Guidelines for the development of national waste management strategies Supporting the implementation of Basel and Stockholm Conventions: update on waste and WEEE initiatives by UNEP IETC and SCRC/BCRCs Ordinary and extraordinary meetings of the conferences of the parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions Geneva, 3 May 2013 Brandon Turner, Senior Specialist, Chemicals and Waste Management Programme, UNITAR

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Outline  Policy context  Need for integrated approaches  Proposed guidelines  Added value  Other details 1

Policy context Overview  Waste management is a cross-cutting “mega-issue” impacting on all three pillars of sustainable development.  With rapidly increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth in developing and transition economy countries, waste management is becoming one of the most significant planning challenges faced by these countries in the 21st century.  The rapid increase in volumes, complexity, and hazardousness of waste is accentuating the difficulties that governments are already facing. 5

Policy context Generation and composition  World cities generate about 1.3 billion tonnes of solid waste per year (2.2 billion tonnes by 2025) (WB). 5  Global generation of waste agricultural biomass is approx. 5 billion tons per year.  Composition of the waste is changing over time. There is an increase of plastic waste, electronic and electrical waste or e- waste and other hazardous waste.

Policy context 4  Many developing countries dispose of their waste in open dumps.  Transboundary movement of waste occurs as second- hand markets and illegal shipments.  MSW is estimated to account for almost 5% (1,460 mt CO 2 e) of greenhouse gas emissions. Treatment and disposal  Municipal solid waste collection rates range from 41% in low- income countries to 98% in high-income countries.

Policy context Current approaches  Waste-related problems are often handled in a fragmented and uncoordinated manner.  Clear targets and consistent national approaches are often lacking or out of date.  Many countries have developed national strategies; however in many cases they focus on just municipal solid waste, or they are out of date. Many other countries still lack of a strategy. 5

Policy context Mandates  The UNEP Governing Council has requested UNEP in its Decision GC 26/3, part IV, 26 “to provide further assistance to developing countries and countries with economies in transition in their efforts to develop and strengthen the national implementation of an integrated waste management approach.”  The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio , in paragraph 218, has called for “the development and enforcement of comprehensive national and local waste management policies, strategies, laws and regulations.” 6

Needs for integrated approaches Ensuring effective sustainable waste management practices across a country requires an integrated national waste management strategy (NWMS) which:  identifies the stakeholders, needs, and priorities;  indicates the necessary key policy and regulatory tools  sets out an agreed approach to follow for each major waste stream; and  establish priorities, a plan for its implementation and monitoring. 7

8 UNEP-UNITAR NWMS guidelines project Phase I (ongoing)  Preparing guidelines for the development, review and updating of NWMS Part I – Introduction context and overview Part II - Challenges and opportunities in waste management Part III – Considerations in developing a national waste management strategy Part IV - A national waste management strategy – a participative process

9 UNEP-UNITAR NWMS guidelines project Phase I (ongoing)  Peer review process  Preliminary review conducted by two open call for comments through IETC website and IETC’s network.  Review workshop with 30 experts from governments, intergovernmental organizations, the private sector, academia and public interest groups from 18 countries.  Final version of the guidelines  To be completed and published by the third quarter of 2013.

10 UNEP-UNITAR NWMS guidelines project Phase II  Development of supplementary tools, guidance and training materials  Data and information collection, action plan development, and case studies.  Presentations summarizing the guidelines, workshop templates and exercises.  National Pilot projects  Pilot testing the guidelines in four to six countries (subject to funding) from a diverse set of regions.  Lessons learned will be included in the second edition of the guidelines.

10 UNEP-UNITAR NWMS guidelines project Phase III  National Pilot projects  Larger-scale and longer-term programme to deliver assistance to a larger number of countries.  Development of further supplementary tools, guidance and training materials  E-learning package, Financial assessment tool and others.  Second edition of the guidelines  Review of the guidelines and amend/include the lessons learned.

The guidelines and supporting materials will:  bring together experience and lessons learned of countries which have already strategies in place.  help countries to develop NWMS that are comprehensive, realistic, and effective, but with flexibility to avoid a “one size fits all” approach.  support the implementation of relevant activities under the global plan of action (GPA) of the Strategic Approach on International Chemicals Management (SAICM) Added value 11

 Complementing the forthcoming update of the Training Resource Pack on Hazardous Waste Management in Developing Economies (coordinated by the International Solid Waste Association - ISWA).  Complementing current work under the Basel Convention and relating to previous specific guidelines produced by the Basel Convention and others.  Complementing the work of the Regional 3R Forum in Asia which facilitates high level policy dialogues on 3R and provides strategic and knowledge platform. Relationship to other initiatives 12

Other details Cooperation  Collaboration between UNEP-IETC and UNITAR.  Consultations and inputs from governments, IGOs, academia, private sector, NGOs and a wider audience of stakeholders providing feedback as a response to the open call for comments. Timeline (Depending on the availability of resources)  Final guidelines by third quarter 2013  Supporting materials by end 2013  Pilot projects in Resources  Phase I: Estimated USD 80,000.  Phase II and Phase III: Piloting estimated USD 80, ,000 per country. 13

NATIONAL WASTE MANAGEMENT PLANNING IS NEED!

Thank You… Chemicals and Waste Management Programme Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneve 10, Switzerland Tel: Fax: Web: United Nations Institute for Training and Research International Environmental Technology Centre Ryokuchi Koen, Tsurumi-ku, Osaka , Japan Tel : +81 (0) Fax : +81 (0) Web: