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What are the problems? Compared to developed nations, residents in developing countries, especially the urban poor, are more harshly impacted by unsustainable waste management. In low-income countries, over 90% of solid waste is disposed in unregulated dumps or openly burned. Lack of safe toilets, collection, treatment and reuse of faecal sludge often results in private faecal sludge collectors disposing faecal sludge into the open environment. All at an extraordinary cost to public and environmental health. How does WASTE help solve these problems? We want to enable stakeholders in waste management in low and middle-income countries to improve their own livelihood and quality of life by transitioning towards an integrated sustainable waste management. At WASTE, we are only satisfied when a local waste management is sustainable and can scale up on its own. UPDATE: NEWS WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE • We believe in a market-based approach. Markets for sanitation and solid waste management services and products first need to be developed to ensure sustainability of waste management system. Through marketing, we focus on creating and establishing demand by customers for improved services and products in waste management. • We believe in entrepreneurship development and inclusive finance. Entrepreneurs in sanitation and solid waste management sectors are the source of innovation. We focus on supporting entrepreneurs to identify their product-market fit with their customers. We also believe every individual and business should have access to affordable financial products that meets their needs in sanitation and solid waste management. We work with financiers to develop financing instruments such as credits, guarantee funds to ensure access to finance for customers and businesses and scalability of products and services. • We are holistic. We address the entire chain in waste management, from containment, collection, transportation, processing/treatment and reuse and sales. Furthermore, we use the multi-stakeholder approach of the Diamond model by engaging the four key actors (customers, businesses, financiers, government) in waste management to reach scaling of results. FIELDS OF OUR WORK A sustainable sanitation system consisting of safe containment, collection, treatment and reuse of faecal sludge is critical to advance an overall urban system resilience and its transition towards green growth. We address the issues of open defecation and lack of faecal sludge management services. We see business opportunities for value creation from faecal sludge that would otherwise be lost. Instead it allows cost savings and cost recover in the sanitation sector. We continuously explore scalable options for resource recovery from sanitation as a value proposition to stimulate business thinking in the interface of sanitation, solid waste, agriculture and energy.
With rapid population expansion and economic development, solid waste generation continues to grow rapidly. This puts pressure on resource availability and society’s ability to process and safely dispose of this material. We address the problems of resources scarcity, uncontrolled landfills, illegal garbage dumping and ‘plastic soup’. We work towards a solid waste management system for efficient waste collection, transportation and systematic waste disposal. We identify business opportunities in solid waste management to create green jobs. We continuously explore innovative recycling options and financing mechanisms to build sustainable solid waste systems.
0 one toilet every 4 minutes
0 in toilet construction alone
0 by households investing in sanitation improvements
0 converted to compost
0 saved from the ocean and environment
We establish demand, supply, finance and governmental elements to build a local waste management system that can reach scale – in solid waste and sanitation.
Building sanitation and solid waste programmes that scalego to Approach
We develop innovative financing strategies & instruments for financing the scaling of sanitation and solid waste management initiatives. Read here to learn more about our Services.
Innovative financing in waste management
We see business opportunities for value creation from resources that would otherwise be lost. We continuously explore scalable options for resource recovery from waste. This way we stimulate business thinking in the interface of sanitation, solid waste, agriculture and energy.Business modelling in resource recovery from waste
We develop business and technical capacities of local entrepreneurs in waste management and incentivise them to offer cost-effective and good quality services and products. Business and enterprise development in waste managementgo to Services
Around the world, waste generation rates are rising. This includes organic, non-organic (such as plastic) and human waste. With rapid population growth and urbanisation, annual waste generation is expected to increase by 70% from 2016 levels to 3.40 billion tonnes in 2050.
We believe that a “bottom-up” approach is a key strategy for sustainability in waste management. It all starts from the ground. With our Diamond model we focus on building local waste management systems that can reach scale. We do this by connecting the four key elements and actors in local waste management system that are essential to reach scale.
Sanitation and faecal sludge management
Solid waste and recycling management
million toilets are constructed
million workdays created
million € generated locally in 5 years
tonnes of human waste
kilograms plastic waste
