A collection of bags are recycled from old package and canvas. investment in zero waste programmes would create numerous, good, green jobs, while reducing pollution and improving community health (Photo: VNA)The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) said its new studyshows that cities that invest in zero waste programmes and policies createnumerous, good and green jobs, in addition to known benefits like reducingpollution and improving community health.
The report comes as municipal governments across the world are makinginvestment decisions to increase climate resilience and rebuild local economiesdamaged by the COVID-19 crisis.
It said the new paper is an analysis of 36 studies spanning 16 countries thatexamined the job creation potential of various waste management strategies suchas repair or reuse, recycling, composting, incineration and landfill. Theresearch makes clear that what’s good for the environment is also good for theeconomy.
Zero waste strategies score highest on environmental benefits and create themost jobs of any waste management approach. For example, reuse creates morethan 200 times as many jobs as landfills and incinerators, while recyclingcreates about 70 times as many jobs as landfills and incinerators.
Remanufacturing creates almost 30 times as many jobs as landfills andincinerators, the report found.
Zero waste is a comprehensive waste management approach that prioritises wastereduction and material recovery, with the ultimate aim of creating a circulareconomy and shrinking waste disposal to zero. In contrast, disposal-basedsystems rely on incineration (waste to energy) and landfills to handle themajority of the waste stream, resulting in higher economic costs andenvironmental consequences.
The Vietnam Zero Waste Alliance has made big efforts to inspire zero waste inthe country, piloting several models of zero waste communities, zero wasteschools and zero waste events. The models show about 80 percent of solid wastein Vietnam can be diverted from landfills or incinerators (Vietnam Audit Report2018 –2020). This will create new employment opportunities for waste pickers inthe composting and reuse sectors, where working conditions will be better thanin the landfills.
Zero waste systems not only create more jobs, they create better jobs. Studiesshow jobs in zero waste go beyond basic manual labour, provide higher wages,offer more permanent positions and improve quality of life.
Quach Thi Xuan, co-ordinator of Vietnam Zero Waste Alliance, said: “If zerowaste is comprehensively applied citywide, HCM City can solve its waste crisissustainably, its landfill will last for longer, and operations of waste treatmentplants will be more effective because wastes are sorted at source. With 9,500tonnes of waste per day, equivalent to about 3 million tonnes per year, azero-waste approach could create over 18,000 green jobs.”
Report co-author Dr Neil Tangri, Science and Policy Director at GAIA, said:“With the world still reeling from the pandemic, job creation is a toppriority. Zero waste offers a strategy to create good jobs and reducepollution, without breaking the bank. It’s a triple win for the economy, theenvironment, and the city."
Two communes – Cam Thanh in Hoi An City and Tan Hiep of the Cham Islands – werethe two first communities in Vietnam to launch the zero-waste model inpromoting waste classification and recycling, and plastic waste reduction andcomposting among the community.
The projects help residents in the two communes reduce the waste they releasedaily from 75 to 80 percent./.
VNA
