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Urban Waste Recycling in Developing Countries Should be Improved


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1 Independent Researcher, Sevastopol, Crimean (Tavrida) Peninsula, Russian Federation
 

Currently, the major ecological concern in developing countries (e.g. Mexico, India, China) is the poor control of urban waste (highlighted by epidemics of rubbish dumps). This is leading to unsustainable use/depleting of the Earth’s limited natural resources and the global pollution of life-supporting hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere and biosphere (particularly by phosphorus and nitrogen from food waste and hazardous chemicals from electronic and plastic waste) due to water/air streams and interrelated biogeochemical cycles. At present, the major part of all urban solid waste (USW) in developing countries goes to landfills, incineration and illegal dumps that is unsustainable and risky for both human health1,2 and the global natural environment (e.g. climate change through methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions3). Only a small part of USW in developing countries is recycled.
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  • Grizzetti, B. et al., Environ. Sci. Policy, 2013, 33, 186–195.
  • WHO, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.
  • IPCC, International Panel for Climate Change. Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.
  • Turner, D. A. et al., Resour. Conserv. Recycling, 2015, 105, 186–197.
  • OECD, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, France, 2017.

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  • Urban Waste Recycling in Developing Countries Should be Improved

Abstract Views: 402  |  PDF Views: 106

Authors

Alexander Gorobets
Independent Researcher, Sevastopol, Crimean (Tavrida) Peninsula, Russian Federation

Abstract


Currently, the major ecological concern in developing countries (e.g. Mexico, India, China) is the poor control of urban waste (highlighted by epidemics of rubbish dumps). This is leading to unsustainable use/depleting of the Earth’s limited natural resources and the global pollution of life-supporting hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere and biosphere (particularly by phosphorus and nitrogen from food waste and hazardous chemicals from electronic and plastic waste) due to water/air streams and interrelated biogeochemical cycles. At present, the major part of all urban solid waste (USW) in developing countries goes to landfills, incineration and illegal dumps that is unsustainable and risky for both human health1,2 and the global natural environment (e.g. climate change through methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions3). Only a small part of USW in developing countries is recycled.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv117%2Fi2%2F173-174