Abstract
Environmental contamination due to solid waste mismanagement is a global issue. Open dumping and open burning are the main implemented waste treatment and final disposal systems, mainly visible in low-income countries. This paper reviews the main impacts due to waste mismanagement in developing countries, focusing on environmental contamination and social issues. The activity of the informal sector in developing cities was also reviewed, focusing on the main health risks due to waste scavenging. Results reported that the environmental impacts are pervasive worldwide: marine litter, air, soil and water contamination, and the direct interaction of waste pickers with hazardous waste are the most important issues. Many reviews were published in the scientific literature about specific waste streams, in order to quantify its effect on the environment. This narrative literature review assessed global issues due to different waste fractions showing how several sources of pollution are affecting the environment, population health, and sustainable development. The results and case studies presented can be of reference for scholars and stakeholders for quantifying the comprehensive impacts and for planning integrated solid waste collection and treatment systems, for improving sustainability at a global level.
Highlights
Solid waste (SW) mismanagement is a global issue in terms of environmental contamination, social inclusion, and economic sustainability [1,2], which requires integrated assessments and holistic approaches for its solution [3]
Uncontrolled disposal generates serious heavy metals pollution occurring in the water, soil, and plants [7], open burning is cause of CO, CO2, SO, NO, PM10 and other pollutant emissions that affect the atmosphere [8], waste picking within open dump sites pose to serious health risk people working on these areas [9], release of SW in water bodies improve the marine litter globally, enhancing environmental contamination [10]
Results show that the SW management (SWM) system should be considered in an integrated manner in order to cope with the reduction of the environmental footprint and to improve the targets of the SDSs
Summary
Solid waste (SW) mismanagement is a global issue in terms of environmental contamination, social inclusion, and economic sustainability [1,2], which requires integrated assessments and holistic approaches for its solution [3]. Differences should be highlighted between developing big cities and rural areas, where management issues are different, regarding the amount of waste generated and the SW management (SWM) facilities available [5]. Both suffer negative economic legislatives, political, technical and operational limitations [6]. SW mismanagement is cause of sever and various environmental and social impacts, which do not allow improvements in sustainable development
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