Comment : Changemakers to restore spaceship Earth
One of the most noticeable footprints is the waste generated every day all over the world. The leftovers of our society are the most visible result of human environmental influence, a side effect of everyone’s daily life, already detected at the most inhospitable places such as the summit of Mount Everest and the Mariana Trench.
Current estimates show that the world generates around 2 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually and this will double by 2050, reaching nearly 4 billion tonnes. If the waste generated by industries, markets, businesses and other institutions are taken into account, the amount will increase to 7-10 billion tonnes per year. And there are billions of people without access to basic waste collection services and even more people lacking access to adequate waste disposal systems. These numbers are clear indicators that the existing situation constitutes a health and environmental emergency, requiring immediate action to revert the trend, ensuring sustainable waste management practices throughout the world.
According to ISWA’s vision, waste should be reused and reduced to a mini- mum, then collected, recycled and treated properly. Residual matter should be dis- posed of in a safely engineered way, ensuring a clean and healthy environment for all. The right to enjoy an environment with clean air, water, seas and soils must be considered as a basic human right.
It is still a work in progress but the seed for this movement was sown by the United Nations in 1972 (almost 50 years ago) on the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, when the UN General Assembly designated 5 June as World Environment Day and, at the same day, created the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
World Environment Day is still celebrated every year, and is one of the most important instruments to raise awareness and stimulate actions for environmental protection. This year’s theme is ‘ecosystem restoration’, focusing on resetting the relationship with the environment, which includes preventing, halting and reversing the deterioration and delivering a better quality of life for humans and nature.
Better waste management and the transition to a circular economy system can be instrumental in promoting the fulfillment of this objective to fight pollution and restore favourable ecosystem conditions, mainly in the urban ecosystem. For this to happen requires commitment, cooperation, dedication and the impulse from some changemakers.
As agents for change, ISWA members work towards solving the above-mentioned waste emergency and are taking concrete steps to make practical progress in promoting and achieving better waste management throughout the world. One example is the recently founded Center of Excellence for Circular Economy and Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean (iswalac. org). Another is the advancement of the CLOCC - Clean Oceans through Clean Communities project (www.cloccglobal.org), aimed at preventing marine litter by improving inland waste management systems.
As a symbol of this commitment, all the colours adopted for the new ISWA logo are derived from nature. The dark blue is the ocean, the light blue the sky, the yellow represents the sunlight and the green the flora. Are you ready to join this crew and be part of #GenerationRestoration?
