UN Zero Waste Day

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The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution at its seventy-seventh session to proclaim 30 March as the International Day of Zero Waste. Join us to celebrate the first observance of International Zero Waste from here!

Waste Wise Cities

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UN-Habitat launched “Waste Wise Cities”, to address the increasing global waste management crisis. Waste from homes, markets, businesses and institutions is thrown on the streets, in drains, dumped next to communities or openly burnt. Not only does this make our cities unsightly and unattractive to tourists and investors, it leads to flooding, air and water pollution, diseases as well as respiratory and other health problems. The urban poor are the most affected. Waste management operations account for a significant proportion of city budgets, but financing for waste management remains inadequate.

However, cities can effectively tackle the waste management problem when regarding waste as a resource, contributing also to reducing global Green House Gas emissions and local air pollution. To be successful, cities must deal with their waste management issues in their context, while also learning from the experience of other cities

Introducing UN-Habitat's Waste Wise Cities

Key Principles

UN-Habitat invites cities to become Waste Wise by promoting and incorporating the following 12 key principles in their solid waste management strategy:

How will UN-Habitat assist you?

UN-Habitat will support cities that want to become Waste Wise in the following action areas:

Waste Data & Monitoring (e.g. feedback on available data, support in collection of data with Waste Wise Cities Tool)
Knowledge & Good Practices Sharing (e.g.Newsletter, City-to-city Partnerships, Waste Wise Academy)
Advocacy & Education (e.g. educational toolkit, awareness raising material)
Project Finance & Bankability Support (e.g. for drafting project proposals, marketplace)

News and Stories

Featured Stories & Videos

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Get to know more

Contact : Andre Dzikus . Chief, Urban Basic Services Section United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) . WasteWiseCities@un.org

Contact : Andre Dzikus . Chief, Urban Basic Services Section United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) . WasteWiseCities@un.org