A History of Global Waste Management

The history of solid-waste on a global level is one that cannot be summed up with much brevity. This is due to the diverse nature of the many nations of the world. There are vast differences caused by economic, social and regional differences, which ultimately effects the populations interaction with their environments. The major developments either positive or negative in terms of waste management have mainly been motivated by economic changes. Industrial development in nations is usually closely linked to an increase in solid waste. However, these industrial developments can also lead towards the development of new technologies which can better deal with waste management.

Two major changes in recent history which have had the largest effects on waste management haven taken place in the European Union and in the developing world. In April of 1999, the EU implemented what was called the Landfill Directive (Council Directive 1999/31/EC.) With the ambitious goals of decreasing the negative effects especially from landfills. It put into place a Landfill Tax as well as legislation for landfill violations. This has motivated the UK and other leading European nations to look towards alternate technologies. The other large trend which has begun to change global waste management is the rise of China and other third world nations. As developing countries continue to grow, waste is most often greatly increased, and the ways in which this waste is different on a case by case basis. The reason that China worries many environmentalists is due to their lack of restrictions on pollution and waste.

1) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31999L0031:EN:NOT

The Current Wasteful Ways

With all the hype and media attention around global warming and carbon emmisions, many are over looking the threat of landfills. As with carbon emmisions, the United States and China landfill more waste than any other nations. These landfills are fed by large industry, as well as personal waste disposal. Without clearly safer and more environmental alternatives, landfills are continued to be used, atleast partially in nations across the world. Throughout the world, tens of thousands of kilometers are said to be used for landfills. In some cases this land has now become so deeply contaminated that it will never be able to be used for agriculture or even safe inhabitance. What is unkown to many is that landfills still emit greenhouse gases, and in some estimates are the leading emmiter of methane, a greenhouse gas is infact landfills.

Currently the United States is sending over half of its municipal waste to landfills with China not far behind sending about 43% of its waste to landfills. These landfills continue to build up without much end in sight. The United Nations Environmental Protection Programme has commented that the problem of landfills in the developing world is quite dire, with solid waste disposal often not meeting the minimum standards for the developed world. It becomes a very tricky situation in dealing with the developing world who may not have the political or economic means or motivation to safely dispose of their solid waste.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/08/eco.about.landfills/index.html#cnnSTCText

The Big Picture

Unfortunatley, making a change for the better on a global scale will be much more difficult then fixing our own local or domestic land fill issues. In trying to create any type of "global standard" for the environment we must enter into the realm of foregin policy and international relations. As evidenced in the Kyoto Protocol, even a beneficial and widely accepted plan can be rather in significant when leading global-players refuse to take part. The technologies that would be used in place of landfills sometimes require infrastructure, such as incineration plants or biological treatments. It is very hard for any international institution to forcibly require developing nations such as Brazil, India and China to take up such means, when we most certainly did not during our period of industrialization. In my opinion the hope for change lies in the developed world to make the change.

The Kuznets curve of luxury goods has been cited by some economists, such as 2007 Rhodes Scholar Leng Lee to explain the possible outcome of the developing world's environmental footprint. The Kuznets curve explains that an inequality will increase over time until a certain income level is reached at which point, said inequality will decrease. Is the environment a luxury good, that we will begin to care for better once a certain income level is reached? Well this cannot be determined for sure, but it is quite clear that countries such as the USA, Canada, EU, Japan, South Korea and Australia have to be the leaders in the elimination of landfills. It is actions such as the EU's agreement amongst member countries to move away from landfills that we need to institute. We need to lead the way as an economic super power in terms of beginning to eliminate our landfills in ways such as those listed bellow. In doing so we can set an example for the developing world, rather than pointing our fingers in blame at them.

Individual Action on a Global Scale

One of the greatest curses to the youth of the world is that of apathy. A sense that we are too insignificant to make a difference in the world often leads to non-action. The quality of our environment is something that every individual effects, and is also something that every global citizen should care about. The environment is a commons, that we all must share, and we will need the combined actions of all global citizens to combat the landfill issue.

The first and quite possibly most important step that can be taken is one of education and information. It is important to research the situations in other countries, all the while keeping an open mind and seeking the truth. It is also important to keep in mind that the legal and social differences between the United States and other Nations could lead to various opinions or methods of waste disposal. We should not keep the information which we gain to ourselves, but rather we should inform others. With the free flow of information created by the internet and other media, there is no reason that you cannot seek to inform someone in China or India about the problem of landfills and solid waste.

A simple practice of consumer sovereignty can go a long ways. Purchasing products made from recycled goods, even if at a slightly higher cost is a move towards the solution. In purchasing these goods, we are telling the producers that we want more sustainable products such as this. In the new global market, we may begin to see the competitive asian exporters producing sustainable goods.