ISWA2024 Day Two : Waste doesn't know borders!

The keynotes opening day two of the ISWA World Congress in Cape Town set the tone for the day. Which meant a certain urgency to fix this waste and climate change problem we have at hand.

Björn Appelqvist, Chair of ISWA’s Scientific & Technical Committee, explained that waste management of course does play an important role in mitigating climate change and fighting environmental challenges but that it cannot do it alone.

According to him four pillars are necessary to establish a sustainable waste management system:

• Political backbone - engaged and ambitious politicians; enduring policy framework; ambitious but realistic policies; knowledge
• Robust governance and principles – transparency; accountability; inclusivity; clear rules; effective enforcement; knowledge and resources
• Long-term cost coverage – realistic; sustainable; adaptable; transparent; primarily locally carried
• Appropriate technologies – affordable; effective and efficient; fit for skills available, save and secure

Linda Godfrey, Principal Scientist at the CSIR and Extraordinary Professor at North-West University, focused her talk on South Africas waste management system. Even though the country has a waste hierarchy in place for the last 20 years, a lot of the waste ends up in landfills that are in fact dumpsites.

Furthermore development and urbanization are outpacing waste collection services. Even though services are growing, only 60 % of South African households have regular waste collection services. Prof. Godfrey surveyed waste professionals, most of whom judged the waste management system deteriorated in the last 5 to 10 years.

So she urges to fix South Africa’s waste management system, to fix the state of landfill sites, improve waste collection, improve infrastructure and financing.

According to her, South Africa is 20 to 30 years behind most developed countries in the management of waste. “We can see what has worked and what has not worked. Time has allowed proven alternative waste treatment technologies to emerge, which with some adaptation and localization, can be rapidly implemented in South Africa,” she said.

She also brought up the question, why other countries should care about the broken waste management system of another country. The answer is quite simple, really: Mismanagement if one country or one region has a direct or indirect impact on others e.g. open burning causes air pollution, and the leakage of plastic waste causes terrestrial, atmospheric and aquatic pollution.

But as Linda Godfrey said, she didn’t want to leave on such a negative note. She believes that it is possible to solve these problems. But there is a certain urgency. “It needs financing and political will. The collaboration between the private and public sectors is essential.”

The following speaker, Mary Ngechu, struck the same chord. She founded the Taka Taka Ni Mali Foundation in Kenya to bring together stakeholders in the waste management sector. They support innovation and entrepreneurship in the waste management sector, and give training also for the informal sector, bringing it together with the formal sector. Through the Ecoloop app, micro businesses can use data to access the market. The foundation works across all seven East African countries. And to close the loop to Linda Godfrey’s earlier question: Why should other countries care? Because waste doesn’t know borders!

The plenary session focused on data and Information as enablers for better waste management.

As was discussed also on the first day and is what seems to be one of the key topics of this year’s World Congress is the general lack of data, as many countries don’t have any data whatsoever on waste management, and the difficulty to come by the data available.

Ed Morrow, Senior Campaigns Manager at Lloyd's Register Foundation (LRF), presented their report A World of Waste: Risks and opportunities in household waste management. LRF has had a poll every two years since 2019. For this report, 147.000 people across 142 countries participated. The report can be downloaded here.

UN-Habitat is also trying to collect more and reliable data on waste management. The Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT) is the SDG indicator for solid waste generated, collected and treated in controlled facilities. Its aim is to provide data for large waste management investments. The tool is available here.

Going forward, the participants, among them also Takehiro Nakamura and Shiza Aslam, called for a standardized methodology for data collection and the need for a global data system to be able to share the data globally. Because, again, and that seems the other important topic most speakers of the congress seemed to be keen to get across: Waste does not stop at the border.

As always the Women of Waste! Task Force (WOW!) hosted a session at the ISWA World Congress. This time Moderator Gamuchirai Mutezo, Madam Waste South Africa, talked with International Waste Management Consultant Maria Tsakona, Amira Hassan Hallaby from the International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAWP), Melanie Samson, Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa and Zoë Lenkiewicz, Lead Author of the recently published Global Waste Management Outlook 2024, about “Framing a just transition to a circular economy as a gender-transformative process!”

Once again, the discussion centred on data and its collection. Focusing on women in the informal sector, the need for gender-based data collection was the main concern of the participants. Because women are much more affected by the work on a dumpsite. They suffer from health problems more often than men do, because of the lack of childcare they have to take their children to the dumpsites. They are underpaid for their services. Even at facilities, there is a lack of toilets and wash places where women can feel safe.

As Melanie Samson said: “Being women in a gender-biased society they are faced with misogynistic violence.”

In short, women and men have different needs. Gender-based data collection can help identify the problems and find solutions.