Saturday, September 22, 2018

Capitalist Waste

Global waste could grow by 70 percent by 2050 as urbanisation and populations rise, said the World Bank with South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa set to generate the biggest increase in rubbish. The rise in rubbish will outstrip population growth, reaching 3.4 billion tons by 2050 from around 2 billion tons in 2016, according to the report.

"Unfortunately, it is often the poorest in society who are adversely impacted by inadequate waste management," Laura Tuck, World Bank sustainable development vice president, said in a statement. "It doesn't have to be this way. Our resources need to be used and then reused continuously so that they don't end up in landfills."

High-income countries produce a third of the world's waste, despite having only 16 percent of world's population, while a quarter comes from East Asia and the Pacific regions, it said. While more than a third of waste globally ends up in landfill, over 90 percent is dumped openly in lower-income countries that often lack adequate disposal and treatment facilities, said the report.

Plastics, which can contaminate waterways and ecosystems for thousands of years, comprise 12 percent of all waste, the World Bank said.

http://news.trust.org/item/20180921024655-y0xbr/

No comments: