Abstract
The rapidly rising generation of municipal solid waste jeopardizes the environment and contributes to climate heating. Based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, we here develop a global systematic approach for evaluating the potentials to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from the implementation of circular municipal waste management systems. We contrast two sets of global scenarios until 2050, namely baseline and mitigation scenarios, and show that mitigation strategies in the sustainability-oriented scenario yields earlier, and major, co-benefits compared to scenarios in which inequalities are reduced but that are focused solely on technical solutions. The sustainability-oriented scenario leaves 386 Tg CO2eq/yr of GHG (CH4 and CO2) to be released while air pollutants from open burning can be eliminated, indicating that this source of ambient air pollution can be entirely eradicated before 2050.
Highlights
The rapidly rising generation of municipal solid waste jeopardizes the environment and contributes to climate heating
Significant potentials exist to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs), and air pollution provided the implementation of circular municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems
The improvement of MSW systems can directly contribute to the achievement of other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 7, 9, 12, 14, and 15
Summary
The rapidly rising generation of municipal solid waste jeopardizes the environment and contributes to climate heating. High-income countries (World Bank income classification) generate more waste per capita per year than low-income countries: they are responsible for 34% of the amount of MSW generated each year, even though they account for just 16% of the global population[4]. High-income countries can deploy policies and instruments to cope with the rising MSW flows and they can potentially have cleaner and betterorganized waste management systems. The outsourcing of resourceintensive production and waste exports from high-income to lowincome countries exacerbates the environmental problems resulting from inadequate waste management systems[18]. Open burning, littering and poorly managed landfills are the main ways of waste disposal in low-income countries[4]. In addition to the negative impacts on the environment and climate, these unsustainable practices have well-documented adverse effects on human health[26,27,28]
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