Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 for Youth: Beyond an age of waste - Turning rubbish into a resource

United Nations 2 years ago

Jointly published with the Children and Youth Major Group to UNEP (CYMG), this report provides an updated analysis of global waste generation and management since 2018.  The original Global Waste Management Outlook is a response to UNEP Resolutions 2/7 and 4/7, offering an updated assessment of global waste management. The report provides data analysis, explores different waste management scenarios, and evaluates their impacts on society, the environment, and the economy. It offers guidance for stakeholders, including multinational development banks, national governments, municipalities, the private sector, and citizens, with a particular focus on young people. Waste pollution poses significant risks to infants, children, and youth, affecting their health due to their developing bodies and vulnerable immune systems. Contamination from landfills and hazardous waste, along with inadequate waste management, increases the risk of respiratory illnesses, gastrointestinal disorders, and developmental delays. Engaging youth in combating waste pollution is crucial, as they will face the long-term consequences of today’s waste management practices. The Youth Summary of the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 aims to equip young people with the knowledge and tools needed to address these challenges. By empowering youth, we can harness their energy, creativity, and commitment to drive transformative change and secure a healthier, more sustainable future for all.  Further Resources: Global Waste Management Outlook 2024
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layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 28 minutes ago



The strongest signal for sustainable construction is a shift from headline materials to delivery systems, skills and resource risk.

BIM4Water’s 2026-30 roadmap places digital twins, standardised data and asset information at the centre of water infrastructure performance, strengthening whole life carbon assessment, lifecycle assessment and life cycle cost decisions across design, procurement and operation.

CDP’s warning that major companies face almost $400bn in water-related impacts shows why sustainable building design, low carbon design and environmental sustainability in construction must address scarcity, flooding and operational resilience from the outset.

Circular economy capacity is becoming a practical construction priority. Hertfordshire’s £24m waste transfer station, designed to manage 140,000 tonnes of material a year, reflects the infrastructure needed to support circular economy in construction, resource efficiency in construction and end-of-life reuse in construction.

The move underlines the importance of circular construction strategies, sustainable material specification and better evidence on embodied carbon in materials, including environmental product declarations (EPDs), low embodied carbon materials, green building materials and low carbon construction materials.

The skills gap remains a critical constraint on net zero carbon buildings and net zero whole life carbon. The NFB and CITB-backed heritage construction skills plan matters because retrofit, repair and conservation are central to cutting embodied carbon and reducing the carbon footprint of construction. The greenest low carbon building is often the one already standing, provided the workforce can repair it properly. Software, BREEAM, BREEAM v7, eco-design for buildings and sustainable design frameworks will not deliver carbon footprint reduction without tradespeople able to turn policy into durable, energy-efficient buildings, green infrastructure and low-impact construction. Net zero carbon, carbon neutral construction and decarbonising the built environment now depend as much on capacity, competence and building lifecycle performance as on capital.

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