Hazardous Waste Management: Are Sustainable Development Goals Enough to Address Future Requirements? A Critical Perspective

Globally, over 400 million tons of hazardous wastes are generated per year, and are global problems to health, environment and economy. Despite enforcement of legislations and guidelines by World Health Organization, United Nations Environment Programme and countries, sustainable management of hazardous wastes is yet to be achieved. The present perspective based on expert commentary aimed to analyse whether current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are enough to manage hazardous waste sustainably, and proposed a waste-to-SDG loop to achieve the same. Out of 17 SDGs, Goal 3 (good health and well-being), Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation), Goal 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and Goal 12 (responsible consumption and production) are relatively closer to waste management. So far, 18% progress on SDG achievement has been reported with 17% moderate progress and 48% marginal progress but 17% progress was even retrograde. Though some progress in SDG achievement has been documented in social protection, maternal and child mortality, women empowerment, still progress in hazardous waste management (HWM) is not properly recorded. HWM guidelines or policies focus more on technical aspects while giving less emphasis on other dimensions of sustainability i.e., environment and circular economy. In future, SDGs and legislations on HWM should go hand-in-hand, and considering SDG in a continuous loop with legislations, transboundary movement and other pertinent aspects would help achieve sustainable management of hazardous wastes.