The World Bank Group has been identified as the largest financer of solid waste management, contributing 35 percent of global official development financing, amounting to US$5.13 billion from 2003 to 2021. This financial support is aimed at addressing the escalating global waste crisis, which sees over 2 billion metric tons of municipal waste generated annually—a figure projected to increase by 73 percent by 2050.
In Nepal, results-based payments between 2013 and 2017 expanded waste collection services to 120,000 households across five cities. Similarly, in China’s Ningbo project, improved waste segregation and recycling benefited over 900,000 households from 2013 to 2020.
Institutional strengthening efforts were also noted in Bosnia and Herzegovina where intermunicipal boards reduced the unserved population from 75 percent to 34 percent between 2008 and 2017. Morocco established a governance framework that increased waste collection coverage from 44 percent in 2008 to a remarkable 96 percent.
Financial sustainability was enhanced in West Bank and Gaza through fee collection improvements maintaining an impressive recovery rate of around eighty percent benefiting nearly one million people. In Mexico, a carbon offset project generated revenue through emission reductions supporting landfill operations and providing clean energy to approximately seven hundred thirty thousand people.
Social inclusion initiatives have also been prioritized. In Liberia, a solid waste management project strengthened community-based enterprises and formalized roles for female street sweepers between the years of two thousand seventeen and two thousand twenty-four.
Addressing this growing challenge requires significant investment alongside policy reforms. The World Bank's approach combines infrastructure financing with policy loans and results-based payments aimed at enhancing local health outcomes while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The World Bank Group collaborates with various partners including city networks like Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCOM), United Nations agencies such as UNEP & UN-Habitat along with professional organizations like International Solid Waste Association (ISWA).
Moving forward expanding international cooperation will be crucial; initiatives like Global Plastics Treaty offer opportunities for advancing sustainable practices improving health economic development environmental resilience creating more livable cities globally.