International Transfer of Waste Management Concepts, Services and Products

Despite their increasing resource consumption many developing countries and emerging economies do not have an appropriate waste management system. Germany and other EU member states, on the other hand, have very efficient waste management systems that decouple their economic development from resource consumption. An efficient waste management does not only contribute to economic growth but also generates a higher quality of life, especially in metropolitan areas and shows a high potential for global climate change mitigation as well as resource efficiency.

Against this backdrop, the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) had funded the project "International concepts for waste management – identification and transfer of waste management concepts, services and products in (potential) EU candidate countries as well as emerging and developing economies with scientific support". The aim of the project was to support Bulgaria, Croatia, Iran and Turkey in advancing their waste management sector.

To this end, adelphi, jointly with its partners INTECUS and the Environmental Policy Research Centre at the Freie Universität Berlin (FFU), analysed the current status of the waste and recycling management systems in the selected target countries, conducted a deficit analysis to identify respective barriers to development and finally suggested potential measures to further develop the waste management sector. Relevant local and German stakeholders discussed these measures in one-day country-specific workshops. This strengthened local stakeholders' direct responsibility and identification with the project and and promoted the actual implementation of the respective measures after the workshop. The project consortium published country-specific reading materials before and after the workshops and conducted a joint international closing conference in Germany at the end of the project.