Garbage Challenges in Developing Countries

Last Updated on Wed, 04 Sep 2019 | Waste Management

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The problems of waste management are different for the developing world. Because the economies of developing countries are usually not as robust as the economies of countries such as the United States, people in these poorer countries tend to buy fewer products with less packaging, and they produce less waste than Americans or residents of other industrialized nations. On the

: A child scavenges on a dump in Manila, in the Philippines. Many developing countries have problems disposing of wastes. As a result, garbage piles up and people scavenge through the trash to try to earn a living.

other hand, unlike developed nations, poorer countries in the developing world often have not developed adequate waste management policies or systems, trash collection services, or government institutions to properly manage their wastes. As the Web site Fabric of Nature explains:

Most developing countries don't have any organized means of controlling solid waste. Garbage is rarely even collected on a regular basis. Regulations vary from country to country and from town to town, and often a small bribe from an apprehended illegal trash dumper will trump enforcement of official regulations, anyway. Laws are often lax—burning of garbage and open dumping allowed. Frequently, a lack of funds prevents municipalities in such countries from ever being able to even create a proper waste management system, in the first place.

Then, the lack of status and poor salaries associated with the profession discourages qualified employees, so personnel rarely has the ability or the training to manage an effective system, even when one exists.37

The result in many cases is that garbage in developing countries tends to pile up in waterways and on land, creating serious health and environmental hazards. This problem of waste management is especially acute in countries with rapidly growing urban areas. As World Health Organization researcher Hisashi Ogawa notes, "The management of solid waste is becoming a major public health and environmental concern in urban areas of many developing countries."38

A Developing Country's Trash

"One of the surest signs that you're in a developing country is the trash beneath your feet."—Bryan Walsh, Time magazine's energy and climate writer.

Bryan Walsh, "Trash Problems in Paradise," Time, January 2, 2008. www.time.com/ time/world/article/0,8599,1701095,00.html.

One of the worst examples is the city of Manila, capital of the Philippines. There, residents generate 8,000 tons (7,982 metric tons) of garbage each day, but for years the government did not collect the garbage or educate the public about recycling or other waste reduction options. As a result, the city's garbage simply piled up at numerous dumps, which attracted flies, rats, and other vermin. The dumps also encouraged poor people to scavenge amongst the trash to earn a meager living. Some people even lived on the dumps in shanties amid fetid garbage, methane fumes, and various toxins. In 2000 one of the biggest dumps— a huge trash mountain called Payatas—collapsed after typhoon rains, destroying one of the shantytowns and killing 219 people. After the tragedy, the government cleaned up the site, but a new dump was opened next door that continues to provide the only source of income for many poor residents.

As poorer nations industrialize and become wealthier and more consumer oriented, garbage problems usually worsen. China, which has become an economic powerhouse in just the last decade, is the best example of this phenomenon. According to a 2005 World Bank report: "China recently surpassed the United States as the world's largest municipal solid waste (MSW) generator. In 2004 the urban areas of China generated about 190,000,000 tonnes of MSW and by 2030 this amount is projected to be at least 480,000,000 tonnes. No country has ever experienced as large, or as rapid, an increase in waste generation."39 Managing this rapid increase in garbage presents all kinds of major health, social, and environmental problems. Perhaps the worst impact in China is environmental deterioration so bad that Chinese people are regularly sickened by toxic pollutants entering the air, soil, and water. The World Bank has estimated that almost half a million Chinese people die prematurely each year from breathing in the polluted air and drinking the dirty water. Yet government efforts to address this pollution face enormous obstacles, as millions of Chinese demand their slice of the growing economic pie. As journalist David Stanway explains, "With hundreds of millions of urban residents enjoying the fruits of consumerism, the government is struggling to bring a sense of the environmental costs of breakneck economic growth. It has tried to rein in industrial polluters by cutting off credit, suspending licenses and jailing repeat offenders, but officials bemoan the failure of ordinary people to be green."40 Some Chinese leaders have even speculated that the environmental destruction may eventually halt China's economic progress.

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TIMOTEO
Why develop/countries face more problem in managing waste?

2 years ago
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alvisa
How garbage is collected and dumped in different countries?

2 years ago
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thorsten
WHY IS WASTE MANAGEMENT NOT A PROBLEM TO MORE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES?

1 year ago
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JAMES NEWCOMB
How much countries waste rubbish?

1 year ago
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duilio
What countries are suffered from garbage?

1 year ago
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hal longhole
Does trash come from third world countries?

1 year ago
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mirabella
How many countries face waste problems?

1 year ago
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stephan
How to recycling waste in a undeveloped area?

1 year ago
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beverly
How developed countries disposing waste?

1 year ago
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luwam
How does lack of education post as a challenge to waste management in a developing countries?

12 months ago
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mantissa
Which country have waste problems?

12 months ago
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esther
What contries have bad waste management?

12 months ago
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Columbus
How to calculate solid waste poor countries?

12 months ago
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arto
What are the challenges generated by poor waste disposal to the development of an area?

11 months ago
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Alexander
How much trash does a person in an underdeveolped country?

11 months ago
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ulrike
HOW BAD IS THE GARBAGE PROBLEM IN MANILA PHILIPPINES?

11 months ago
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Sabina
Which countries have solid waste problem?

11 months ago
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Faye
When did trash become a problem in third world countries?

11 months ago
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tuula toivonen
Why waste managemwnt is a problem in developing country?

10 months ago
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jarkko
Which country has the worst recycling problems?

10 months ago
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martin
How would the mass of trash differ if you live in a deceloping nation?

10 months ago
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Kerttu
How do third world. countries dispose of poop?

9 months ago
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miia
How poor is trash mamangament in the usa?

9 months ago
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MICHAEL LEE
Which countries produce more wastesdeveloped,developing or underdeveloped?

8 months ago
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Belisarius Oldbuck
What country is trash based on?

8 months ago
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eden
How to solve trash problem for poor country?

8 months ago
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heike
Which countries produces more waste developed; developing; undevloped?

8 months ago
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Tamara Peterson
How to treat solid waste in third countries?

8 months ago
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azzeza
How have countries tried to solve trash problems?

7 months ago
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chica
How under developed countries manage their waste?

7 months ago
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Flavus
What are the challenge of waste management in under develop countries?

7 months ago
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Prudenzio
How do developing countries push for recycling?

7 months ago
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nicolas mckenzie
How to manage waste in third world countries?

7 months ago
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KISANET
How do developing countries manage waste water?

7 months ago
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zula
Who has worst trash disposal in the world?

7 months ago
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viljo
How is waste is reused in the 3rd world countries?

7 months ago
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Delores
Which countries have low landfill management?

6 months ago
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ERIKA
Which countries would have the hardest problem dealing with solid waste disposal Why?

6 months ago
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Cornelia
How do some countries addressed proper waste disposal?

6 months ago
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FRE-QALSI
Why do countries trade in hazardous waste?

6 months ago
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graziella
Why 3rd world country trash goes in water?

6 months ago
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OUTI
What happens to rubbish generated in poorer countries?

6 months ago
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mattalic sandheaver
Why is waste disposal hard in developing countries cities?

6 months ago
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Elsa
How waste is managed by country the economist?

5 months ago
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teemu
Does other counties have pollution and waste managment problems?

5 months ago
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arsi hietam
How many countries use open dump for waste?

5 months ago
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josefiina
How to reduce trash in a developing country?

5 months ago
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Anne
What other poor cities have hazardous drinking water and waste problems?

5 months ago
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LEONORA
What causes poor waste management in developing countries?

5 months ago
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Emanuele
What country has the biggest waste problem?

5 months ago
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Lucie
What problems exist in the waste management WORLDWIDE?

4 months ago
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TEIGHAN
How does developed countries manage waste water from their respective houses?

4 months ago
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Isaias
How can we help developing countries with landfill issues?

4 months ago
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Italo
Who has the worst energy waste issues?

4 months ago
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Edvige
How many countries dont have waste management?

4 months ago
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simon
How is solid waste a greatest challenges facing developing countries?

4 months ago
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PATRYCJA
How to properly manage waste in a third world country?

3 months ago
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paul schuhmacher
How do the develop countries dispose of their waste in many dishonorable ways?

3 months ago
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emma haapoja
What country does not have proper garbage dump?

3 months ago
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Kauko
What is the current challenge with waste disposal in the ocean?

3 months ago
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Linnie
Why poor countries dont clean up?

3 months ago
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MUSA WILSON
Why garbage heaps in third world?

3 months ago
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Benjamin
What countries has waste classification?

3 months ago
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karolin
Do people in your country care about waste classification?

3 months ago
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GRIFFO
Why third world country dont recycle?

3 months ago
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asmara
How do many countries dispose of garbage?

3 months ago
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Nahand
What about garbage problems in developing?

2 months ago
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lori stewart
How can industry reduce country's solid waste?

2 months ago
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belladonna
Why is recycling limited in third world countries?

2 months ago
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luigia sabbatini
Why recylis a problem in developing countries?

28 days ago
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Adam
How important is waste management for third world countries?

16 days ago
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lioba
What countries have the great problems dealing with solid waste disposal?

11 days ago
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