Municipal Solid Waste and the Environment: a Global Perspective
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EG37CH11-Vergara ARI 6 October 2012 17:5 Municipal Solid Waste and the Environment: A Global Perspective Sintana E. Vergara1 and George Tchobanoglous2 1Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3050; email: [email protected] 2Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, California 95616; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2012. 37:277–309 Keywords First published online as a Review in Advance on waste governance, climate change, behavior change, reuse and June 28, 2012 recycling, informal sector, electronic waste, solid waste management The Annual Review of Environment and Resources is online at environ.annualreviews.org Abstract This article’s doi: Municipal solid waste (MSW) reflects the culture that produces it and 10.1146/annurev-environ-050511-122532 affects the health of the people and the environment surrounding it. Copyright c 2012 by Annual Reviews. Globally, people are discarding growing quantities of waste, and its All rights reserved composition is more complex than ever before, as plastic and electronic 1543-5938/12/1121-0277$20.00 consumer products diffuse. Concurrently, the world is urbanizing at an unprecedented rate. These trends pose a challenge to cities, which are charged with managing waste in a socially and environmentally acceptable manner. Effective waste management strategies depend Access provided by CAPES on 05/02/17. For personal use only. on local waste characteristics, which vary with cultural, climatic, and socioeconomic variables, and institutional capacity. Globally, waste governance is becoming regionalized and formalized. In industrialized Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2012.37:277-309. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org nations, where citizens produce far more waste than do other citizens, waste tends to be managed formally at a municipal or regional scale. In less-industrialized nations, where citizens produce less waste, which is mostly biogenic, a combination of formal and informal actors manages waste. Many waste management policies, technologies, and behaviors provide a variety of environmental benefits, including climate change mitigation. Key waste management challenges include integrating the informal waste sector in developing cities, reducing consumption in industrialized cities, increasing and standardizing the collection and analysis of solid waste data, and effectively managing increasingly complex waste while protecting people and the environment. 277 EG37CH11-Vergara ARI 6 October 2012 17:5 Contents 4.2. Governmental Policies . 295 1.INTRODUCTION........... 279 4.3. Metrics for Assessing Solid 1.1. What Is Municipal Waste Management Solid Waste? . 279 Technologies and Policies . 296 1.2. The Changing Nature 4.4. Life-Cycle Assessment of ofWaste................... 279 Waste Management 1.3. Solid Waste Management Options.................... 296 Challenges................. 279 5. SOLID WASTE AND ITS 1.4. Managing Waste in a IMPACT ON THE Sustainable Manner . 280 ENVIRONMENT. 297 2. SOLID WASTE: 5.1. Emission of Pollutants QUANTITIES, from Solid Waste. 297 COMPOSITION, AND 5.2. Waste Management VARIABILITY............... 280 and Climate Change. 297 2.1. Waste Quantities 5.3. Waste Management andComposition........... 281 and Public Health . 298 2.2. Variability of Waste 5.4. Waste Management Production and and Ecological Health . 299 Composition . 283 5.5. Electronics Recycling: 2.3. Uncertainty in Solid Material Recovery versus WasteData................ 285 Public Health in China . 299 2.4. Variability in Waste 6. RECENT TRENDS: Management Strategies TOWARD BUILDING and Technologies . 285 MORE PERFECT WASTE 3. EVOLUTION OF SOLID MANAGEMENT WASTE MANAGEMENT . 285 SYSTEMS.................... 300 3.1. Drivers in Waste 6.1. New Conceptual Management Approaches: Industrial Development . 286 Ecology. 300 3.2. Historical Development of 6.2. Recognizing the Waste Management Systems Importance of Producers Access provided by CAPES on 05/02/17. For personal use only. in the United States . 287 and Consumers in Waste 3.3. Evolution of the Informal Management . 301 Sector as a Waste Service 6.3. Waste as Not Just a Provider................... 288 Technical Problem . 302 Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2012.37:277-309. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org 4. CURRENT STATUS 6.4. The Need for Local OF SOLID WASTE Solutions . 302 MANAGEMENT: 6.5. Modernizing Waste TECHNOLOGIES Systems in ANDPOLICIES............. 291 Less-Industrialized 4.1. Waste Management Countries.................. 303 Technologies . 291 7.THEFUTURE............... 303 278 Vergara · Tchobanoglous EG37CH11-Vergara ARI 6 October 2012 17:5 1. INTRODUCTION a wrong place, like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard” (6, p. 1050). How waste is treated The production of solid waste is an inevitable reflects its definition; refuse workers in hauling consequence of human activity, and its manage- Municipal solid waste to a landfill treat it as valueless, and waste ment directly impacts the health of the people waste (MSW): all pickers who recover materials from refuse treat and environment surrounding it. Globally, peo- solid or semi-solid it as ore (7). Despite the variety of meanings materials disposed by ple are discarding growing quantities of waste, given to waste, its presence and proliferation residents and and its composition is more complex than ever are undisputed. businesses, excluding before, as plastic and electronic consumer prod- hazardous wastes and ucts diffuse. These two trends pose a challenge wastewater to cities, which are charged with protecting 1.2. The Changing Nature of Waste their citizens from their waste. The goal of this Demographic changes are concentrating waste article is to provide a global overview of munic- in cities. Waste production tends to increase ipal solid waste (MSW) and the environment. with wealth, urbanization, and population (2, We begin by presenting differences in waste 8, 9). While the global population is rising, composition and quantities for different regions the distribution of the population is changing of the world and then discuss how waste man- more dramatically. The world is urbanizing agement systems have evolved to handle this at a rapid and unprecedented scale, and most waste, noting trends in waste governance, tech- of this urbanization is occurring in small- and nologies, and policies, in both industrialized medium-sized cities within low-income nations and industrializing settings. Finally, we explore (10). The same areas that are seeing the greatest how waste production and management impact urbanization trends are also home to a billion air and water quality and public health, as well new consumers—people from 20 developing as how they contribute to climate change. Be- and transition nations whose combined spend- cause waste management is a context-specific ing capacity is equal to that of all US consumers challenge, in addition to looking at broad global (11). This newly affluent population is dramat- trends and key differences between countries, ically increasing their consumption of meat, we examine more closely waste management cars (the cars owned in the developing world processes in a few places: waste history in the grew 89% from 1990 to 2000, with China’s United States, electronic waste recycling in fleet increasing 445% and Colombia’s 217%), China, and informal collection in Colombia. electricity, and other consumer goods (11). Two consequences result from this increased consumption: More natural resources are used Access provided by CAPES on 05/02/17. For personal use only. 1.1. What Is Municipal Solid Waste? (to produce those goods), and more waste is produced (when consumers discard them). Though widely understood as a concept, waste—garbage, rubbish, discards, junk— Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2012.37:277-309. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org eludes definition, varying by who defines it. En- 1.3. Solid Waste gineers define MSW as materials that are dis- Management Challenges carded from residential and commercial sources Postconsumer waste, through its production (1, 2) or as materials that have ceased to have and management, affects air quality, water value to the holder (3). Anthropologists hold quality, and public health, and it contributes that garbage is factual evidence of a culture, that to climate change (8). Improperly managed “what people have owned—and thrown away— waste can affect the environment at different can speak more eloquently, informatively, and scales. Open dumping of wastes contaminates truthfully about the lives they lead than they nearby water bodies with organic and inorganic themselves ever may” (4, p. 54). Ecologists pollutants. It also threatens public health by claim that there is no waste in nature (5), and in- attracting disease vectors and exposing people dustrial ecologists view waste as “a right thing in living near the waste to the harmful products www.annualreviews.org • Solid Waste and the Environment 279 EG37CH11-Vergara ARI 6 October 2012 17:5 within (3). Incineration of waste emits a variety digestion (15), to a liquid fuel via biochemical of pollutants, including dioxins and furans pathways (16), and to humus via composting (2, 12), persistent organic pollutants that (17); it can also be used directly as feed for GHGs: greenhouse gases mix globally and harm human and ecological animals or applied to agricultural fields. Any health. Waste management also emits a variety waste remaining, or that is not processed into Waste