When I got my first job in waste management, I knew very little about the realities of the business. I had completed self-study on municipal waste strategies at university, but I hadn’t had classes, structured learning opportunities, or an internship.
Over the first few months, to say my learning curve was steep would be an understatement. I was surrounded by experienced people; I joined the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and started attending their events and reading their magazine; and I read articles on letsrecycle.com.
My boss encouraged me to get more deeply involved in CIWM, so I became the Communications Officer for my regional centre and started organising events for colleagues to network and learn from one another.
I was lucky.
For most people working in waste management, there are no national waste management institutions, no professional competency thresholds, and no networking events to join. Without all this backup, they are learning by doing.
I have enormous respect for every single waste manager working in a place where systems are still developing, and with no recognised waste management sector. It can be lonely. It can be full of uncertainty. There is little experience to call upon. It’s hard to know what steps to take. The sense of risk can be debilitating, because meagre department finances don’t allow any buffer for trial-and-error.
Poor decisions can lead to costly outcomes, and that’s your job on the line.
Many people in this situation do what any of us would do, and search online. The knowledge must be out there. Somewhere.
It turns out, that most of the knowledge-sharing resources have been written by people in very different contexts. Where roads are in good condition, the council has a well-maintained modern fleet of vehicles, and the depot has power, water and a weighbridge. The guidance may be considered “universal best practice”, but it doesn’t travel.
What should we do if the roads are in disrepair, and impassable in the rainy season? What happens if two of our three vehicles are out of service, and we’re waiting for the spare parts to pass customs? How do we manage in a power cut, or without running water, or accurate data on waste arisings?
These are the real-world challenges faced daily by these most resilient of waste managers. They carry on regardless, because without their service – and I mean SERVICE – uncollected waste would be posing an even greater threat to local health. The drains would be permanently blocked. The smoke from open burning would be unbearable. The marketplace would be festering with vermin.
It’s these waste managers that get me up every morning, because there is work to do and they are doing it. With little practical guidance, with no supporting institutions, and on a shoestring budget.
If in Europe we have standards for “safe”, “competent”, “certified”, what do we have them for?
And if standards matter in one place, don’t they matter everywhere?
All waste managers deserve (and need) to have access to knowledge that is relatable, appropriate, and transferable. To have the chance to learn from someone with hard-won experience, in a similar context. Global Waste Lab Academy has been designed to meet those needs.
A year ago, I made a single LinkedIn post, asking waste managers in these contexts what they needed. To my astonishment, 200 people completed the survey. Their response was almost unanimous: learning grounded in real working conditions, not theory. Free to access. Light on data.
It was also clear to me that the knowledge that needs sharing won’t come from me, or people like me. It needs to come from people who are living and working within their communities – properly invested, in it for the long-term. These are the most committed and resilient waste managers you will ever meet.
At the ISWA International Solid Waste Association world congress in Buenos Aires last November, I pitched the concept. I showed the forecast of uncontrolled waste doubling in a generation. I shared my fears. And I shared why current consultancy and international aid models are not enough to shift the dial.
We urgently need capable and confident waste managers everywhere. In every town and city. Sure, the right foreign experts can add value (and this isn’t to take away from their own expertise and commitment), but ultimately it’s the people who were born there, whose children were born there, and whose grandchildren will be born there, who have a genuine vested interest in designing and maintaining a workable waste management system.
After my talk, a few people who have been in the sector a long time approached me. They got it. Distributed knowledge has to be the way forward. And the experience that’s already there needs to be elevated and shared widely.
I’m very grateful that Bente Flygansvær of BI Norwegian Business School came forward to support the mission. Our task: to invite a small group of experienced and knowledgeable practitioners from places where waste management is still developing, to choose a topic they understand deeply and share what they know, as if they are guiding someone 5-10 years behind them.
Three superb waste managers answered my direct invitation positively. Between them, they bring a depth and breadth to their subjects that I have not seen in other online resources.
Today, it’s a pleasure to present our very first co-creators and their chosen courses (drumroll please):
Gemechu Beyene from Ethiopia – Waste and health: Understanding risks and protecting people. An exploration of how everyday waste management practices expose workers and communities to health risks, and what can be done about it with limited resources.
Lucien Yoppa from Cameroon – Sorting waste at source: Making realistic decisions. A grounded, practical look at when sorting at source actually works, and when it doesn’t. No one-size-fits-all advice; just honest, evidence-based guidance for real contexts.
Tram Nguyen from Vietnam – Food waste management: What works in practice. A practical course for waste managers working with food businesses, markets and institutions – focused on prevention, realistic treatment options, and decisions that actually fit your context.
And of course, none of this would exist online in the form it does without David Leeke of dynafish.net, who has once again pulled out all the stops to turn my ambitions into reality.
We have structured each course into bite-size lessons, so busy waste managers can fit learning around their daily responsibilities. We have included pictures, self-reflection points and quizzes to reinforce learning. We have kept loading time short, so that those struggling with unaffordable data packages, or slow or intermittent internet access, can still access the knowledge easily.
But for me, the most valuable thing, is that this is built on the knowledge and experience of respected, paid experts working in challenging circumstances. They understand the trade-offs between what’s branded as “universal best practice” and what’s actually going to work. They aren’t encouraging anyone to do anything they haven’t done themselves. They have dug deep to share what they feel is the most valuable guidance for their peers.
This is just the beginning. We know it’s not perfect. We have already learned so much from this process and we will continue to learn, iterate and grow.
We’re asking for feedback from waste managers in places where waste management is still developing. And we’re open to more sponsors who have waste management, knowledge sharing, capacity building, equality of access, and environmental wellbeing at the heart of what they do. This is your chance to support improved waste management globally, to allow us to invite more experts to share their knowledge and experience, and shift that dial.
These courses will always be free to access. Their impact will only grow.
So can yours, wherever you are.
See you at globalwastelab.com/academy
Zoë