A review of plastic waste circular actions in seven developing countries to achieve sustainable development goals.

Plastic waste circularity is a priority at a global level. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) set the ways to go, and the circular economy principles underlined the 'green' strategies to be employed. However, in practice, there is still much to do, especially in developing countries, where open burning and open dumping still represent the common way of plastic waste disposal. This review aims to analyse current plastic waste circular approaches in low-middle income settings. Seven countries were selected based on the economic level and data availability from the authors, and analysed to collect and critically discuss the actions implemented at a city level. Examples of waste minimization and recycling strategies, selective collection systems and public campaigns are reported from Africa, Asia and Latin America. First, a background analysis related to physical and governance aspects of municipal solid waste management systems of the chosen settings was conducted. The assessment was focused on the treatment processes or minimization actions. Then, the applicability of the projects to achieve the SDGs was commented on. The outcomes of the research underline the need to: (1) scale up small-scale and pilot projects, (2) disseminate good practices in more low- to middle-income settings, (3) create synergies among international partners for further replications in cities. Urgent solutions to plastic waste pollution are needed. The review presented practical actions to be implemented now to boost plastic waste circularity in developing cities.

Waste management evolution in the last five decades in developing countries - A review.

This review provides the history and current paradigms of waste management (WM) practices in developing nations during the last five decades. It explores the evolution of the challenges, complexities, and trends during this period. This paper, for the first time, presents an estimation of the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in developing nations in the last five decades based on the material flow analysis approach. Overall, the amount of MSW in developing countries has increased from about 0.64 billion Mt in 1970 to 2 billion Mt in 2019. This review demonstrates the importance of finding new WM approaches in developing nations in the context of formulating policies, strategies, and highlights the major trends that re-define WM in developing countries. It also aims to present the holistic changes in technology, economic and environmental feasibility aspects to attain an integrated sustainable WM system in developing countries. Specific focus on open-burning, open-dumping, informal recycling, food waste, plastic pollution, and waste collection with reference to Sustainable Development Goals are explained. Drivers for the way forward including circular economy are investigated.

Re-assessing global municipal solid waste generation.

This study contributes to estimate the total waste generated at global level. A few studies have provided an efficient and comprehensive global estimate. However, data reporting is globally inconsistent due to varying interpretation of terminology, lacking standardised categories and varying methodologies used to observe and measure waste amounts. This study employs regression analysis and material flow analysis approaches to ensure a cross-comparability of waste generation data. The result implies that total global waste arisings are around 20 billion tonnes in 2017. This corresponds to 2.63 tonnes of total waste per capita (cap) per year. The total global waste generated is expected to grow to 46 billion tonnes by 2050 under a business-as-usual scenario. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a much smaller amount, ranging from 2.3 to 3.1 billion tonnes (average of 2.7 billion tonnes) in 2019. This figure reflects an increase of between 30% and 50% in MSW generated during the last 15 years (2004-2019). MSW generated is expected to grow to 2.89-4.54 billion tonnes by 2050, depending on which assumptions are used. This represents a 26%-45% increase compared to 2019. The overall assessment in this study reveals that almost one-third of the total MSW generated is not collected, and most of what is collected is not treated accordingly to current ideas of sound management. Moreover, almost 42% of MSW goes to open dumping or uncontrolled burning. The finding provides valuable insight for policymakers to design and assess circular economy policy instruments towards achieving sustainable development goals.

Intrinsic sustainability assessment at technosphere level by adapting entropy based ecologic indicators. A preliminary analysis for some main waste treatment processes.

The present study was developed on the following evidence: "what is considered to be environmentally sustainable in the technosphere has to be in compliance with the development tendency of the ecosphere". Starting from this hypothesis, two entropy-based indicators were proposed: the specific entropy per amount of exergy gained (SEEG); the specific entropy per amount of exergy exploitable in the technosphere (SEEE). These were retrieved from the specific entropy (SE) indicator largely exploited for assessing the health status and the development tendency of ecosystems. Entropy based indicators SEEG and SEEE were used for assessing the environmental sustainability of incineration, anaerobic digestion and composting of waste. The aim of these indicators was to support already available methodologies for environmental impact assessment for better understating the intrinsic sustainability of specific processes, since the only quantification of the emission appears not enough informative for this goal. Concerning the ecosphere, SE minimization follows the Darwinian principle "survival of the fittest", being the fittest ecosystems those able to make the most efficient and effective use and storage of energy and materials, at the lower relative entropy generation. Consequently, the lower are SEEG and SEEE the fittest is the analysed system (i.e. sustainable). Main findings indicate SEEG ranging from 2.471 to 3.705, for incinerator, from 0.007 to 0.106 for anaerobic digestion whereas resulted constant = 0.266 for composting. The SEEE ranged from 0.433 to 0.484 for incinerator, from <0.001 to 0.008 for anaerobic digestion and resulted constant = 0.014 for composting. These preliminary results indicates that processes and system able to return chemicals and materials exploitable at technosphere level were characterized by higher ability in returning exergy flows at the lower entropy increase compared to hose returning only energy.

Environmental and energy performances of the Italian municipal solid waste incineration system in a life cycle perspective.

The environmental and energy performances of the Italian municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) system was investigated by a life cycle assessment approach. On average the 39 MSWIs operating in Italy in 2018 treated about 6,000,000 Mg of residual municipal solid waste (RMSW) recovering on average from 448 kWh Mg-1 RMSW to 762 kWh Mg-1 RMSW of electricity and from 732 kWh Mg-1 RMSW to 1102 kWh Mg-1 RMSW of heat. The average quantity of CO2eq Mg-1 RMSW emitted ranged from about 800 up to about 1000 depending on the size and on the energy recovery scheme of the facility. Avoided impacts (i.e., negative values) were detected for the kg PM2,5eq Mg-1 RMSW and for human health (disability-adjusted life year Mg-1 RMSW). The determination of the hybrid primary energy index (MJ Mg-1 RMSW) indicated that mainly large size facilities and those operating according to a power and heat energy recovery scheme are effectively able to replace other primary energies by the exploitation of the lower heating values of the RMSW.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on medical waste management in Lebanon.

Worldwide, there is a growing concern about the negative effects of infectious medical waste produced during the COVID-19 pandemic and the contamination risks associated with waste management. Therefore, measures to ensure that medical waste is managed safely and in an environmentally sound manner will avoid negative health and environmental effects from such waste, thus protecting the health of patients, health workers and the public in general. Despite that infectious medical waste generation rate is important for management planning and policy development, there is a limitation on national data availability and its accuracy, particularly in developing economies. This study analyses the infectious healthcare waste generation rates and management patterns in Lebanon before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimated average of COVID-19-related infectious healthcare waste generation in this study is 39,035 kg per month or 1.3 tonnes per day, which constitute between 5% and 20% of total infectious healthcare waste in Lebanon. This study illuminates on the impact of COVID-19 on the existing challenges of waste management in Lebanon. It highlights the need for proper management and disposal of the amounts of medical waste generated to reduce contamination risks or related environmental threats, particularly during the pandemic. It also shows that Lebanon has a defective system for monitoring of waste from healthcare institutions and gaps in waste statistics. Finally, the study summarizes recommendations related to medical waste management, which can provide valuable insight for policymakers.

Global municipal solid waste infrastructure: Delivery and forecast of uncontrolled disposal.

Proper management and treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) plays a central role towards the reduction or elimination of uncontrolled disposal and the achievement of United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the reduction of its vast adverse environmental and health impacts. Despite that, till now, there has never been a quantitative analysis of the progress in waste management infrastructure delivery worldwide. In this paper, we provide valuable insights regarding the progress in new MSW infrastructure delivery based on a dataset of 1764 projects from 156 countries, for the period 2014-2019. We also estimate the magnitude of uncontrolled waste disposal practices worldwide by estimating the gap between the current MSW infrastructure delivery and actual changes in MSW generation. Our results show that the new capacity delivered during the six years period amounted to 243 million metric tonnes (Mt) (40 million Mt per year), out of which 45% was delivered in high-income countries, 37.5% in the People's Republic of China and 17.5% in the rest of the world, mainly through thermal treatment (~57%) and landfilling (8%). The average allocated per capita budget of these projects during this period is about US$14, equivalent to US$2.33 (cap*year)-1. Our main conclusion is that the share of uncontrolled disposal will continue to rise at least until 2028, reaching almost 730 million Mt per year. Evidently, the global community continues to face a serious challenge towards the implementation of the UN SDG 12, target 12.4 by 2020. The analysis demonstrates that infrastructure delivery must increase by four folds to eliminate uncontrolled disposal practices.

Optimizing emissions and carbon credit from integrated solid waste and wastewater management: A MATLAB-based model with a Graphical User Interface (v1).

A new Solid Waste and Wastewater (SWW) management software is presented for optimizing the life-cycle of emissions with carbon credit cost considerations. The software is the first to combine integrated solid waste and wastewater management systems under a single framework when introducing a food waste disposer (FWD) policy. The model/software offers a platform encompassing several tools for life cycle emissions accounting, optimization, as well as economic, policy, and sensitivity analysis. It provides the flexibility of selecting processes or modifying input parameters, as well as disaggregating emissions depending on the scope of accounting. The graphical user interface is applicable in the context of developed and developing economies with the ultimate objective to assist decision makers to allocate expenditures for emissions mitigation measures.

A novel software for optimizing emissions and carbon credit from solid waste and wastewater management.

A novel model/software that assesses emissions from integrated solid waste and wastewater, SWW, management systems is presented. The main objective of SWW is to optimize emissions and carbon credit of complex systems. Besides its general applicability, the software covers the lack of available tools applicable in the context of developing economies. It uses carbon credit as a measure of environmental valuation and provides a user-friendly platform supported with several tools for technical, economic, and policy analysis as well as optimization towards minimal total emissions or costs. Finally, it encompasses a sensitivity analysis with a built-in Monte Carlo simulation to check on the variability in emissions by varying key parameters. The model/software interface was tested in the context of developed and developing economies. The results showed that best practices through material recycling, biological treatment, food waste diverted and/or energy recovery can lead to substantial savings in emissions reaching 96% (under a developing economy) and 93% (under a developed economy), with cost savings (including carbon credit) reaching 26% (under a developing economy) and 4% (under a developed economy), depending on the system. In closure, the results demonstrated the model applicability as a credible decision-making tool to define economically viable management alternatives with minimal environmental externalities and optimal carbon credit.

Economic and environmental consequences of implementing an EU model for collecting and separating wastes system in Lebanon.

In this study, we examine the economic and environmental significance associated with the implementation of an EU waste-separated collection scheme in a developing context - Lebanon. Two scenarios, S1 and S2, representing different intensities of source segregation were analysed. In S1, the average source segregation intensity reached 25% and 13% for the Italian test area and Lebanese test area, respectively. In S2, source segregation intensity increased to 48% and 68% for the Italian and Lebanese test areas, respectively. Passing from S1 to S2 increased collection costs significantly, up to 44% with greater increases in the Italian test area where labour cost is higher. In both areas, environmental impacts decreased with greater source segregation intensity. Savings in the climate change impact and stratospheric ozone depletion potential were lower under the Lebanese test area in comparison with the Italian test area. In contrast, savings in freshwater eutrophication and acidification impact were lower for the Italian test area. The increase in the source segregation intensity resulted in maximum savings for the depletion of abiotic resources, 74% to 77% and 79% to 80% in a developing and developed context, respectively.

Life cycle assessment for solid waste management in Lebanon: Economic implications of carbon credit.

Solid waste management has witnessed much progress in recent years with considerable efforts targeting the reduction of associated impacts and carbon emissions. Such efforts remain relatively limited in developing economies due to inefficient management practices. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is adopted to identify integrated systems with minimal impacts and reduced emissions in a developing context coupled with an economic valuation and sensitivity analysis to assess the effect of varying influencing parameters individually. The results showed that the highest impact arises from landfilling with minimal material recovery for recycling and composting, while incineration coupled with energy recovery contributed to the least equivalent emissions (-111% with respect to baseline scenario) at a varying cost of -70% to +93% depending on the selected technology and the value of carbon credit. Optimizing material recycling, composting and landfilling with energy recovery contributed to 98% savings in emissions (with respect to baseline scenario) and remained economically attractive irrespective of the carbon credit exchange rate of 0.5-50 US$/MTCO2E. The sensitivity analysis showed that an improvement in landfill gas collection efficiency (up to 60%) can contribute to major savings in emissions (58%). The application of the LCA-based approach supports the development of integrated viable plans while quantifying advantages and disadvantages towards decision-making and policy-planning.

Aggregated and disaggregated data about default emission factors in emissions accounting methods from the waste sector.

The dataset presented in this article is related to the research article entitled "Towards improving emissions accounting methods in waste management: A proposed framework" (Maalouf and El-Fadel, 2019) [1] that examines the variability in aggregated and disaggregated emissions from waste management when using commonly adopted international methods (the UN IPCC 2006 Guidelines, the US EPA WARM, the EU EpE protocols, the Canadian IWM, and the UK IWM-2). The dataset presents the aggregated and disaggregated emission factors (EFs) used in existing accounting methods to estimate emissions from the waste sector. The EFs were retrieved from accounting methods to clarify their contribution to variability in estimating emissions across methods. The data contains three parts: aggregated EFs per tonne of waste category for individual waste management processes; disaggregated EFs per management process for a tonne of waste type; and emission flow diagrams of waste management systems for tested methods.

Effect of a food waste disposer policy on solid waste and wastewater management with economic implications of environmental externalities.

In this study, the carbon footprint of introducing a food waste disposer (FWD) policy was examined in the context of its implications on solid waste and wastewater management with economic assessment of environmental externalities emphasizing potential carbon credit and increased sludge generation. For this purpose, a model adopting a life cycle inventory approach was developed to integrate solid waste and wastewater management processes under a single framework and test scenarios for a waste with high organic food content typical of developing economies. For such a waste composition, the results show that a FWD policy can reduce emissions by nearly ∼42% depending on market penetration, fraction of food waste ground, as well as solid waste and wastewater management schemes, including potential energy recovery. In comparison to baseline, equivalent economic gains can reach ∼28% when environmental externalities including sludge management and emissions variations are considered. The sensitivity analyses on processes with a wide range in costs showed an equivalent economic impact thus emphasizing the viability of a FWD policy although the variation in the cost of sludge management exhibited a significant impact on savings.