Summary of Article
In an article written by the world bank, they dive deep into the statistics of the collection of solid waste and how it differs based on different socioeconomic climates across the world(the article is located here). Globally the world generates 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually with that figure expected to increase by about 40% by the year 2050 resulting in 3.40 billion tonnes of solid waste expected to be generated at that time – most of the increase will be attributed to lower socioeconomic class countries. Globally right now 33% of the solid waste generated goes uncollected (this figure is “extremely conservative”). Waste collection is critical to managing waste but the rates at which it is collected sadly depend hugely on the socioeconomic status of the region. The higher the socioeconomic status of the people living in a given region the more solid waste is collected. The world bank also collected data on how the types of solid waste produced differ with the socioeconomic class of the people in the region. They found that higher-income countries usually produce less food and green waste (32% of total waste) and generate more dry waste (waste that could be recycled, 51% of total waste in these countries). While Middle-and low-income countries produce roughly half of their waste as food and green waste. Income mainly affects the types of waste that is being generated but one other – more minor – factor at play is geography where all regions except Europe, Central Asia, and North America generate mostly organic waste on average. The article also goes into depth about the statistics on how solid waste is distributed and the conclusion that came from that data is the lower socioeconomic class the region is the more they employ open dumping of their waste. Lastly, the article also goes into depth about how each socioeconomic class finances its solid waste management, public or private, and the pros and cons of both.
My Take
I found it extremely fascinating the amount of data that is able to be measured and is being measured in this sector. This has opened my mind up to completely new ways of looking at waste management, from how its managed, to predictions for the future, to how different socioeconomic class contributes to the problem as a whole. The best part in my opinion – all of it is quantifiable, to the percent, because of the sheer amount of data that is being measured and analyzed. For example, we found out that in higher socioeconomic classes 32% of total waste is green waste and most of their solid waste is dry waste that could be recycled. From this, we could push more recycling in schools and on social media to get the word out there to recycle. This would help reduce waste in general in countries with higher socioeconomic classes. For countries with lower socioeconomic classes, we could help push regulation to do away with open dumping as it is harmful to the environment and build the infrastructure necessary to dispose of waste the right way. We know all of these insights will produce results because they are all based on data, we didn’t make it up we measured it – to the percent mind you – how prevalent open dumping was in these countries along with much more.
Conclusion
All in all, this article was a really great read and showed me many more ways that we use data in this field and how it can be used to drive actionable insights to help curb the effects of climate change. This article was extremely fascinating and went into much more detail than I do here so I suggest you give it a read(the article can be found here). I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!