South Asia Unites to End Open Waste Burning: Kathmandu Declaration finalisedOn 6-7 September 2025, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) held a high-level regional policy dialogue in Kathmandu, Nepal, where participants adopted the Kathmandu Declaration on Transformative Action to End Open Burning of Waste in South Asia.In a major strid...

The sustainable solid waste management strategy and action plan for Vientiane 2021-2030 (“The strategy”) presents a vision, six strategic outcomes, medium and long-term targets, and an associated work plan to improve the waste sector. It also lays out a basic framework for a paradigm shift from waste management toward resource management approaches that can eventually maximize waste-to-resource op...

The Circular Plastics Institute (CPI) at KSBL, in collaboration with key academic and institutional partners, convened a workshop to address the critical issue of open burning of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Pakistan. The workshop presented findings from the project Mapping of Open Burning of MSW in Pakistan & Identification of Underlying Factors & Key Drivers, focusing on Karachi and La...

A Step by Step Guide to Assess a City’s Municipal Solid Waste Management Performance through SDG indicator 11.6.1 Monitoring.Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT) guides readers through 7 steps to collect data on municipal solid waste (MSW) generated, collected, and managed in controlled facilities. The tool provides a household survey guide for total MSW generation, a questionnaire to identify the MSW re...

The review identifies beyond doubt the immense harm caused by uncontrolled burning and dumping of waste worldwide, particularly to those in the informal recycling sector who are most exposed to the risks. It provides a rigorous and valuable evidence base, which systematically revisits the scientific evidence on the neglected link between sound waste and resources management and the impact on human...

Reducing open waste burning is essential for achieving clean air, clean energy access, climate change mitigation, and improved health and well-being. Globally, over 2 billion tonnes of waste are produced annually. Household waste typically includes a mix of materials such as glass, plastics, metals, cardboard, paper, polystyrene, and organic matter like food and garden waste. Occasionally, it may ...

Uncontrolled burning of household waste is common in many countries and raises serious air quality concerns, but its impact on human health has not been well measured. The authors used the emissions data from Wiedinmyer et al. (2014) in the global GEOS-Chem model to make the first estimate of how many adults die early each year from long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) released by...

The Africa Waste Management Outlook Summary for Decision-Makers finds that Africa generated 125 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2012, a figure expected to double by 2025. Waste collection averages only 55%, and over 90% of waste is dumped or openly burned, with 19 of the world’s 50 largest dumpsites located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Waste composition is dominated by organic matter (5...

The Africa Waste Management Outlook Summary for Decision-Makers finds that Africa generated 125 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2012, a figure expected to double by 2025. Waste collection averages only 55%, and over 90% of waste is dumped or openly burned, with 19 of the world’s 50 largest dumpsites located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Waste composition is dominated by organic matter (5...

Key points include:Open burning of waste produces 11% of global black carbon emissions, with 26% of global waste burned at a residential level and 15% spontaneously burned at dump sites.Emissions from solid waste driven by open dumps and landfills account for about 5-12% of total global GHG emissions while methane generated from decomposing organic waste accounts for around 20% of global methane.O...