By Emmanuel Okogba

The global challenge of municipal solid waste management is escalating at an alarming pace. According to the World Bank Group’s March 2026 report, waste generation is consistently outpacing management capacity worldwide. The volume of municipal solid waste is projected to rise from 2.56 billion tonnes recorded in 2022 to 3.86 billion tonnes by 2050, with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia bearing the most severe consequences due to their exceptionally rapid growth in waste generation.

The consequences of this surge are wide-ranging and deeply damaging. The accumulation of municipal solid waste contributes to the contamination of soil, water, and air; the clogging of drainage systems; biodiversity loss; and the proliferation of public health hazards, including the spread of disease and increased incidence of respiratory illness. 

Beyond these immediate impacts, the decomposition of organic waste in unmanaged dumpsites generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas with significant implications for climate change. For the developing world, where waste management practices remain predominantly dependent on the linear take-make-dispose model, these challenges are compounded by the high logistical costs of collection and disposal, with little to no value recovery from discarded materials.

Addressing this crisis is made substantially more difficult by a convergence of systemic barriers: the near-complete absence of reliable waste data, weak legislative frameworks, chronic underfunding, the non-engagement of qualified professionals, inadequate infrastructure, a lack of strategic planning, and low levels of public awareness. Against this backdrop, a sustainable systems development and circular economy expert has identified a clear, replicable pathway for the developing world to achieve integrated, sustainable municipal solid waste management.

Dr Ishmael Onungwe, an alumnus of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, undertook a rigorous investigation beginning in 2021, using the Aba metropolis in southeastern Nigeria, West Africa, as a case study. His research established that the developing world has an enormous, largely untapped resource, one that is being discarded daily at open dumpsites. At the same time, communities endure the public health and environmental consequences of such mismanagement.

Employing a site-based waste audit with computer-based environmental application software for waste characterisation, in accordance with the standard test method for determining unprocessed municipal solid waste (ASTM-D5231-92), the research applied growth factor analysis to establish a realistic waste generation rate of 0.7813 kilograms per person per day for the study population. Critically, over 70% of the characterised waste was found to be energy-potent, comprising both biodegradable and non-biodegradable components. These findings reveal a substantial energy recovery potential, one that, if properly harnessed, could contribute to daily power generation in a country where electricity access remains severely constrained and per capita electricity consumption ranks among the lowest in the world.

Consistent with the European Investment Bank’s position that without the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, the challenges of municipal solid waste management will persist, Dr Onungwe validated the transformative potential of these principles in a developing-nation context. For nations lacking innovative waste management infrastructure, the broader 10Rs strategy: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, and Recover, is recommended as an immediate and practical transitional framework to the actualisation of the circular economy principle. This is grounded in Antonis Zorpas’s work on the multiple-R concept within the circular economy framework, which demonstrates the compounding value of applying successive resource-recovery strategies across the waste management value chain.

Emphasising the circular economy as an effective, evidence-based strategy for combating climate change, Dr Onungwe strongly advocates formalising informal waste-picker operations, which already provide a valuable yet largely unrecognised recycling service in many developing cities. 

In alignment with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s framework on extended producer responsibility, Dr Onungwe further advocates for a fee-based scheme through which governments enforce regulatory oversight, requiring manufacturers to assume financial responsibility for the entire product lifecycle, from production through to disposal and recovery.

To strengthen the broader transition to a circular economy, the expert reiterates the urgency of legislative reform, the establishment of reliable public-private partnerships, and the effective engagement of environmental professionals in waste policy development and sector governance. 

As documented by Obiora Ezeudu, Nigeria and comparable developing nations continue to struggle to implement circularity at the macro level, making it even more critical to cultivate enabling conditions at the micro level. This includes the development of integrated waste management value chains encompassing household-level sorting, separate storage infrastructure, efficient collection systems, and sustained public education and civic engagement.

Dr Onungwe ultimately emphasised that the developing world can no longer afford to treat waste as a burden rather than a resource. A departure from ad-hoc approaches is essential. What is required is a systems-level response, one that integrates effective legislation, pragmatic governance, dedicated funding, meaningful collaboration with professionals and non-governmental organisations, the provision of modern infrastructure and technology, strategic planning, and sustained public education. Together, these elements constitute the foundation of an integrated, sustainable waste management system. 

Crucially, the expert affirms that the circular economy is not an aspiration reserved for the developed, industrialised world, but the missing blueprint the developing world must adopt. The evidence is already compelling: from the energy potential locked in discarded waste to the bio-fertiliser recoverable from organic fractions.