Overview

Climate change is a global challenge and a concern for cities worldwide. Waste management is not only an important responsibility and a core service municipalities offer to their citizens, but it also has a high impact on local climate protection. If managed poorly, waste has tremendous negative consequences for cities, their inhabitants, the environment and climate.

Municipal solid waste contributes directly to global warming through the emission of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG). Through waste management systems, developing and emerging countries can reduce the total amount of GHG emissions by 5% to 10%, according to a BMZ study.

Setting up a local waste management which minimises negative effects on climate change and the environment and which is energy and resource efficient, is a local challenge all cities face on different levels – in industrialised regions as well as in emerging and developing countries. German cities and their municipal companies like the Stadtreinigung Hamburg are already working towards an innovative circular waste economy and contributing with waste management to climate protection.

From November 27th to 29th 2017, municipal practitioners from Brazil, Germany, Jordan, Moldova, Morocco, Turkey, Ukraine, Tanzania and Zimbabwe joined in Hamburg at the Connective Cities Dialogue Event “Climate protection through circular waste management”. The event was initiated and hosted by the municipal waste company, Stadtreinigung Hamburg (http://https://www.stadtreinigung.hamburg/), which contributed with practice-oriented inputs by several experts to the exchanges and discussions.

Keynotes

Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Siechau, Stadtreinigung Hamburg, Germany

Climate Protection through Circular Economy: A Challenge for Cities Worldwide

Dr. Johannes Paul, GIZ, Germany

From Waste Dumping towards Circular Waste Economy: Challenges and Opportunities in Cities of the Global South 

Miriam Danne, German Association of Municipal Utilities, Germany

The European Week of Waste Reduction and the Role of German Municipal Companies

Results

The event counted with the active participation of 36 municipal practitioners and experts in the area of municipal waste management. Through the joint discussions, they exchanged both on challenges, such as the integration of the informal sector or establishing a waste separation system, and on innovative solutions, such as multi-lingual awareness campaigns for refugee-hosting communities or practical and cost-effective solutions for public amenity centres.

The following project ideas were formulated:

• Separate collection and recycling of plastic waste in Kariba, Zimbambwe
• Separate waste collection and integration of the informal sector in Jundiai, Brazil
• Public Ammenity Centres in Lviv, Ukraine
• Public Ammenity Centres in Amman, Jordanien
• Information and training programme on waste management for refugees in Hatay und Karesi, Turkey

The project idea for the city of Jundiai, Brazil, was further developed and concretized during an expert assignment with waste management experts from Hamburg and the District of Kassel in February 2018.