The United Nations Habitat Organisation (UN-Habitat) recognises October as ‘Urban October,’ a month dedicated to discussing and addressing urban sustainability issues, including waste management.
Urban sustainability is a term that refers idea of restructuring urban spaces to have less of an impact on the environment and to be more self-reliant on circular resources and renewable energy.
Urban environments have the greatest impacts on nature. Up to 70% of the global carbon emissions come from urban activities. The world generates approximately 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) every year, which is expected to rise to 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050. Most of this waste generation originates from urban areas.
Addressing the waste management aspect of urban sustainability, UN-Habitat runs the ‘Waste Wise Cities’ campaign to address the increasing global waste management crisis. The campaign aims to change urban waste management by repositioning waste as a resource.
Every city around the globe has a major resource, organic waste. Organic waste also accounts for the highest volumes that contribute to total waste generation. Waste technology like BiobiN can efficiently convert organic waste into high-grade compost to mobilise organic waste as a resource. Our organic waste management model is based on the principle of resource circularity, which our world’s biggest cities need to achieve urban sustainability.
With a lot of talk about sustainable cities and urban environments, let’s talk about improving our waste management first.