Urban Environmental Problems: Waste

This position paper synthesizes the main aspects of assigned papers dealing with waste management and argues that this topic requires a broad institutional and psychosocial approach to be successfully addressed. Waste management technically relates to employment, public health, and manufacturing costs. This relation is greatly exacerbated in developing countries. Wilson’s papers highlight that informal recycling industries are at risk by the privatization of public waste management companies. Cairo’s waste management system, studied by Fahmi, illustrates this conflict between informal and formal industries. In this context, Kallman claims that innovative techniques, technology and policies taking place especially in developed countries streamline waste management and turn it into a sustainable economic chain. As Herbert states, cities like Honolulu urgently needs to address its enormous garbage piles either through advanced technological practices or through controversial public policies. Kollikkathara argues that the solution to waste management depends on the combination of regulatory, scientific, and economic efforts. Along these lines, the Economist defends that private companies would help in this transition to resource management by adding profitable state-of-the-art technology to the waste management industry. Psychological and institutional approaches contribute to the debate on the next steps of waste management systems. From a psychosocial standpoint, the following critique assumes that someone involved in the manual labor within the waste industry continues to do so only because of lack of professional options (Moreno-Sánchez, 2010). Therefore, the argument that technology jeopardizes jobs within the waste industry is objected by the fact that trash pickers would rather -- in very general terms -- look for positions enjoying better social status than picking recycling items in landfills or on the streets. I have had the opportunity to visit few landfills in developing countries and have also talked to people who make a living under extremely unhealthy conditions. Not surprisingly, I have never come across someone claiming against the mechanization of waste management as an autocratic process that unscrupulously steals jobs. What I have frequently heard from garbage pickers -- or the ones running behind trucks -- is that, within their communities, there is a lack of educational opportunities for formal instruction and a limited number of socially recognized positions and formal jobs in the local economy, including the waste management industry itself (Kungskulniti, 1991). In the internationally-awarded movie “Waste Land” one of the pickers precisely summarizes what is a life of sorting out filthy garbage: “This is no future” (Walker, 2010). As for institutional mechanisms regarding waste management, the discussion should not be restricted to regional debates over landfill locations and other technical aspects on how to get growing trash piles out of one’s sight. Also, recycling and closed-loop systems are definitely positive efforts towards minimizing the negative impacts of waste; however, they do not address the issue thoroughly (Davila, 2005). Waste management is about unconscious consumerism and deregulated economic chains (Henn, 1993). Public authorities committed to reduce the impact of waste on public health and turn it into a market opportunity for taxpayers must seriously consider taxation and the enforcement of regulatory mechanisms to change institutional and, as a consequence, individual consumption habits (Pearce, 2003). The taxation principle is straightforward: the more you pollute, the more you pay or the less you pollute, the more incentives you are subjected to receive. The challenge presented by this waste management model lies mainly in amassing political will for the promotion of structural and cultural changes (Conrad, 1999). Developing and developed countries are in different economic stages in terms of waste management. Overall, developed areas have been discussing more passionately about sustainable practices whereas developing regions are still trying to catch up with the material comfort enjoyed in rich regions (Cohen, 2005). Even though these two general groups present diametrical concerns, it is possible to find common ground on long-term practices towards waste management. Elementary education is the realm where rich and poor societies tend to agree (Palmer, 1995). By educating the next generation on sustainable practices, educators are not only shaping the behavior of future consumers but also instilling sustainable values and making well-founded changes within family units since children’s welfare is a crucial decision factor for parents’ rational decisions (Ballantyne, 2010). While rich schools have systematically added sustainability in their curriculum, schools featuring less resource have encouraged their students to engage in the local community efforts that reduce waste and create wealth (Uzzell, 2006). Therefore, there is no clear dichotomy between waste management and technology neither in developing nor in rich countries. The argument of this position paper is that, in addition to technical solutions to waste management issues, this relation will only be effectively addressed if considered from a broad perspective in which employment, public health, and manufacturing tangible and intangible costs are analyzed through the lenses of personal wills, regulatory systems, and educational policies. References Ballantyne, R. “School Environmental Education Programme Impacts upon Students and Family Learning: a case study analysis”, Environmental Education Research, v. 7, i. 1, pp. 23-37, 2010. Cohen, B. “Urbanization in developing countries: current trends, future projections, and key challenges for sustainability”, Technology in Society, v. 28, i. 1-2, pp. 63-80, 2006. Conrad, K. “Resource and waste taxation in the theory of the firm with recycling activities”, Environmental and Resources Economics, v. 14, n. pp. 217-242, 1999. 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Moreno-Sánchez, R.; Maldonado, J. “Surviving from garbage: the role of informal waste-pickers in a dynamic model of solid waste management in developing countries”, Environment and Development Economics, 11, 371-391, 2010. Palmer, J. “Environmental thinking in the early years: understanding and misunderstanding of concepts related to waste management”, Environmental Education Research, v. 1, i. 1, pp. 35-45, 1995. Pearce, D.; Turner, R. “Market-based approaches to solid waste management”, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, v. 8, i. 1-2, pp. 63-90, 1993. The Economist. “Turning garbage into gas”, Feb 3rd, 2011. Uzzell, D. “Education for environmental action in the community: new roles and relationships”, Cambridge Journal of Education, v. 29, i. 3, pp. 397-413, 1999. Walker, L. “Waste Land”, Almega Projects & O2 Filmes Production, 2010. Wilson, D. “Development Drivers for Waster Management”, Waste Management, vol. 25, pp. 198-207, London, 2007. Wilson, D. et al. “Role of Informal Sector Recycling in Waste Management in Developing Countries”, Habitat International, vol. 30, pp. 797-808, London, 2006.