Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

Kunming, China. Photo © iStock/GoodLifeStudio

large high altitude cities include Kathmandu (Nepal), Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) and Kunming (China) in Asia; Harare (Zimbabwe), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in Africa; and Bogotá (Colombia), with more than 7 million inhabitants, in South America. Altitudes range from 1,350 metres ASL in Ulaanbaatar to more than 4,000 metres ASL in the case of El Alto, Bolivia. There are also numerous smaller cities (less than 500,000 inhabitants) between 1,500 and 5,000 metres ASL – particularly in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, India, China, Nepal, Kenya and Ethiopia.

generates a large amount of food waste with limited amounts of packaging. However, there is a steady increase in the generation of non-organic recyclable waste, as income levels in these countries increases. This is expected to continue in the future: as the level of development increases, income per capita rises, which in turn means an increase in generation of waste per capita. The consequent increase in total solid waste will require proper management. Another feature of the waste produced in these cities is the relatively small amount of hazardous household waste 3 (less than 1 per cent and up to 5 per cent if e-waste is included), although there are few reliable statistics. The composition of waste is defined in terms of its physical characteristics – density, moisture content and calorific value – which in turn determines the technologies to be used for collection, transportation and treatment.

Types and characteristics of solid waste in high mountain cities

The characteristics of solid waste generated in large mountain cities relates more to levels of development than to altitude. Solid waste produced in mountainous cities in low and middle- income developing countries has a large component of organic waste (Modak, Wilson and Velis, 2015c); eating fresh food

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