FOREWORD

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One of the most obvious impacts of rapidly increasing urbanization and economic development can be witnessed in the form of heaps of municipal solid waste. Based on estimates, waste generation in Asia has reached 1 million tons per day. A World Bank study showed that urban areas in Asia spent USD25 million per year on solid-waste management, and this figure will increase to USD47 million per year. Despite the huge expenditures, urban areas in most APO member countries are still grappling with the challenge of preventing environmental degradation due to nonsystematic solid-waste management. Apart from the contamination of water resources and severe air pollution due to the open burning of solid waste, the health hazard is another key issue to be addressed. Solid-waste management has become an important issue in the Asia-Pacific region, and it needs to be resolved through an integrated community, privatesector, and policy-based approach.

Since recognizing the significance of solid-waste management, the APO has been organizing multicountry workshops, seminars, and conferences to discuss related issues and problems in member countries and devise solutions. A survey was conducted on solid-waste management in 11 APO member countries: Bangladesh, Republic of China, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam to assess current solid-waste management practices and to highlight issues, problems, and the initiatives undertaken to tackle them. This survey was also an attempt to create a consolidated database on solid waste that can be utilized for planning purposes at the national level and for strategy formulation for regional planning.

The APO has been promoting Green Productivity, i.e., the integration of productivity enhancement and environmental protection, as a method for sustainable socioeconomic development, which can help member countries adopt simple, down-to-earth measures for systematic solid-waste management. This survey also encompassed such endeavors and activities undertaken by the target countries.

This volume contains information collected during the survey on solid-waste management in the 11 countries, including waste-generation profiles, regulatory frameworks, solid-waste management governance, waste-collection and disposal mechanisms, Green Productivity activities, etc. I hope that this publication will be useful for policymakers, planners, and solid-wastemanagement professionals, giving them a better insight into the issues involved and developing a perspective for addressing them.

Shigeo Takenaka
Secretary-General
Tokyo, August 2007