ISWA Releases

This report, jointly published with the Children and Youth Major Group to UNEP (CYMG), provides an updated analysis of global waste generation and management since 2018. Building on the response to UNEP Resolutions 2/7 and 4/7, it delivers a comprehensive examination of current waste trends and management outcomes across diverse regions and income brackets, reflecting both progress and ongoing challenges. Data-driven insights outline the impacts of various waste management scenarios on public health, ecosystems, and economic stability, emphasising the disproportionate risks faced by infants, children, and youth—whose developing bodies and immune systems are especially vulnerable to waste-related toxins. The document offers actionable guidance for governments, municipalities, financial institutions, businesses, and citizens, underlining the essential role of young people.

Break the Plastic Pollution Cycle: An Urgent Call for Action in the Plastic Treaty Negotiations

The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) is an accredited observer to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution, and has actively contributed scientific, practical and evidence-based insights to support the development of a robust and implementable treaty since the adoption of UNEA Resolution 5/14 in 2022. 

For INC-5.2, ISWA reinforced these foundations by calling for action on four fronts: addressing problematic plastics and advancing circular design, preventing leakage through sound plastic waste collection and containment, strengthening plastic waste management systems, and financing the transition and scaling up implementation.

As the next generation of NDCs takes shape ahead of COP30 and ambitions must rise, waste management remains an overlooked yet powerful lever for mitigation.

Produced by the French Solid Waste Partnership (FSWP) with contributions from the French Development Agency (AFD) and ISWA’s Working Group on Climate Change and Waste Management, this Atlas demonstrates how improved waste policies and practices can substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

As negotiations progress toward an international, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, many national focal points have called for clear and practical guidance on how to establish Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems.
In response, the ISWA Working Group on Governance and Legal Issues (WGGLI) has developed this technical note as an introductory roadmap outlining key steps and success factors for
designing and implementing effective EPR schemes that can fulfil their potential in combating
plastic pollution.

ISWA’s Women of Waste Task Force contributed to this GRID-ARENDAL product, which is a unique, geographically tailored capacity-building Toolkit. This innovative resource is designed to facilitate a Just Transition for women in the informal recycling sector, providing opportunities for awareness, empowerment, and capacity enhancement.

This publication marks ISWA’s first Southeast Asia Regional brief, part of a growing series aimed at mapping progress, spotlighting local leadership, and initiating dialogue across borders. For ISWA members and partners, it offers a curated entry point into the region’s evolving waste landscape by highlighting policy developments, investment trends, and opportunities for collaboration.

With decades of expertise from a broad and growing global membership base, ISWA has tackled some of the toughest waste challenges in ways that are cost-effective, resilient and sustainable. This publication distils that expertise into principles and practical guidance, providing policymakers, authorities and other organisations with best practices for improving waste management. Our aim is to raise awareness of the core challenges in sustainably managing waste and support the implementation of effective solutions. We hope this publication will offer valuable guidance to support the global transition to sustainable waste management and a circular economy.

ISWA presents its position on waste incineration with energy recovery in an integrated sustainable waste management system based on the principles of the waste hierarchy and driven by the urgent need for a transition to a circular economy.

Para além de uma era de resíduos Transformando lixo em recurso. Perspectivas da gestão global de resíduos 2024
Resumo executivo // Executive Summary of the #GWMO2024, Portuguese translation, launched at a UNEP meeting in Brazil, July 2024.

Executive summary: Jointly published with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the report provides an update on global waste generation and the cost of waste and its management since 2018. 

Jointly published with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the report provides an update on global waste generation and the cost of waste and its management since 2018. The analysis uses life cycle assessments to explore what the world could gain or lose through continuing business-as-usual, adopting halfway measures, or committing fully to zero waste and circular economy societies. The report also evaluates three potential scenarios of municipal waste generation and management, examining their impacts on society, the environment, and the global economy. Furthermore, it presents potential strategies for waste reduction and enhanced management, following the waste hierarchy, to treat all waste materials as valuable resources.

According to the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024, jointly launched by ISWA and UNEP, waste generation is growing at a fast pace and if the current trend is maintained, the amount of waste will almost double by 2050. Access to waste collection services varies significantly within and between regions and still, 38% of municipal solid waste ends in inadequate sites or is openly burned. Plastics are one of the most visible parts of it and plastic pollution is a global concern with significant environmental and economic impacts.

As a contribution to the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, in Ottawa, Canada in April 2024, ISWA’s Plastic Treaty Task Force released this compilation of case studies showcasing diverse initiatives to address plastic waste management challenges across different regions.

ISWA’s Working Group on Landfill carried out a project to quantify the impact of different landfill
management choices on gas capture at landfills. The goal of this project is to compile factual arguments in
a white paper to illustrate and clarify, to both regulators and operators, which realistic management
choices during landfill operation provide the best options to minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
from landfills over their lifetime.

ISWA’s Working Group on Biological Treatment of Waste produced this guide, intended to provide background information and case studies about the different types of contaminants that can enter organic waste streams intended for recycling, their potential impacts and the ways in which they can be prevented or removed.

Through this first-of-its kind global mapping survey – now in its second edition – WOW! aims to help fill the data gap and build an evidence base to inform professionals in governments and private sector, as well as donors, policymakers, and associations in their efforts to support the advancement of women waste professionals.

A report launched on World Environment Day 2023 in collaboaration with the United Nations Environment Programme.

A report launched on the margins of INC-2 in May 2023, Paris. 

Following a landmark signing during the United Nations Environment Program’s Second Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-2) in Paris, BEEAH Group, the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), and the management consultancy Roland Berger have entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a ground-breaking global standard for waste recycling that has been endorsed by the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MoCCaE).

ISWA’s Working Group on Collection and Transport Technology present research into sustainable and alternative waste collection vehicle usage.

Released 22nd September 2022 in Singapore at the 2022 ISWA World Congress.

ISWA’s Women of Waste (WOW!) Task Force contribute to a policy paper on the role of the informal recycling sector in plastic pollution reduction, and recommended policy changes.

Released 22nd September 2022 in Singapore at the 2022 ISWA World Congress.

Disclaimer
The ISWA WOW! Task Force has participated in the preparation of this document and endorses ONLY the gender considerations of the informal
recycling sector that is needed in the context of the current waste crisis in some places of the world. Any views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views and position of ISWA bodies or ISWA members.

Following ISWA’s position paper on Plastics Pollution, issued as a contribution to UNEA 5.2 in February 2022, ISWA has prepared key messages for the meeting, but will also follow up and engage in the discussion throughout the whole negotiation process until the end of 2024.

ISWA called upon Member States at UNEA 5.2 to include key considerations in the future Resolution about Plastic Pollution, with the stance that the Waste and Resource Management industry has an integral role in mitigating plastics entering the oceans.

ISWA’s report on the outlook for the decade ahead in the waste management industry.

Launched in October 2021, at the 2021 ISWA World Congress in Athens, Greece.

ISWA’s report on the outlook for the decade ahead in the waste management industry. Translated in Spanish.

Original report launched in October 2021, at the 2021 ISWA World Congress in Athens, Greece.

The International Solid Waste Association, on behalf of its members and on the occasion of the ISWA General Assembly 2021, issued a Declaration on Climate Change and the Waste Resource Management Sector. The declaration highlights the substantial Impact that the waste management sector can have towards achieving a greener, more sustainable planet and the practical measures needed to get there.