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Official development finance in solid waste management reveals insufficient resources for tackling plastic pollution: A global analysis of two decades of data
Summary
Researchers analyzed two decades of international development funding for solid waste management, finding that financial resources remain far below what is needed to address plastic pollution globally. The study found that while funding has increased, it still falls short of targets set by international environmental agreements. Evidence indicates that more strategic investment in waste management infrastructure is essential for tackling the plastic pollution crisis.
Abstract Providing effective solid waste management (SWM) is essential to tackle plastics pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid other potentially harmful impacts, including local air pollution impacts from open burning and the conditions that spread disease. Official development finance (ODF) plays a key role in providing SWM waste infrastructure and services. International cooperation is also central to the multi-lateral environmental agreement currently being negotiated (the ‘Plastics Treaty’). To provide insight on the scale, flows and changes in SWM ODF over time, we developed a standardised methodology to analyse OECD development finance data and applied it to data for 2003-2021. ODF focused on SWM is still very low, representing just 0.41% of all ODF. It is also an order of magnitude less than ODF focused on water and sanitation. This is despite an eight fold increase between 2003 and 2021. SWM ODF is dominated by five main donors who account for over three quarters of SWM ODF: World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank, EU Institutions, Germany and Japan. The majority of recipients of SWM ODF are middle income countries. Low income countries received only 8% of SWM ODF between 2003 and 2021. Total SWM ODF commitments in 2021 were ca. at 1.8 Billion USD. This is still significantly short of the over 30 Billion USD investment estimated to be needed to develop SWM and substantially reduce plastics pollution. The Plastics Treaty represents a key opportunity to rapidly scale up international cooperation and official development finance on solid waste management, help tackle the triple planetary crisis and enable a Just Transition to a circular economy.