NGO: WasteAid
About one in every three people globally do not have access to proper waste management. Waste pollutants have detrimental effects on people’s health, the environment, and the economy, meaning that a proper waste system would result in improvements in the environment and public health, as well as create jobs.
To address excess waste and waste mismanagement, WasteAid was established in 2015 as an independent non-profit organization. It was organized by waste management professionals in the United Kingdom to share realistic and affordable waste management expertise with communities, especially those in low income areas worldwide. There are a number of things that the organization aims to educate the public on during training periods. First, people will learn about how important it is to have proper waste management and the effects poor management has on health and well-being. Next, they are taught how to organize and execute community clean ups as well as how to discover appropriate and efficient ways to reduce waste and manage it safely. They reinforce our understanding of the advantages of separating materials in order to reuse or recycle them.
WasteAid stresses the importance of community engagement. As stated on their website, “Waste management doesn’t need to be complex or expensive– all it takes is the desire to change”. To educate and inspire members of a community, especially those in lower and middle income countries, they created a toolkit called Making Waste Work. Their goals are to make an impact on the global waste emergency by partnering with communities to improve the health, environment, and livelihoods of people without waste services, to build the skills of local people to deliver practical solutions to the waste crisis in their own communities, and to raise awareness of the benefits of proper waste management and campaigning for greater change. As mentioned before, community engagement is the primary solution. Their toolkit educates people on understanding common waste materials, the issues they cause, how to choose the right recycling project, how to develop a business plan, and how to measure waste. Additionally, it explains the options that are available to properly dispose of waste. At the end of the day, their goal is to inspire and educate communities to change their habits for the better through community waste management. In addition to the toolkit, they provide How-To guides for managing waste properly in a household. The guides include processes such as measuring waste, making compost, selling plastics, creating eco bricks etc… As for effectiveness, I referenced the Wasteaid 2020/2021 Annual Review to assess their impact. The organization has worked in nine countries worldwide, has had seventeen program interventions since January 2020, has positively impacted over 100,000 people, introduced sixteen new recycling enterprises, twenty new products from waste, twelve dumpsites cleared, and twenty three mayors and municipalities have engaged with them. Lastly, their toolkit has had about 230,000 visitors interested in improving their approach to waste management. Keeping in mind that the organization was only introduced in 2015, I find this encouraging, see that they have made great strides and have plenty of room to grow in success, and am eager to see the progress.
The organization’s vision is ambitious, but it is a world in which waste causes no harm, and where people in poverty are empowered to recover its value. The organization relies on partners and donors to amplify the positive impact of solid waste management in our daily lives. This could be a barrier to achieving their goals if there is not enough funding to do the work necessary to achieve their goals, but they also aim to allocate their resources responsibly, and work with communities and policy makers in lower and middle income countries to implement waste management and recycling programs.
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