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Top1. Introduction
Environmental sustainability is the core issue that will need to be addressed for development to focus on human well-being and yet stay within the limitations of the planet’s capacity. Environmentally sound waste management is one of the key elements for sustainable development. The idea of sustainability developed in the early 1980s as reported in the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program can be defined as “meeting fundamental human needs while preserving the earth natural environment” (IGBP, 1999). Since the earth's population is increasing, it is putting pressure on the earth’s resources. According to the World Economic Forum, it is estimated that food production will need to double by 2050 to feed 10 billion people on the earth (WEF, 2018). Today, sustainability has three essential pillars including environmental protection, social development, and economic growth, and sustainable development can be been defined as a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Sachs, 2015). The need for sustainable development is truly recognized by all countries and thus in 2015; the United Nations was able to introduce seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 (UN-SDGs, 2015). The United Nations under Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) of its Sustainable Development Goals aims to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse. Data from 214 cities or municipalities in 103 countries show that about three-quarters of MSW generated is collected (figure 1). In sub-Saharan Africa, less than half of all MSW generated is collected, with adverse effects on the health of residents. Moreover, even when waste is collected, it is often not treated and disposed of in a sustainable and environmentally sound manner. Managing such waste continues to be a major challenge facing urban areas in several regions.
In fact, many researchers including Vara et al. (2019) recognize waste as a global problem and thus need to be counted as a problem of everyone. Some of the statistics related to waste are quite interesting. For instance, Salter (2011) noted that the embodied energy in wasted food in the United States is greater than the energy available from the production of ethanol and from the annual yield from petroleum drilling in the outer continental shelf. Appropriate waste management is, therefore, important for conserving local and global environments. Improvement of waste management in developing countries is directly related to preventing environmental pollution and expanding public health services. Appropriate waste management contributes to reducing not only the emission of water/atmospheric pollutants and odors but also the emission of greenhouse gases. In this regard, some studies reported that Green House Gases (GHG) emissions from the waste sector contribute 3-4% of total global GHG emissions (IPCC, 2007). The rapidly increasing amount of MSW in urban cities around the world due to the increase in urban population is correlated with economic development and thus considered as a major challenge (Chen et al., 2010).