Today, one in three people worldwide are forced to dump or burn their waste, causing disease, polluting the oceans, and contributing to the global climate crisis. 9 million people a year will die from diseases linked to waste and pollution, and up to 5-10% of all climate change emissions are caused by open burning of waste alone. So It's very low hanging fruit that could make a huge improvement to peoples lives and climate change without requiring the upheaval of entire ways of life.

WasteAid is a young, dynamic and independent charity, based in the UK, but with global reach. Wasteaid helps communities in some of the world's poorest of places develop and build up clever solutions that recycle waste and make money in the process of doing so. This gives them the necessary incentives to move away from waste burning. One example of this is by recycling plastic bags and the like into incredibly durable road paving using a low cost process. Laying road infrastructure is a core part of developing, but creating just 2m of road typically produces more CO2 than manufacturing an entire car.

This method has multiple benefits: reducing CO2 emissions from burning waste, reduce emissions from road building, improve livelihoods from a new source of income, preventing disease and death related to waste burning, provide low cost roads to support a growing economy, prevent waste entering the oceans and destroying ecosystems.

And this is just one of their projects they work on.

Developing nations are now some of the biggest polutters as the process of developing is a very carbon intensive process. It is a huge issue that needs to be addressed, on top of developed nations contributions to global warming, if we have a hope of stopping climate change. But luckily these countries have the advantage of building sustainable infrastructure from the start rather than having to replace existing systems.