Economy, 2016

to collect (Mostafa 2020). This leads them to overflow and litter their routes with trash during transportation. Furthermore, lack of coordination about vehicle routes and collection frequency makes it difficult to strike a balance between fulfilling waste collection requirements and the number of visits by waste collection vehicles (Mostafa 2020).

Mismanaged Waste Disposal

Much of the waste collected in the Middle East and North Africa ends up in open dumps. Several of the region’s economies have such high rates of inadequately managed waste not because it isn’t collected but because of its treatment or disposal. In 2016, the share of waste disposed of in open dump sites in the Middle East and North Africa was 53 percent (Kaza et al. 2018), but this share varied widely across countries (see lighter blue bars in figure 4.14).

Furthermore, even in the region’s high-income countries, most landfills are not engineered landfills and effectively operate as dumps

FIGURE 4.14

Share of Waste Going into Open Dumps or Unspecified Landfills in the Middle East and North Africa, by Economy, 2016

100

Share of total waste (%) 75

50

25

0 AlgeriaBahrain Egypt, Arab Rep.Iran, Islamic Rep. IraqJordanKuwaitLebanon MaltaMorocco Oman QatarSaudi Arabia Syrian Arab RepublicTunisia United Arab EmiratesWest Bank and GazaYemen, Rep.

Unspecified landfills Open dumps

Source: Based on Kaza et al. 2018. Note: “Unspecified” landfills are ambiguous about their ability to prevent waste leakage. Kaza et al. (2018) report treatment separately for controlled, sanitary, and unspecified landfills. Significant amounts of waste disposed of in “unspecified” facilities are mismanaged, especially in low- and middle-income countries (Law et al. 2020). Data for Djibouti and Libya are not available.

(Kaza et al. 2018). For instance, GCC countries such as Bahrain and Qatar exhibit comparatively high rates of waste disposal in “unspecified” or unengineered landfills (see dark blue bars in figure 4.14). The category of “unspecified” landfills is ambiguous about their potential for proper waste management; it is assumed that waste disposed of in such facilities is partly mismanaged, especially in low- and middle-income countries (Law et al. 2020).

However, use of controlled landfills has been growing in recent years. For example, Morocco has increased disposal into controlled landfills from 10 percent in 2008 to 53 percent in 2016 (Kaza et al. 2018). Data on disposal into controlled and sanitary landfills for other economies are as follows: Algeria, 91 percent; Saudi Arabia, 85 percent; Lebanon, 48 percent; and West Bank and Gaza, 33 percent.

Disposing of collected waste in dump sites and uncontrolled landfills undermines achievements stemming from proper waste collection. Such disposal, indicating poor operational practices, makes it easier for plastic waste to flow into waterways and reach marine areas. For example, even though collection rates in the Philippines are high (around 84 percent nationwide), around 17 percent of the collected plastic waste still ends up in the marine ecosystem (Engle, Stuchtey, and Vanthournout 2016). This ocean-leakage rate is even higher for uncollected waste, of which around 31 percent ends up in the sea.

The False Economy of Mismanaged Waste

Open dumping is prevalent in many areas because it is much cheaper than the alternatives. Setting up open dumps requires virtually no starting capital, while the costs of establishing landfills are higher but still comparatively lower than other alternatives (Kaza et al. 2018). The direct operating costs arising from open dumps for low-income and lower-middle-income countries are about four to five times cheaper than the costs of controlled landfilling (table 4.2).

The comparatively high costs of recycling—including its typically higher collection and transfer costs (Boskovic et al. 2016)—contribute to low rates of adoption in the region despite recycling’s many environmental advantages. Strained budgets may restrict the ability to pursue ambitious recycling programs right away; however, the leakage of plastic waste could still be reduced by ensuring that waste is disposed of in properly controlled landfills and comparable disposal sites.

However, the cost of openly dumped waste exceeds the cost of proper disposal many times over if social and environmental costs are considered. Even though open dumping is about four to five times cheaper than proper landfilling, after considering the negative externalities, open dumping is actually more expensive.