ISWA warns of global waste crisis | Source: Resource, Feb 24 2016 |
The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) is calling on governments and organisations to broaden their understanding of the global waste crisis following a recent focus on the issue of marine plastics. 
The issue of marine plastic pollution has received significant attention recently, with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Report, ‘The New Plastics Economy’ estimating that there will be more plastics than fish (by weight) in the world’s oceans by 2050, and the documentary A Plastic Ocean investigating the global effects of plastics disposal.
However, ISWA emphasises that marine plastic is just one type of waste seeping into the land, sea and air, often from unregulated sites. With the growth in population far greater than the implementation of waste management systems to service them, the association, an international network of waste management associations, warns that the problem is likely to deteriorate unless coordinated action is taken on a global level.
In a statement released last week (19 February), ISWA expressed its wish to remind governments and organisations that the waste generated by nearly three billion people is not collected into a formal waste management process. Approximately 40 per cent of the world’s total waste is dumped in unregulated ‘open sites’ such as the banks of rivers or stretches of coastline.
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Filed under: Progress on Sanitation, Uncategorized Tagged: plastics, solid wastes 
