Global Waste Management

The book provides a brilliant description of the mechanisms behind the waste crisis, one of the biggest challenges for creating a more sustainable future. Kamila Pope offers a sharp analysis of how we arrived in this situation and shows how adequate governance could lead us out of it. A paradigm shift in the current dominant economic model and legal order for the use of a more systemic view is wisely proposed. This is an essential read for all working in sustainability issues and environmental policy.

The issue of global waste management is ripe with challenges of social-ecological justice. This applies to national jurisdictions, but increasingly so to cross-border waste transfers to the Global South. This book casts a sharp eye on the striking absence of systemic legal control instruments. Against this backdrop, Kamila Pope suggests the creation of international regulation oriented towards ecological integrity and dignity of life in an intra- and inter-generational perspective. This book is an alert of a global problem and a handbook for its solution; a must-read for decision-makers and scholars alike.

This timely book shows depth and urgency of the global waste crisis and critiques the liberal, anthropocentric model underpinning current waste management. It makes a well-reasoned case for laws based on eco-centric ethics. Indeed, nothing short of a paradigmatic shift to ecological law and governance is needed to solve the problem of waste and, for that matter, of disintegrating Earth systems (climate, oceans, biodiversity).

International trade of substances and objects which are not anymore, or never were, interesting for the owner, is a phenomenon which deserves scientific attention and critical analysis. Following an exhaustive research, Kamila Pope went beyond the mere legal approach in the framework of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, and has presented a multidisciplinary approach to the global problem of waste management. The visualising data methods included in the book enhance effective communication and contribute to a thorough understanding of the main central message of the book: the equity or inequity of international relations among world regions, as a consequence of waste management options.
Global Waste Management can help change the mindset of those who are concerned with the effects of current production and consumption patterns and waste management system between the so called Global North and Global South Regions. Kamila Pope's book provides clear insights on the best waste management options necessary to trigger a shift from a linear economy based on a throwaway society, towards a new circular economy paradigm, based on a frugal, responsible and more sustainable society.

This is a book worthy to read because it brings a fresh perspective to a long-standing problem, the continuously but silently increasing waste crisis. Adopting the socio-ecological perspective and digging deeper to material flow analysis, urban metabolism and environmental justice narratives, the book not only presents the on-going waste crisis but documents the need for a systemic shift towards a new scientific paradigm that will start from governance. The need for a new global governance pattern that will include not only waste but mainly material flows is one of the key-elements of the systemic shift required and its necessity is one of the most important outcomes of this book. I also believe that the book includes valuable suggestions that bridge the gap between the mainstream circular economy discussion and the role of waste management. I strongly suggest this book to any professional, researcher or decision-maker that deals with waste management, especially to the ones that are looking for a fresh perspective and are dealing with global waste flows.