Global cities face surging costs for garbage treatment

Xinhua, June 7, 2012

The World Bank on Wednesday predicts a sharp rise in the amount of garbage generated by urban residents between now and 2025 in a report.

The report released on Wednesday estimates the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) will rise from the current 1.3 billion tonnes per year to 2.2 billion tonnes per year in 2025, with much of the increase coming in fast growing cities in developing countries.

The annual cost of solid waste management is projected to surge from 205 billion U.S. dollars to 375 billion dollars over the period, with cost increasing most rapidly in low income countries, noted the report entitled "What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management".

This report focuses on the issue that may become a "severe problem" in the future, Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development, said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.

The report reveals that the amount of MSW is growing fastest in China, other parts of East Asia, part of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Growth rates for MSW in these areas are similar to their rates for urbanization and increases in gross domestic product (GDP).

"Improving solid waste management, especially in the rapidly growing cities of low income countries, is becoming a more and more urgent issue," Kyte noted.

"What we're finding in these figures is not that surprising. What is surprising, however, is that when you add the figures up we're looking at a relatively silent problem that is growing daily. The challenges surrounding municipal solid waste are going to be enormous, on a scale of, if not greater than, the challenges we are currently experiencing with climate change," said Dan Hoornweg, Lead Urban Specialist in the Finance, Economics and Urban Development Department of the World Bank and lead author of the report.

The findings of the report are sobering, but they also offer hope that once the extent of this issue is recognized, local and national leaders, as well as the international community, will mobilize to put in place programs to reduce, reuse, recycle or recover as much waste as possible before burning it or otherwise disposing of it, Kyte stressed.