City waste action programme

Supporting improved waste management practices in cities to reduce SLCPs from the waste sector
Waste collection in Dandora, Kenya
Ongoing
started:
2012

Improper waste management is an environmental and social challenge that affects millions of people worldwide, and continues to grow in scale with rising urban populations and incomes. Taking action on solid waste management is an opportunity for cities to improve the local and the global community – waste management can protect their local community’s environment and public health, and contribute to global climate efforts.

Challenges

  • Financial: Comprehensive waste management can account for a significant share of municipal budgets, and many cities worldwide are challenged to fund adequate city-wide waste collection and disposal services. Further, despite its numerous benefits, many cities struggle to prioritise waste management and large investments for equipment, labour, and facilities, and are thereby unable to garner sufficient funds. Financial planning is an integral part of waste management.
  • Social: Creation of new waste management regimens must account for informal waste management systems and implications for the poor and marginalised groups that often work in the informal sector. Public awareness is required to alter ingrained practices such as illegal dumping or waste burning.
  • Organizational: Many cities in developing countries do not have waste management plans. Where management plans and programs do exist, implementing and enforcing the plans is challenging for city administrators.
  • Technical: City staff are better able to devise plans of action and implement new waste management practices if they have appropriate technical expertise and knowledge of the waste management sector (e.g., managing complex collection routes, devising adequate fee structures, engineering sanitary landfill sites, operating landfill sites correctly).
  • Political: Identifying a suitable location for waste transfer points or sanitary landfills is often controversial.

Objectives

The Waste Initiative is working with participating cities to help them develop robust waste management systems to achieve real and immediate short-lived climate pollutant reductions and other benefits. The aim is to improve cities’ waste management practices through actions that are sustainable in the long term, that are compatible with the local context, and that are replicable through city-to-city collaboration.

What we're doing

The Waste Initiative supports cities in several realms:

  • Direct technical assistance for developing waste management master plans, waste assessments, and feasibility studies.
  • Direct technical assistance for identifying and promoting appropriate financing for waste projects.
  • Indirect technical assistance such as the provision of tools and resources that help cities track their emissions reductions, determine appropriate waste management solutions, and identify best practices.
  • Information exchange and networking opportunities bring cities together to share best practices, highlight success stories, and encourage peer-to-peer learning and city mentoring.
  • Training and capacity building sessions for city officials, waste management staff, and other stakeholders.

After cities join the Waste Initiative, they progress through four stages to achieve real and immediate SLCP reductions and other benefits. Learn how to take action!

Activities

Activity | Waste
South Africa | Ongoing
As a mentor city in the Coalition's Municipal Solid Waste initiative, the city of eThekwini, South Africa is sharing its experience and knowledge with other cities in the African continent.
Activity | Waste
India | Ongoing
The Coalition's Municipal Solid Waste Initiative and partners are providing support to the East Delhi Municipal Corporation to formulate a workplan for improving municipal waste management, while...
Activity | Waste
Tanzania | Ongoing
As an actor in the Coalition's Municipal Solid Waste initiative, the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania is committed to reducing short-lived climate pollutant emissions from the waste sector.
Activity | Waste
Colombia | Ongoing
The Coalition's Municipal Solid Waste Initiative has provided support to the city of Cali (Colombia) for an organic waste management project that can reduce short-lived climate pollutant and...
Cali, Colombia
Activity | Waste
Cambodia | Ongoing
In 2014, Battambang (Cambodia) Municipality joined the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. It was the first city of Cambodia to do so.
Activity | Waste
Ethiopia | Ongoing
The city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is receiving support from the Coalition to: Complete SLCP emissions baseline Improve organic waste diversion Improve waste collection efficiency Design, construction...
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Activity | Waste
Ghana | Ongoing
As a member of the Coalition's Municipal Solid Waste Initiative city network, the city of Accra, Ghana has undertaken multiple initiatives to improve waste collection and separation practices,...
Activity | Waste
Brazil | Ongoing
The city exchange programme between the City of Sao Paulo and the City of Copenhagen under the Coalition's Municipal Solid Waste Initiative was kicked off with an initial visit in October 2015.

Resources & tools

Activity contact

Sandra Mazo-Nix,
Programme Manager
secretariat [at] ccacoalition.org

Initiatives

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