WASTE management is a major challenge as the world’s material footprint expands to meet the needs of economic development and a large population. Growing at 2.3 per cent annually, global production and consumption of material resources has tripled over the past 50 years. The volume of waste produced has also grown significantly during this period.

As resource exploitation is set to increase, the waste generated in the process will also grow, posing serious threats to human health and the environment, while exacerbating the crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution.

With their capacity constraints of waste collection and disposal, developing countries feel the impact on multiple fronts. Waste is either dumped in landfills, burnt in the open, or thrown into rivers and other waterways. Chemical effluents and sewage are often discharged into rivers. Thus polluted water and toxic air spread disease and take lives in the absence of effective policy and regulations.

The United Nations Environment Prog­ram­me’s (UNEP) Global Waste Management Outlook 2024reveals that last year 2.3 billion metric tons of municipal solid waste was generated, which is set to reach 3.8bn metric tons by 2050. An estimated 540 million........

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