Waste Not, Want Not: Investigating How to Tackle the Burden of Humanitarian Assistance Packaging Waste in Crisis-Prone Areas
Publisher: UN Environment Programme/UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Joint Environmental Unit, USAID, and London School of Economics
Author(s): Olivia Griesser, Laura Huelsemann, Sam Rudnick, and Saskia Soedarjo
Date: 2021
Topics: Humanitarian Assistance, Programming, Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
Countries: Iraq, Yemen
A growing number of people need humanitarian assistance, which is intended to save lives, alleviate suffering and restore human dignity during and after manmade crises and disasters caused by natural hazards. At the same time, solid waste management (SWM) is a rising development challenge that remains underfunded and insufficiently addressed in the global sustainability agenda. Humanitarian stakeholders are recognising the negative impacts of poorly managed packaging waste (PW) generated by humanitarian commodity supply chains, and specifically the problems associated with plastic. This research provides insights into how the humanitarian sector can provide sustainable relief and development, by answering the question: How can packaging waste, generated by humanitarian assistance, be sustainably managed in crisis hotspots?