Managing our waste

View from the Global South

The Managing Our Waste 2021 report calls for a people-centred approach to the waste crisis. Rather than focusing on waste flows and particular types of waste, we must turn attention to the waste services people need, and to opportunities for the most marginalised to be a core part of the solution.

“With a good mix of benchmark indicators, qualitative and participatory methods, the report explores physical and governance elements of waste management in the selected cities, and takes a deep dive into livelihoods aspects, including the gendered dimensions of waste management.”

Sonia Maria Dias
Waste specialist, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)

“Most development work tackles the issue of solid waste management from the ‘top down’, and often focuses on (large scale) infrastructure. Practical Action strengthens the ‘bottom-up’, people-centred aspects. I commend to you this important new manifesto to put people back at the centre of how we manage our solid wastes.”

Professor David C. Wilson
Visiting Professor in Resource and Waste Management, Imperial College London; Lead author of UNEP’s Global Waste Management Outlook

“We should be putting people’s experiences and the overall improvement of people’s lives first – considering both short and long-term implications. Our assessments need to ensure they are achieving this, and that is something central to this report.”

Dr Costas Velis
Lecturer in Resource Efficiency Systems, School of Civil Engineering, Leeds University

Our report is grounded in four case study cities where fieldwork took place between October 2020 and February 2021:

Kisumu, Kenya
Dakar, Senegal
Satkhira, Bangladesh
Dhenkanal, Odisha State, India

Our Local Partnerships

Practical Action is partnering with communities, waste-to-value innovators, and local governments to develop city-wide waste solutions.
Partnering with the Royal Academy of Engineering and UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, we took our expertise to regional and global forums in 2022, such as #AfriCities9 and the seminal ‘Plastics Summit’ at the UN Environmental Assembly 5.2.

We also launched our report in Kenya, Bangladesh and Senegal.

Maurice [right] – a sanitation worker that Practical Action has worked with in Kisumu – spoke on the importance of improving working conditions with personal protective equipment, as well highlighting linkages of garbage and sanitation waste management.

Kenya – May 2022

Our report was launched at Kenya’s National Waste Management Conference in Kisumu in May 2022. We brought community voices to our panel, with representation from Kisumu’s Waste Pickers Association, alongside the Directorate of Environment, and the Kenya Plastics Pact.

Maurice [right] – a sanitation worker that Practical Action has worked with in Kisumu – spoke on the importance of improving working conditions with personal protective equipment, as well highlighting linkages of garbage and sanitation waste management. We find that pit latrines often contain discarded waste when waste management systems are poor.

Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Bangladesh at the November 2022 Launch of our report

Bangladesh – Nov. 2022

In November 2022 we launched our report in Dhaka. We heard from the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Bangladesh [fifth from right], Ms. Habibun Nahar (MP), who committed to putting special attention to our people-centered approach at the national level.

We presented our Emptier to Entrepreneur waste model, which is transforming opportunities for informal workers and providing innovative and circular solutions for waste management in Bangladesh – learn more about this approach here.

Senegal – March 2023

At our launch in Dakar in March 2023 we heard from leading representatives in waste management nationally, including national government, a large World Bank-led project, as well as our research partners, l’École Polytechnique de Thiès (EPT), other NGOs, and others supporting informal workers.

Evidence from our Flood Resilience program finds that important storm drains in Dakar and Thies are often blocked with discarded rubbish, increasing the impact of flooding. Our new partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering will pilot and test innovative solutions which generate value from waste, addressing open burning and building urban resilience to flooding.

The Challenge

A white trash can icon on a blue background. — 2 billion people live without waste collection services

Two birds flying over a pink background. — Waste generated in lower-income cities in Africa and Asia will double by 2030

A pizza icon on a green background. — 12% of global methane gas emissions come from open dumping of waste

People-Centred Solutions

Reaching everyone

with the waste services they need.

Adopt a ladder of access to waste services and disaggregate by wealth and gender to highlight where action is needed. Targets should be set based on this to improve the proportion of people with access to at least basic waste management services.

Tackling

the waste that affects people the most.

Encourage even more household source separation, supported by new options for waste streams that are the most polluting or hazardous for people, in particular women and children.

Improving

the lives and working conditions of informal waste workers.

A first step is to recognize and value the contribution of informal waste collection, recycling, and trading businesses. Discrimination, abuse, and gender inequalities also need to be addressed. Informal businesses need support to capture more value from waste. This requires new public–private partnerships and systems to create space for the expertise and dynamism in this sector.

Integrating

the voice of those most affected.

At all levels, waste policies need to focus not only on environmental benefits but also on improving the lives of the poorest communities and workers. Their voices need to be heard in all key decision-making processes.

Watch our Global Launch Webinar

The report was launched in December 2021 in partnership with UN-Habitat’s Waste Wise Cities. We shared our findings from four contrasting towns and cities from Africa and South Asia. We heard from our CEO, Sarah Roberts, as well as a panel of experts and key local stakeholders:

Sarah Roberts (CEO of Practical Action)
Dr Lucy Stevens (Acting Director Influence and Impact at Practical Action)
Noémie de la Brosse (Consultant at OPLM)
Mrs Aklima Akhter (Waste Worker from Faridpur, Bangladesh)
Mr. Shamim Ahmed (President of BPGMEA – Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association)
John Sande (Deputy Director of Environment, County Government of Kisumu, Kenya)
Lucy Slack (Secretary-General of Commonwealth Local Government Forum)
Yashwant Deval (Area Director for India & Bangladesh at RiverRecycle)

Managing Our Waste: Why we need a people-first approach

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Cover image - Managing Our Waste 2021: View from the Global South

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Managing our waste

View from the Global South

The Managing Our Waste 2021 report calls for a people-centred approach to the waste crisis. Rather than focusing on waste flows and particular types of waste, we must turn attention to the waste services people need, and to opportunities for the most marginalised to be a core part of the solution.

Our report is grounded in four case study cities where fieldwork took place between October 2020 and February 2021: