So you think your waste is being safely recycled at home right? Wrong!

So you think all your waste is being safely recycled at home right? Wrong!

Developing countries typically consume far fewer products and with less packaging than industrialized countries do, and yet waste is much more visible in those countries. This is partly due to inadequate waste management systems and policies, improper trash collection systems, and insufficient recycling facilities. The facilities that exist are also frequently overwhelmed due to their sheer population. Untreated waste ends up cluttering land and waterways, and rapid urbanization makes cities the worst affected. Premature deaths from fumes and toxins are high, and regulation to prevent these is poor. It is accepted that pollution is inextricable from economic growth. A misplaced notion of economic progress is traded for a massive public health and environmental concern.

Indeed, the many city dumps provide economic opportunities for the poor, mostly women, who scavenge through dangerous items for hours to find something of value that could be exchanged for money or food with traders who inevitably drive a hard bargain. Children drop out of school to help their families with this income generating opportunity. With few other economic opportunities, the poor remain poor and caught up in vicious cycles that barely sustain them.

What’s more, many industrialized countries have been exporting their plastic and textile waste to poor countries since the 1970s, seemingly ignorant of the fact that much of this waste is either contaminated or unsuitable for recycling or resale, ending up therefore as an additional environmental and economic burden in countries that receive these exports, with the majority of these countries’ inhabitants oblivious to where it originated but suffering from its health and wellbeing consequences, and yet looking for economic opportunities amidst it all, the latter often being put forward as a justification for perpetuating such injustices into the future. Yet another instance of what has been dubbed “waste imperialism”.

Litter is therefore inherently an environmental justice issue for three main reasons. Firstly, waste, especially plastics, is regularly dumped into countries that are not prepared to manage it. Secondly, when waste is managed ineffectively, it typically ends up in more vulnerable communities even within the boundaries of the most industrialized nations. Finally, on the one hand, corporations choose to keep profiting from single-use plastics and synthetics knowing that no number of recycling facilities can ever tackle the amount of waste the world’s population generates. On the other hand, people in direct contact with waste are regularly exposed to toxic fumes when plastic is burnt, forced to consume crops that have been poisoned by toxic wastewater, and compelled to make an uncertain living sifting through the likes of broken glass earning an inconsequential fraction of what the CEOs of such corporations make. 

The current coronavirus pandemic has further ushered in a new single-use plastic pollution crisis as masks and other PPE are being used and disposed of at unanticipated volumes. Waste management systems are already frail and clueless about the fate of this new toxic waste. Our oceans, coastal and marine life are already bearing the brunt of this. The full impact of sinking even deeper into the already precarious plastic waste problem is yet unknown. 

There is a key question that inhibits people from taking climate action – is there enough evidence yet that we must act? Granted, summers are warmer but not yet unbearably so in the West, and stories of occasional typhoons and droughts reach us from distant lands, their effect muted by the time and effort taken to cover the distance. Litter is undoubtably a more visible issue, a fact of life in any developing country and familiar to Western tourists who have visited some of the world’s most famous (and dirtiest) beaches, a few in their own countries making the list in recent years. It is thus less likely to be confusing as to why we must act now to stop it getting any worse.

Solutions exist, and as with tackling the pandemic, these must be enacted cooperatively between governments and corporations to have any impact. In a planet connected by one ocean and with strong ocean currents, waste generated anywhere could end up in remote islands thousands of miles away due to poor management and pollute and jeopardize nations that could in fact have the best policies surrounding their own plastic use and disposal. Industrialized nations must urgently invest heavily in their own recycling capabilities and introduce airtight bans on waste exports as in the EU where under a third of its plastic waste was recycled and 1.5 million tons exported in 2019.

Several governments have recently implemented single-use plastic bans, including plastic bag bans in Bangladesh since 2002, Kenya since 2017, and New Zealand since 2019, and a planned ban on single-use plastic straws, cutlery and other disposable items in the EU in 2021, a move that has been significantly delayed, most notably in the developed world, where plastic bag levies and gradual phase-out programs have been more popular. However, bans and levies are not enough. Restrictions on retail distribution must be paired with moving to a circular economy framework that regulates throughout the lifecycle of plastics restricting manufacturing, production, and imports.  

But how do we incline human behaviour towards reducing consumption where clear restrictions are not imposed? Fast fashion, with its artificially low prices and impressive variety, has for instance made it incredibly tempting for Western consumers to consume beyond their needs, whilst being next in line to the oil industry as the leading contributor to global pollution. Such exploitation must end. We need systems where products are priced at levels that compensate producers fairly and in turn provide the right price signals to consumers. We must scale up innovations that promote reuse and longevity without compromising convenience or quality and thereby provide myriad alternatives to single-use plastic and other harmful synthetic materials. We also need more accountability at all levels. We need cultural shifts in societies everywhere where one person’s waste is not considered another person’s problem. We need more people asking, “Where does my waste go?” and feel a sense of discomfort at the answer.     

• Researched and written by Sanghamitra C. Mukherjee, Climate Change Ambassador #TeamUKandIRE #ClimateGameChangers
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