9 Development Bands
Solid waste management (SWM) is an essential utility service. Some two to three billion people worldwide still lack basic services, whereas some countries are already moving beyond SWM towards waste and resource management (WaRM) and a circular economy.
The nine development bands (9DBs) is a conceptual framework and global theory of waste and development authored by Wasteaware founder Andrew Whiteman. The 9DBs enables cities and countries to locate their current developmental situation, and understand key pressure points for improving their WaRM systems. The full paper is downloadable here. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0734242X211035926
Conceptualising the 9DBs is just the start. Wasteaware are working hard to extend the analytical framework to understand how the WaRM systems costs (including capital and operational financing requirements) change as a city/country moves through the DBs. Our research is deepening, but we are ready to release some early findings.
As the data presented in the above graph illustrates, in the majority of developmental situations, Collection and Transfer represents the largest share of investment demand, when looking over a time horizon of 10-15 years.
Meanwhile, as indicated in the following graph, operational costs per tonne of municipal solid waste increase by around 50 times as WaRM systems develop.
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