Moving Towards Zero Waste Cities - Planning and Designing Sustainable Cities

The Earth now sustains over eight billion inhabitants, each contributing to the intricate balance of natural ecosystems. The current linear and unsustainable utilization of resources is resulting in a steady rise in waste production. Despite efforts to reduce waste generation and explore more sustainable management options, these endeavours are struggling to match the rapid pace of waste production. The world generated 2.3 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2020, of which almost 40 per cent is managed in uncontrolled facilities, predominantly open dumpsites. By 2050 the total amount of MSW generated is expected to grow to 3.88 billion tonnes per year, a 73 per cent increase from 2020. Moreover, half the world’s population lives in urban areas and almost all regions of the world will be predominantly urban by the middle of this century. Vast urban areas require more complex and coordinated MSW systems, which necessitate more resources, including human, financial, infrastructure, etc. Urbanization is higher in high-consuming countries compared to low-consuming countries. For instance, in one of the world's highest-consuming nations, nearly 89 per cent of the population resides in urban areas. Cities that generate economic growth create mega-regions, urban corridors, and regions depending on various urban forms. However, as urbanization continues to rise and cities expand, the dynamics of waste management become more complex.
Designing sustainable cities presents significant challenges. Waste management stands out as a critical challenge in sustainable city design, especially in high-consumption urban areas of the industrialized world. Issues such as excessive paper waste, over-packaging, food waste, and e-waste pose significant hurdles. “Zero waste” stands for systematically designing and managing products and services to avoid and minimize waste, and to conserve and recover resources from waste streams. It includes the 5 R's approach: before 'recycling', other actions should take place: rethinking what waste is; refusing and reducing waste generation, reusing products and keeping resources in life as much as possible, and then recycling. Incorporating this methodology into waste reduction and circular economy efforts will minimize landfill waste and help extend the life of resources, products and services.
Today’s consumption-driven society produces an enormous amount of waste. This large amount of waste creates a huge pressure for the city authority to manage waste more sustainably. Waste management systems have not received as much attention in the city planning process as other sectors like water or energy. Therefore, infrastructure, policy and financial gaps are observed in the waste management systems in current city planning.
The event will discuss the opportunities that Zero Waste offers to transition toward a circular society, exploring case studies, and successful solutions and discussing lessons learnt.