Guidelines for Packaging Waste Management in Humanitarian Operations

INTRODUCTION

The partner survey conducted by the Joint Initiative for Sustainable Humanitarian Assistance Packaging Waste Management1 1 The Joint Initiative is funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and brings together a consortium of 24 humanitarian stakeholders to reduce the negative environmental impacts of humanitarian work, particularly by tackling the issue of packaging waste. The initiative supports the humanitarian community to address the problem of packaging waste in a holistic way and aims at promoting greater coordination and standardization within the humanitarian community on packaging sustainability, and more broadly, procurement. It acts as a platform for knowledge-sharing, by documenting humanitarian organizations’ experiences and lessons learned and sharing these through webinars and case studies. (JI) in April 2022 revealed that in many humanitarian contexts, management of waste from humanitarian assistance is left to local authorities and communities to handle and—in the absence of waste-management systems—ends up being buried or burnt openly. This creates local pollution and environmental degradation and poses a risk to human and animal health. The open burning of waste (in particular plastic) contributes significantly to climate change2 2 In 2019 alone, the production and incineration of plastic waste added an estimated 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, equal to the emissions from 189 five-hundred-megawatt coal power plants (Center for International Environmental Law. 2019. Plastic and Climate: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet (https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Plastic-and-Climate-FINAL-2019.pdf). and releases toxic gases.

The JI Packaging Baseline Assessment report showed that 32% of packaging materials used to deliver food and non-food items are made of plastic.4 4 Based on analyzing 6.7 million metric tons of food and non-food items distributed by 13 organization in 2021. To ensure sustainable management of the waste generated by humanitarian organizations, enhanced cooperation and information-sharing are necessary. The JI responds to this by providing guidance on sustainable packaging waste management. Not only will sustainable waste management lead to positive impacts on the environment and human health, but using a circular economy approach to waste management can also strengthen livelihoods.

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