / Middle East

Figure 5: Internet penetration rates per region (IWS 2012)

Internet users in 2011 (in million)

Figure 6: Internet users per region (IWS 2012)

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

INTERNATIOLISATION OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INTERNATIOLISATION OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

Figure 9: Trends in scientific cooperation as expressed by authorship (OECD 2010)

INTERNATIOLISATION OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

INFORMAL SECTOR AS A RECYCLING PARTNER

INFORMAL SECTOR AS A RECYCLING PARTNER

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT

WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MEGACITIES

WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MEGACITIES

GLOBALIZATION & WASTE MANAGEMENT