Managing our waste 2021

Managing Our Waste 2021 is a new report by Practical Action which calls for a people-centered approach to the waste crisis. Rather than focusing on waste flows and particular types of waste, we must turn attention to the waste services people need, and to opportunities for the most marginalised to be a core part of the solution.

Dealing with the waste we all generate is a growing
global challenge. Waste management problems are
conventionally described and measured in terms of
material flows and environmental impacts, yet this is a
human problem with major social, health, and economic
impacts, felt most acutely by some of the world’s poorest
people. Informal workers make a major contribution to
citywide recovery and recycling, but remain unrecognized
and undervalued.
We urgently need to put people back at the centre of
our narrative and actions. In Managing Our Waste 2021:
View from the Global South we do just that. Through
people-centred analysis we reveal huge inequalities in
access to services across four case study cities, and shine
a spotlight on the wide range of stakeholders already
making efforts to clean up their city and to earn a living
from waste. Our recommendations focus on four peoplecentred solutions.