Reimagining urban waste management: Addressing social, climate, and resource challenges in modern cities

Governments worldwide are seeking better solutions for solid waste management. Thermal treatment projects are presented as quick fixes for rising waste challenges, without addressing the limitations of incineration. Currently, there is a rise in proposals for thermal treatment technologies in developing countries. Scrutiny of the risks and impacts of these alternatives is necessary due to social, climate, and resource considerations. Energy from waste incineration is considered fossil energy since about half of the CO 2 emissions come from fossil polymers in the waste. From a sustainability perspective, landfilling is a short-term option for materials currently unsuitable for recycling. Landfills act as bioreactors, producing valuable biogas, and serve as “resource banks,” storing unrecyclable resources until better recycling techniques are developed. In developing countries manual labor is abundant and material sorting and landfilling are more valuable and have a lower climate and resource footprint. This paper offers a novel, integrated perspective of waste management in view of poverty reduction, climate change and resource conservation. • Developing countries are seeing a rise in thermal waste treatment projects, such as waste-to-energy. • Incineration contributes significantly to CO2 emissions, primarily from fossil-based polymers. • Thermal treatment technologies require scrutiny due to their social, climate, and resource impacts. • Landfills serve as bioreactors for biogas production and ‘resource banks’ for currently unrecyclable materials. • Landfilling and manual sorting are more viable and environmentally friendly due to abundant labor in developing countries