This August, Oxford Urbanists (OU) enters the global debate on waste management in urban centers, highlighting its challenges, controversies and opportunities for growth in developing countries.

Urban waste management is a major topic for the sustainable development of cities, especially in developing countries. According to a recent report by UN Environment, it’s estimated that every Latin American citizen living in cities produces one kilogram of waste per day, representing approximately 10% of the world’s waste. As cities evolve to accompany their population growth and economic development, waste management is becoming a key point of discussion for ensuring their sustainable development.

Today, 145 thousand tons of residue that are produced daily in Latin American and  Caribbean cities are discarded in inappropriate places. This number corresponds to one-fourth of all the region’s waste, approximately. In spite of all existing efforts - strategies for reducing and separating waste, biogas implementation alternatives, combustion technologies with strict emissions as an alternative to open incineration, among others -  to manage this time-sensitive problem, there is still a lot of adjusting to be done. Most government initiatives tend to deal with the problem in a palliative manner, as 45% of all the collected waste still doesn’t receive adequate treatment and ends up in landfills.  

In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 62 million tons of waste is produced annually. Of this vast amount, only 44 percent is collected, mostly in cities with largely neglected rural areas, with the rest being burned and disposed of illegally in unauthorized dumpsites. Even though Sub-Saharan Africa currently produces the least amount of waste as a region, 5% of the global total, it is among the fastest urbanizing regions in the world with a rapidly growing population. With this in mind, the rates of waste generation are expected to skyrocket. 

In line with several continental and regional development agendas, such as the African Union’s Agenda 2063, among the priorities of these development agendas is waste management and shifting the mindset from seeing waste as useless to seeing it as a resource. Several innovations in urban waste management can be sourced from Africa, including the Goreangab wastewater treatment plant, which transforms sewage into potable water. 

This month, the OU team aims at tackling this important issue and its impact on the development of our cities. Among other issues, we will raise attention about the negative influence of inadequate waste management in the quality of urban rivers. We will also feature initiatives that are currently taking place in different regions to improve our current waste management methods, highlighting how sustainable waste management activities can serve as a catalyst for local economic development. We will approach recycling initiatives, waste-to-energy plant alternatives, and the opportunities for growth related to extended producer responsibility. Stay tuned!

Guilherme Scardini is an architect and urbanist (Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brazil) and Masters student in Landscape Architecture (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), currently working in the Urban Ecology Department of the Secretary of Environment, Water Resources and Sustainability in the City Hall of Niterói, Brazil . Former research has focused on analysing urban mobility using transportation modals, focusing on new guidelines for a new development plan, and also on the therapeutical impact of gardens focused on healing stress and mental fatigue. Prior to Oxford Urbanists, Guilherme was a Science Without Borders scholar, having attended a year at Szent István University (Budapest, Hungary - 2015/2016), under the Bachelors Course of Landscape Architecture. Also collaborated with the internal development sectors of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, as an intern for the Landscape Design sector, and the Internal Infrastructure sector (respectively on 2015 and 2017).

Lubna Elmahdy holds a bachelor’s degree Cum Laude in International Relations from the United States International University-Africa (USIU-A). During her studies, she undertook research on the role of women in post-conflict community development in urban areas with a case study of Liberia and South Sudan. She is interested in the interlinkages within the sphere of urban development, specifically in analyzing the socioeconomic factors which drive resilience and inclusivity of cities in the African context. She is currently working in communications at the Stockholm Environment Institute - Africa headquarters, where she helps transform scientific research into human-impact stories. Prior to this, she worked in UN-Habitat as a digital media strategist, managing the social media platforms of the Executive Director. She has also worked in communications and events management at Nairobi Design Week, where she brought together African designers of all disciplines focused on human-centered design.