Roadmap for closing landfills – ISWA 2016

ISWA published the report “Roadmap for Closing Landfills” in 2016.

The report begins with a message directed at all individuals and entities involved in waste management, especially in areas where the largest municipal landfills are operated (South America, Central America, Africa, Asia), which have a storage capacity of 22 million tons per year (the global coffee production is 8 million tons per year). The message is: “We are not talking about waste! We are talking about people!” This new approach includes a clearer definition of the “social dimensions of waste management,” which encompasses: public awareness, closure costs, resistance from the informal sector, and in some cases, even from local, regional, and national authorities, population refusal for relocation, etc.

The report is not a “technical guide” for closing landfills, but it presents the impact of landfills on the population and the environment (in 2016, in just 7 months, over 750 people died worldwide), financial and economic issues, possible funding sources, optimal technical criteria, and more.

In 2016, ISWA launched a program to assist the community living from sorting and selling packaging waste from the La Chureca landfill in Nicaragua. The program ensures the necessary funds to keep 40 children from working on the landfill and provides education for a period of 4 years (grades 4-8).