benefits of a sustainable waste management system

• Waste is a challenge that affects human health, livelihoods, the environment, and prosperity.
• Over 90% of waste is dumped or burned in low-income countries, disproportionately affecting the poor and most vulnerable.
• Poorly managed waste leads to landslides, serious health repercussions, and harms animals, oceans, and economic development.
• Greenhouse gas emissions from waste are a key contributor to climate change.
• Waste generation is increasing rapidly, and countries are developing without adequate systems to manage it.
• The What a Waste 2.0 report projects that global waste generation will increase by 70% by 2050.
• Plastic waste is a severe problem and makes up 90% of marine debris.
• Only 13.5% of global waste is recycled, and 5.5% is composted.
• The fastest-growing regions for waste generation are Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where waste production is expected to double or triple by 2050. The Middle East and North Africa are also expected to double waste generation by 2050.
• Upper-middle and high-income countries provide nearly universal waste collection, and more than one-third of waste in high-income countries is recovered through recycling and composting.
• Financing a sustainable waste management system is a significant challenge, and the World Bank invests in countries, cities, and partners to create and finance effective solutions.
• The World Bank finances waste management projects in countries such as Azerbaijan, China, and Nepal.
• Solid waste-related emissions will likely increase to 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent by 2050 if substantial improvements are not made.
• Waste management investments help reduce flood risk, prevent clogging of drains, and minimize solid waste ending up in waterways.
• There are over 15 million informal waste pickers in the world, typically women, children, the elderly, the unemployed, or migrants, who work under unhealthy, insecure conditions and social stigma.
• The World Bank supports the construction of landfill sites and sustainable livelihood programs for waste pickers, among other projects.
• Understanding waste generation allows local governments to allocate budget and land realistically, assess relevant technologies, and consider strategic service provision partners.
• Solution includes providing financing to countries, supporting major waste producing countries to reduce consumption of plastics and marine litter through comprehensive waste reduction and recycling programs, and reducing food waste through consumer education, organics management, and coordinated food waste management programs.
• The full dataset and What a Waste 2.0 report can be downloaded through the provided links.

• The webpage is a discussion on sustainable clothing brands and recommendations.
• Patagonia is mentioned by multiple commenters as a good sustainable clothing brand.
  • Patagonia has a take-back program and sells used and refurbished clothing to reduce waste.
  • The founder started the 1% for the Planet corporate program.
  • Clothes made of organic cotton, recycled materials, and with fair trade labor.
  • Clothes are high quality and durable.
  • Patagonia’s clothes are rarely given away or sold used, because people hold on to the items.
  • Patagonia clothes come with free repairs for the lifetime of the garment.
    • Sending clothes back for free repairs is better for the planet, as it keeps items out of landfills.
  • Patagonia is also available on sale, particularly online or on eBay.
• Tentree is recommended for super comfy, durable clothing.
• United By Blue is also recommended for their focus on sustainability and high-quality clothing.
• Prana is recommended as a sustainable, eco-friendly brand.
• Pact is another sustainable clothing brand recommended by some commenters.
  • Pact offers a range of clothing, including t-shirts, tanks, undies, and baby clothes.
  • However, some commenters mention that the quality of Pact’s clothing has declined over time.
  • Some clothes come individually packaged in plastic, despite being a sustainable brand.
• Lucy & Yak is recommended for bold, comfy jumpsuits with patterns and bright colors.
• Good On You is recommended as a website to look up and discover sustainable clothing brands, which rates brands based on their sustainability practices.
  • The website rates brands from 1-5 in the categories of planet, people, and animals.
  • The site offers a comprehensive breakdown of how and why brands are rated the way they are.
  • The site shows prices of different brands, categorized by $, $$, $$$.
  • You can also search for new brands based on product categories.

• User on subreddit r/sustainability asked for recommendations for a masters program in sustainability (5 years ago).
• User u/LoungeBargains recommended Presidio Graduate School (PGS) as best in class (6 karma).
• User u/LoungeBargains suggested that people should consider a job before a masters program because having work experience is important in the field (6 karma).
• User u/morreystpoli talked about their MBA at PGS, which is a hybrid program with the curriculum focusing on business but with sustainability integrated into every class (3 karma).
• User u/WeTeachMe said that they went to Arizona State University and it had a great sustainability program (3 karma).
• User u/JustPatioStone said that the Erb Institute at the University of Michigan is a great program for “people who want to integrate sustainability and business” (2 karma).
• User u/Unintuableslaying mentioned the following programs:
  • “Johns Hopkins has an MS in Energy Policy and Climate”
  • “GWU has an MS in Sustainable Urban Planning”
  • “University of Maryland has an MS in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology”
  • “George Mason University has an MS in Environmental Science and Policy and an MS in Environmental Science and Public Policy”
• User u/resilientsoul1 is currently doing a masters at Columbia University in sustainability management (2 karma).
• User u/BecFeraloo mentioned two programs in Australia:
  • “The Master of Environment at the University of Melbourne; and
  • “The Master of Environment and Sustainability at Monash University”
• User u/w7husfdomusic mentioned studying at Massey University in New Zealand and said they enjoyed it (1 karma).
• User u/BrautomysRedGoose mentioned the following programs:
  • The MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures at Imperial College London
  • The MSc in Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh
  • The MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London
  • The MSc in Sustainability and Environmental Management at the University of Leeds.
• User u/ZakynthosAceHD recommended the Sustainability and Urban Ecology program at Lund University in Sweden.
• User u/DiveSqueekie suggested looking into the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the dual MBA/MEM program at Duke (1 karma).
• User u/GladiatorGalon mentioned the MS in Sustainability Science at Osaka University in Japan (1 karma).
• User u/j

Relevant: True Importance: 8 Notes:

• Michael Place, Chief eco-Technology Officer at Chapul Farms, talks about his experience in the past decade of raising millions of bugs and building a billion dollar pipeline of nature-based waste-to-ag infrastructure projects.
• The author explains that his company solves the problem of organic waste by designing custom, high efficiency insect farms that can be located next to waste streams where the insects transform waste into valuable, local animal feed, and high-value biofertilizer products.
• The insects can consume organic waste at industrial scales, creating naturally nutritious protein and fat for animals and producing better-than-synthetic fertilizer that heals soil and allows it to capture more carbon than all the trees in the world.
• The author claims that incorporating insects into food systems may be the most meaningful environmental and economic action the world can take and scale.
• The website highlights the potential for the insect industry to reach $5-10B in revenue by 2030, with some outliers projecting up to 10x that size by 2050.
• The website mentions the massive growth needed to feed the world’s growing population and the fact that 100s of millions of tons of organics are landfilled annually and billions in total.
• The website lists the things insects can do, which include consuming organic waste, locally producing animal feed and fertilizer, and biofiltering.
• The author explains how Chapul Farms was building a $1B pipeline by offering custom insect farms as solutions to the growing challenges faced by big food businesses with large volumes of organic waste, replacing landfills with insect farms, and helping existing ag businesses work toward true Zero Waste.
• The author states that the residual “frass” produced by insects is a remarkable biofertilizer at a time when the world is coming to grips with the fact that petrochemical fertilizers are completely dependent on finite natural gas supply, in addition to being an ecological and human health nightmare.
• The website explains how bugs eating waste and pooping out microbial-rich soil has been nature’s soil-building fertilizer factory for hundreds of millions of years and how the potential we can leverage from aligning with natural systems can have a big impact.
• The website mentions studies showing BSFL (Black Soldier Fly Larvae) can drastically reduce several antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, as well as reduce the impact of a Coronavirus that affects poultry.
• The website explains how BSFL can break down various mycotoxins and even a number of synthetic compounds, including multiple pesticides and

• The post is addressed to the community of r/sustainability.
• The post explores the idea of mining landfills for valuable resources.
• Some users explain that as humans develop and deploy techniques to recycle materials more fully, the materials in landfills will become more valuable and could be used as inputs.
• A user mentions that the concentration of refined metals in landfills is very high, and that a process needs to be developed to make extraction more efficient.
• Another user clarifies that methane is not mined from landfills, but that small wells are drilled to allow the gas to flow out.
• Some users express their wish for more rapid progress toward full sustainability, noting that the current system of waste management has us throwing away highly useful materials.
• Another user suggests that AI could be used to sort materials in landfills without human intervention.
• A few users mention that landfills are hazardous and toxic spaces to extract resources from and that careful precautions must be taken.
• One user who works in the recycling industry suggests that material recovery facilities (MRFs), which can currently only recover limited recyclables, such as cardboard, PET plastics (#1), and UBC, could be improved and developed to increase the types of materials that can be recovered.
• The same user posits that if recycling infrastructure reaches a point where a wider range of materials can be recovered, the amount of valuable materials in landfills would be drastically reduced, supporting the circular economy by reusing as much as possible.
• Another user shares a link to an article about landfill mining.
• Another user points out that mining landfills could release a lot of methane into the atmosphere.
• One user suggests that metals could be more cheaply mined from landfills in the future.
• Others suggest that companies should convert landfill gases into power, and that laws may need to be enacted to incentivize landfill mining over acquiring new resources.
• Some users express concerns that landfill mining could take a long time and a lot of money.

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The economic benefits of sustainable waste management system

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5 environmental benefits of implementing a sustainable waste management system