Waste management should not just remain a conference topic

KUALA LUMPUR: Waste management is about the quality of life. It is about clean air, water and environment.

“Though you don't see what you dump, it will come and haunt you one of these days. If not you, it will taunt your children...” so said Antonis Mavropoulos, president of International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), at the ISWA World Congress that was held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, here, from Oct 22 to 25.

The congress was jointly organised by ISWA and the Waste Management Association of Malaysia. About 1,600 delegates from over 60 countries participated in the congress, where they exchanged ideas and opinions to advance scientific and technical knowledge for sustainable solid waste management.

Among the topics they touched on were sustainable solid waste management and human, health and climate change issues. The keynote lectures, plenary sessions, concurrent sessions and case studies kept the participants enthralled during the four-day congress.

The waste management challenge for Asia is set to be intense in the coming years as the population growth doubles. In India alone, 68 metro cities, 58 urban districts, 115 semi-urban districts and 96 rural districts will be emerging by 2035, contributing to 25 percent of the global population.

The propensity of waste growth will certainly bring remarkable changes to the waste management landscape, too. Globally, the consumption of natural resources will triple due to wasteful overconsumption.

The quality of life is moving upwards. More goods, more consumption, more plastics, more packaging; Asia must learn fast from the mistakes of the west and not repeat them.

Asia must first acknowledge her ground issues. Some of the critical issues which must be viewed seriously by every country in Asia are consumption, income level, urbanisation, migration to cities, carbon monoxide production, industrialisation, migration from agriculture to service sector, education level and poverty.