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3. Waste management

3.1. Definition of waste and waste management

What is waste? https://www.youtube.com/embed/jXHanV7ge6E?feature=oembed
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Waste is anything which is eliminated or discarded as it is no longer useful or required after
the completion of a process. Waste management refers to the various schemes to manage
and dispose of wastes. It can be by discarding, destroying, processing, recycling, reusing, or
controlling wastes. (Biology Articles, Tutorials & Dictionary Online, n.d.)

3.2. Correlation of human and the increased waste
According to Our World in Data, the world population increased from 1 billion in 1800 to
7.9 billion today. (Roser, Ortiz-Ospina and Ritchie, 2019) With the population rapidly
growing and moving to the urban areas, annual waste generation is expected to increase
by 70% from 2016 levels to 3.40 billion tons in 2050. (World Bank, n.d.) Not only the
increasing human population, but also its activities, changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns
have resulted in an increased amount of waste. (Demirbas, 2011) Most people spent most of their time
buying food, clothing and shelter. Travelling along with tourism are another growing activities, that
often lead to over-consumption causing more waste to be generated. Household waste, such as
kitchen scraps, packaging, or electrical waste like computers, smartphones, vacuum cleaners etc., are
part of the huge amount of waste being produced from human lifestyle activities.
According to statista, China, being the world’s most populous nation, is responsible for
the largest share of global municipal solid waste, where in terms of population the United
States is the biggest producer of waste. (Tiseo, 2021)

Therefore, a more sustainable way of waste management is essential, in order to reduce the amount
of waste generated and eventually discharged into the environment.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the

information contained therein.