_By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling_
The United Nations is launching a project to help Pakistan recycle more if its waste and the European Union has evaluated how well member states are recycling.
UN-Habitat, the United Nation's agency for human settlement, and the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific have launched a pilot project in the **Pakistani** cities of Karachi, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Mardan that seeks to better manage their solid waste and recycling.
The pilot project will be initiated through the establishment of Integrated Resource Recovery Centers (IRRC), which are decentralized community-based recycling and composting facilities. The IRRCs can be built and operated at low costs by using limited mechanical technology, ensuring low operational costs with minimal equipment breakdowns. The project also seeks to create job opportunities through these centers.
According to the agencies, Pakistan's solid waste problem is creating serious public health issues. An average of about 55,000 tons of solid waste is generated each day in Pakistan, and most cities in the country are not equipped with the proper infrastructure to manage the problem, which will be made worse as the population grows.
A [new report][1] from the European Commission has found that the way **European Union** member states manage their waste differs widely. The report grades each of the 27 member states using 18 criteria in areas such as total waste recycled, pricing of waste disposed and infringements of European legislation. Countries, in the report, are assigned green, orange and red "flags" to indicate what's working and what's not.
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden came out on top, drawing no more than two red flags, which indicate problems, each.
Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia had the most problems, according to the report. Failings among these countries include poor or non-existent waste prevention policies, a lack of incentives to divert waste from landfills and inadequate waste infrastructure.
"The picture that emerges from this exercise confirms my strong concerns," said EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik in a prepared statement. "Many Member States are still landfilling huge amounts of municipal waste -- the worst waste management option -- despite better alternatives, and despite structural funds being available to finance better options.
Valuable resources are being buried, potential economic benefits are being lost, jobs in the waste management sector are not being created, and human health and the environment suffer. This is hard to defend in our present economic circumstances."
The report will be used to prepare roadmaps for the 10 worst-performing member states.
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[1]: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/studies/pdf/Screening_report.pdf
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[3]: http://2012.replas.org.cn/endhjj-1.aspx
[4]: http://www.resource-recycling.com/images/e-newsletterimages/RRe-news082412.html
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