Geneva Health Forum 2024

Benefits of Solid Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation and Environmental Health

Not scheduled

15m

Geneva

Oral presentation or scientific poster Health and the environment, time for solutions

Description

1. Introduction/Objectives
   Everyone generates waste – and everyone is affected by it. South Asian countries are projected to double their waste generation by 2050 due to rapid population growth, urbanization, and rising GDP. .
   Waste collection, transportation and final disposal release greenhouse gases (GHG) like CO2, N2O, black carbon and CH4. Conversely, composting and recycling are crucial in reducing GHG emissions, contributing to climate change mitigation and environmental health.
   The effectiveness of composting and recycling in reducing GHG emissions will be assessed through the case study of the SWM system established by Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) and Swiss Red Cross (SRC) in Ward 49, Gazipur City Corporation (GCC), Bangladesh. Since 2016 SRC-BDRCS have established a SWM system covering 4’485 households with 39’769 people, aiming to divert a significant amount of waste from final dumping by converting organic waste into nutritious fertilizer and selling recyclables.
   The analysis will explore the potential reduction in GHG emissions both within the current SWM system in GCC and if expanded throughout the entire GCC. The analysis will focus on answering the following question: What is the potential of GHG emission reduction of SWM in Gazipur City Corporation? The study will draw assumptions and conclusions on the impact on environmental health.

2. Methodology
   GHG emissions of will be simulated using the “GHG calculator for solid waste” provided by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategy, which allows to calculate emissions from the most prominent SWM technologies in Asia, i.e., landfills, composting, anaerobic digestion, mechanical biological treatments, recycling, incineration and open burning .
   The following data will be used to estimated how much GHG emissions are reduced under the established SWM system:

3. Project data on composting and waste transportation
4. Household survey (n=368) on recycling and open burning
5. Waste composition data from scrap shops,

6. Data from GCC on fuel consumption for landfill management
   Data collection and analyses will be done from December 2023 to February 2024 and results elaborated thereafter.

7. Results and Discussion
   The results will reveal the GHG emission reduction potential of SWM in GCC and how many tons of GHG emission per capita are reduced in Ward 49 compared to the remaining SWM system in the GCC, and how many tons of GHG emissions can be reduced if the SWM system is expanded to the entire GCC. The results will be generalized showing the GHG emission reduction potential per 1 Mio. inhabitants in an urban (informal settlement) development context. In the discussion, the link will be made to environmental health.

8. Conclusion
   Depending on the results, conclusions will be formulated, showing the potential of composting and recycling on CC mitigation and linking SWM, CC and environmental health.
   More research is required in linking the GHG emissions and health outcomes, comparing longitudinal disease -specific health data of a local community before and after a SWM system was installed to provide evidence beyond environmental health assumptions to provide evidence on population health impact.