Waste Management & The Circular Economy In Asia

Almost 2.5 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste are generated by the Asian Nations and it is projected to increase two times by 2050 because of an increase in population, urban migration, and better living standards. It reflects a loss in valuable material resources and moreover, 50 percent of the municipal solid waste is organic and could be well utilized in biological treatments for the production of compost or biogas. Circular economy which is an industrial system helping in restoration or regenerative through intentive and design replaces the end-of-life concept with restoration. Shifting towards the utility of renewable energy, circular economy eliminates the utilization of toxic chemicals, impairing reuse and return to the biosphere, and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems and business models.

The issues include -

1. From the 2012 baseline, there is an increased waste generation of about 2-3 percent annum.

2. There is a complex waste composition including 1-2 percent hazardous materials.

3. The problem-tackling mechanism is ineffective.

4. There is a lack of public participation.

5. There is a lack of proper policy frameworks in many countries.

Waste Disposal

A major number of developing nations in the world is still disposing of waste in landfill or dumpsites. At present, almost 10 percent of disposables sites qualify as sanitary landfills. As a consequence, it is serving to the pollution of the surface water, and soil, and global warming because of the methane emissions from anaerobic disposal. This is the cause of health issues for the informal sector where livelihood is often dependent substantially on waste picking as in the cases in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, and Cambodia. The landfill is still the major technique in Asia by both developed and developing nations. There are value-added options that are now present in the landfill managers because of the technological developments including landfill bioreactors for bio-gas harvesting, sites for solar energy trapping from closed landfills, and recreational parks establishment on top of former landfill sites. Bioreactor landfills are seen in Korea and Hong Kong, while solar energy harvesting is witnessed in Malaysia. In the country of Singapore, the Semakau island, which was utilized as an ash disposal facility, has been redeveloped into a tourist destination, and landfilling sites converted to parks are witnessed in Japan and China.

Waste Management

Waste management is affected by institutional capacity and the education level of human resources. The lack of sectoral regulations moreover reduces the efficient waste recycling in many countries and nevertheless, the requisites for separation at the source of waste generation is crucial in order to be able to retrieve the recyclables from the waste stream. There are technologies that could be of relevance to the Asian waste challenge which include biological treatment (composting and anaerobic digestion) and biogasification. For example, at the Air Hitam landfill site in Malaysia, a 2MW electricity generation facility has been installed with the help of landfill gas. Incinerators or pyrolysis are the further viable options for some the countries for generation of energy. Waste-to-energy conversion is the present strategy in several Asian countries, which include Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore.

In a plethora of cases, the application of the 3R approach – Reduce, Recycle and Reuse is a top-notch priority for reducing the waste that needs to be treated or disposed of. There is a great debate over the factors, issues, and figures for consideration when formulating solid waste management policies or strategies for different locations. It is a common practice for adopting existing policies from different countries and integrate them into an overarching national policy. It is in the opinion that this might not be a sustainable practice, especially considering solid waste management, due to many unique, local drivers determining a policy’s success such as waste composition, local awareness, cultural paradigms, economic strengths, enforcement capability, and the capacity for local research and technology advancement.

Factors Affecting Waste Management

Human, economic, institutional, and environmental local drivers should be taken into consideration when devising strategies from the bottom-up. Each identified driver or barrier must be interpreted from a local perspective, with local customs and data. These drivers/barriers should become the basis for evidence-based policymaking, which should be the ultimate goal of waste management planners. The Republic of Korea introduced a volume-based fee system in the country’s waste management in 1995 and the execution is poised at promoting the waste reduction in order for reducing the fees charged for waste generators. The system successfully managed for reducing generated daily solid waste per capita by 22 percent in 2003 as compared to 1994.

Financial Barrier

Financial barrier is a major challenge inhibiting the efficient implementation of integrated waste management in developing Asian countries. In developing countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the Philippines, waste reduction strategies are not attaining much success in economically developed countries like Japan Singapore, and Korea. Unlike Singapore and Korea, the lack of a suitable institutional framework has made waste management an unstable sector for investment in many Asian countries, in particular those with developing economies. Banks have a reluctance towards approving the majority of waste management-related projects because of insecure economic perspectives and as a result, new waste-related developments, technologies, and creative projects cannot be implemented. In consequence, progress within the waste management sectors in developing Asian countries is not as rapid as those of developed nations.