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Centre Number: UG021

Candidate Number:

Candidate Name:

Topic: Sustainable Living

Topic Question: "Government policies on waste management are weak”

Discuss
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It goes without saying that a lack of proper waste management is one of the
most important issues facing us today. This is mainly caused by poor administration
and knowledge on the dangerous effects of improper waste disposal and as a result
many natural resources get damaged or in the long run destroyed, negatively
impacting the environment and its inhabitants. Such effects could be avoided if
governments create set policies against this forms of waste disposal. Waste
production varies depending on the economic status of the country meaning that low
income countries produce less waste, due to the fact that they don’t receive
products that require packaging, compared to high income countries however even
with the low amount of waste produced low income countries tend to have weak or
no policies regarding waste collection and their laws are often not followed due to
bribery from citizens who decide to dispose of their trash illegally (Climate Policy
Watcher, 2022).
For a problem to be properly solved it has to be “carefully developed, debated,
and refined over a period of time” (Luetjens et al., 2019) However governments
don’t always tend to follow this rule. They often decide to create policies that they
can gain from politically and due to that factor their policies are not consistent and
change over time, in the presence of different governments, leading to new
strategies over a short period of time therefore no genuine outcome is gained at the
end. Another factor worth considering is the lack of accountability and administration
within the government, often time’s members of government deny responsibility for
failed or poorly made policies. In addition to that, entities with significant power,
such as mining, find themselves to the greater disadvantage when effective polices
against unsustainable living are implemented therefore hindering the national
administration on imposing them (Howes, 2017).
It is worth considering that one of the biggest causes of poorly implemented
policies is the fact that national administrations create waste policies while
continuing to endorse public sectors that defy those same guidelines. This highlights
the government’s failure to impose constitutions for the citizens because if bot the
primary and secondary sectors can’t comply with the given regulations then who
will? China, one of the biggest miners in the world, aimed at reducing the waste
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production caused by their 1.4 billion by pledging to be carbon neutral by the year
2060, they continued to highlight this aim in 2016 when they banned the creation of
coal-fired plants however China had more than double coal-power plants that the
rest of the world, this example brings me to my next cause, early expiration of
policies, a policy can be proved weak when it contains an early expiration this
shows that even though positive changes can be made the time frame given for that
change will be so little therefore people are more prone to go back to their old ways
leading the nation back to square one.
Technology plays an important role in the management of waste leaving me to
wonder, if a country lacks advanced technology does that mean that their waste
management goal is bound to fail? According to CIOReview “Technology in the
waste management system makes it easier to collect, sort and use waste” this is
mostly due to the fact that “New tools and methods are also constantly being
developed to improve waste management” (CIOReview, 2021). Acquiring
technology to handle the vast amount of waste that is produced can be easily
attained however countries that suffer corruption struggle with this because
“Bureaucrats, whose job it is to design and execute public policies, may attempt to
use the process to maximize their private objectives at the expense of serving the
general public efficiently and equitably.” (CENGAGE, n.d.).
When policies on waste management are weak then there is high risk of
improper waste disposal. Weak policies are often disregarded and because of that
the opposite of the goal is achieved, in this case proper waste management.
Improper waste disposal leads to death in poor countries and other nations with
weak schemes towards better disposals for such types of scrap, this not only leads
to destruction of natural resources but also risks the lives of the inhabitants.
According to Charlotte Edmond “Between 400,000 and 1 million people die each
year in developing countries because of diseases caused by mismanaged waste”
waste caused diseases such as cholera are a result of waste clogging drains
leading to filthy water landing in the hands of locals who, due to lack of awareness,
fetch and use it for various things in and out of their households and according to
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Saurab Babu “If the wastes contain toxic chemicals, it can enter into the food chain
through bio magnification.”
In addition to the statement made previously, we can further argue that I find it
important to highlight that one of the key consequences of poorly implemented
schemes is that no genuine outcome is gained because different sectors will do
different practices that don’t accord with the goal after all “Inconsistent policies
create inconsistent actions.”(NEOGOV, 2020) However this is not as a result of
preference but the failure of governments to pinpoint important schemes that they
should follow therefore they are forced to work and operate blindly.
Juba, a city of around 560,000 people, struggles with maintaining their waste.
“According to a survey on solid waste management in Juba conducted by the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) between February 2017 and August 2018,
residents of Juba produce 650g of garbage per person per day.” (Janefer, 2022).
Juba tries to practice creating proper municipal waste management and “MSWM in
Juba is based on waste collection, transportation and disposal at a dumping site
originally in line with the South Sudan Development Plan” (Mier et al., 2020)
On a national level South Sudan, a country affected and dangerously impacted
by its never ending civil war, with the help of UNEP is able to create environmental
development goals in an effort to support and increase the waste management
schemes. Not only that but the nation has been chronically underfunded and the UN
requesting for a $1.72 billion to support NGO’s that promote waste management
since the lack of infrastructure and other facilities led to the disposal of waste on
sides of streets.
On a global level waste management is increasing faster than ever this is due to
the fact that the human population is doubling, the increase in people moving from
rural to urban areas and a difference in the way we consume (Princy A.J, 2021) and
according to Princy “humans are beginning to drown in the waste they are
themselves generating.” In 2016, around 2.01 billion tons of waste was produced
globally and the number would increase by around 70% by the year 2050 to 3.40
billion tons of waste (Princy A.J, 2021). Both developed and undeveloped countries
try to create policies on waste management According to Luciana Galán “The first
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step towards an organized management of municipal solid waste was taken in the
United States at the beginning of the 20th century.” Ever since then countries have
been taking initiatives to make better and more adaptable policies.

When creating an effective policy factors such as in depth understanding of the

problem should be considered so that a clear plan can be constructed and
according to Luciana Galán “the waste management plan should have detailed
annexes with practical information. For example, drawings of all facilities or financial
reports on the investment expected over time.” For example Germany has been
able to reduce the number of waste created through a carefully planned recycling
scheme and currently allowing it to recycle up to 70% of their produced waste such
schemes could be implemented in countries such as Turkey that barely recycles
their waste with a total of 99% of waste, “this signals a 6% increase in landfill waste
and 33% reduction in recycling since 2000.” (Plastic expert, n.d.) I proposed turkey
because of the relativeness in budget revenue, both surpassing the average million
dollar budget therefore they are both capable of creating schemes with advanced
technology. In addition to that people are more likely to abide to policies that impact
their lives in a beneficial way for example in Indonesia, a CEO for a health company
realized that around 55,000 tonnes of waste is produced daily and to tackle that
problem he created a scheme that allows people to exchange their waste for free
health care and medicines greatly benefiting those at the poverty line which stands
at around 10% of the national population (Bhatia, 2017).

After extensive research and understanding of the question I have come to

realise that not all governments have weak policies towards waste management.
The policies depend on the state of the country and how focused it is on the goal at
hand, furthermore I have also come learn that weak policies are more prone to
developing countries where they seem to be more focused on other sectors that will
allow their nations to gain economically from. At first I thought that it was because of
the infrastructure that led to this outcome however after the research I realized that
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it was based on the focus of a country. The direction a country wants to take is the
direction it will take is the phrase I have come to learn based on the different
countries I researched about.
I believe that if educated and shown how waste negatively impacts a country,
country leaders could be able to create better and more effective policies not only
that but they will be able to invest in different methods that will help their country to
reach that goal. Another thing I noticed was that countries often try to create policies
using the ideas of other nations I believe that this practice is one of the main
reasons why policies are often called weak because countries strategise using the
resources of others and when this is done there is failure to meet up with those
strategies because the resources of that nation are limited to what they had stated
for this reason I believe that if countries stick to their resources they should be able
to create more focused, approachable, and well assessed policies that they can
benefit from.
To recapitulate all that has been mentioned earlier. I have come to a conclusion
that governments indeed create weak policies towards waste management however
they still have the opportunity to mend those policies if they understand the issues at
hand as early as possible but even with this beneficiary it will still depend on the
willingness of the country towards meeting its sustainable goal.
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References

Swachhoin. Government policies to enhance smart waste developed. Online. Available

from: https://medium.com/@swachhcoin/government-policies-regarding-smart-

waste-management-2d5418d0c864 [Accessed 20th October 2022]

Climate Policy watcher. Garbage Challenges in Developing Countries. [Online].

Available from:

https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/waste-management/garbage-challenges-

in-developing-countries.html [Accessed 22nd October 2022]

Chron. Three Reasons Why Policy Implemented Might Fail. Chron. [Online] September

14 2020. Available from: https://work.chron.com/three-reasons-policy-

implementation-might-fail-23754.html [Accessed 22nd October 2022]

Michael Howes. After 25 years of trying, why aren’t we environmentally sustainable yet?

https://theconversation.com/after-25-years-of-trying-why-arent-we-

environmentally-sustainable-yet-73911 [Accessed on 25th October 2022]

Charlotte Edmond. This is what the world’s waste does to people in poorer countries.

[Online] Available from: This is what the world’s waste does to people in poorer

countries | World Economic Forum (weforum.org) [Accessed on 30th October

2022]
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Keji Janefer. Juba City Council on the spot over poor waste management. The City

Review. [Online] June 30 2022. Available from: https://cityreviewss.com/juba-city-

council-on-the-spot-over-poor-waste-management/ [Accessed 2nd November

2022]

Luciana Galán. What are the examples of waste management? [Online]. Available from:

https://globalrecycle.net/what-are-the-examples-of-waste-management/

[Accessed 1st November 2022]

Anisha Bhatia. 5 Countries That Have Revolutionised The Way They Tackle Waste.

[Online] Available from: https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/5-countries-revolutionised-

way-tackle-trash-waste-5013/ [Accessed 3rd November 2022]

CIOReview. How Technology Can Impact Waste Management. CIOReview. [Online]

June 3 2021. Available from: https://www.cioreview.com/news/how-technology-

can-impact-waste-management-nid-33747-cid-134.html [Accessed 27th October

2022]

PowerDMS. Consequences of poor policy management in law enforcement. [Online].

Available from:

https://www.powerdms.com/policy-learning-center/consequences-of-poor-policy-

management-in-law-enforcement [Accessed 1st November 2022]

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Princy A. J. Global Waste Management: Towards a World of No Waste. [Online]

Available from: https://www.researchdive.com/blog/global-waste-management-

towards-a-world-of-no-waste [Accessed 5th November 2022]

Isaiah Ajueny Mabil Mier, Li Zhuo. Current Status of Municipal Solid Waste

Management in Juba City, South Sudan. International Journal of Scientific and

Research Publications. [Online]. 2020;10(8): 4. [Accessed 4th November 2022]

Saurab Babu. Mining: Environmental degradation caused by improper practices.

[Online] Available from: https://eco-intelligent.com/2016/11/20/mining-

environmental-degradation-caused-by-improper-practices/ [Accessed 6th

November 2022]

Plastic expert. The 5 worst countries for plastic recycling. [Online] Available from:

https://www.plasticexpert.co.uk/the-5-worst-countries-for-plastic-recycling/

[Accessed 10th November 2022]