A seven-part webinar series from Global Waste Lab, in partnership with be Waste Wise.
Why do promising waste projects lose momentum once the funding ends – and what helps them become lasting local systems?
Built to Last explores the seven foundations that help waste initiatives take root, adapt and endure. The series is based on Global Waste Lab’s Seven Foundations of a Resilient Waste System – a practical framework drawing on more than 20 years of field experience and research undertaken for the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024.
Across seven sessions, experienced practitioners will bring each foundation to life through real examples, practical lessons and honest discussion about what it takes to make waste systems work.
The seven foundations are:
- Leadership commitment
- Evidence base
- Appropriate solutions
- Inclusive engagement
- Community asset recognition
- Climate integration
- Financial sustainability
Together, they help answer one important question:
What helps waste systems last?
This CIWM-endorsed CPD series is being delivered in the lead-up to the ISWA World Congress 2026 in London, where Global Waste Lab is a Knowledge Partner.
Who is the series for?
Built to Last is for people who design, fund, manage or support waste systems, including:
- Municipal and national government teams
- Waste management practitioners and service providers
- Development organisations and programme teams
- Funders and investors
- Researchers, consultants and technical specialists
- Community organisations and worker representatives
Whether you are developing a new initiative, trying to strengthen an existing service or deciding where to invest, the series will help you identify the conditions that make lasting progress more likely.
Sessions and speakers
Session 1: Leadership commitment
Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda, Kanifing Municipal Council
Strong ideas, technical expertise and external funding can start a waste project. But sustained local leadership is what helps turn project activity into an enduring public service.
Leadership commitment is not only expressed through speeches, strategies or public launches. It appears in everyday decisions about budgets, staff, partnerships, communication and problem-solving – and in the determination to keep going when conditions are difficult.
Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda will share Kanifing Municipal Council’s experience of building the people, partnerships, systems and confidence needed to improve waste management under real-world constraints.
The session will explore what committed local leadership looks like in practice, how it creates the conditions for progress, and why leadership cannot succeed without the other foundations around it.
🗓️ 23 July 2026
📍 2:00 pm UTC
Session 2: Evidence base
Pushkar Pradhan, CEO and Co-founder, EcoSense Enviro Solutions
Waste projects are often designed using incomplete information about waste quantities, collection coverage, material flows, health risks, recycling markets, emissions or community behaviour.
When the evidence is weak, projects can solve the wrong problem, invest in unsuitable infrastructure or miss the risks that will determine whether a system works in practice.
A strong evidence base does not need to be perfect or expensive. It needs to be useful. It should help decision-makers understand what is happening and respond accordingly.
This session will explore how practical, timely information can move beyond static reports to support daily decisions, traceability, accountability and continuous service improvement.
🗓️ 28 July 2026
📍 9:30 am UTC
Session 3: Appropriate solutions
Lakshmi Menon, Head of Impact, CleanHub
There is not enough money in waste management to waste it on the wrong technology.
Across the world, projects have invested in equipment, facilities and systems that later prove too costly, too complex, too dependent on external support or poorly matched to local conditions.
Appropriate solutions are not necessarily low-tech. They are fit for purpose. They match local waste streams, skills, markets, behaviours, infrastructure and resources – and can be operated, maintained and adapted by the people expected to use them.
This session will explore how to make better choices by asking practical questions about feedstock, markets, maintenance, affordability, culture, dignity and everyday use before committing scarce resources.
🗓️ 19 August 2026
📍 9:00 am UTC
Session 4: Inclusive engagement
Anna de Chavez, international development practitioner working in Southeast Asia
One of the most common mistakes in waste management is designing systems for people without properly involving them.
Households, waste workers, community leaders, small businesses and local service providers experience waste systems differently. They also hold practical knowledge about how waste is generated, stored, collected, reused, sold, burned, dumped or avoided.
When these voices are excluded, projects can overlook existing reuse networks, household routines, safety concerns, income streams, cultural practices and barriers to participation.
Inclusive engagement is not a box-ticking exercise. This session will explore how people can be involved in ways that genuinely influence decisions, improve project design, surface risks early and build lasting trust.
🗓️ 26 August 2026
📍 9:00 am UTC
Session 5: Community asset recognition
Federico Parra, Social and Solidarity Economy Specialist, WIEGO
Every city already has people, skills, relationships and systems that help manage waste.
Workers in an informal economy collect, sort and sell recyclable materials. Community groups organise local action. Repairers, traders, aggregators and small enterprises keep materials in use. Households and businesses already have established routines for reuse, resale and disposal.
Too often, externally designed projects overlook these assets. Existing workers may be ignored, distrusted or displaced, while local knowledge is treated as a problem rather than a foundation to build from.
Drawing on the experience of waste pickers in Colombia, Federico Parra will explore what becomes possible when people are recognised not simply as beneficiaries to be “included”, but as skilled workers and service providers within the waste system itself.
🗓️ 9 September 2026
📍 2:00 pm UTC
Session 6: Climate integration
Dr Andriannah Mbandi, Program Management Officer, Scientific and Technical Panel, Global Environment Facility
Waste management is usually treated as a local service issue, but it is also deeply connected to climate action, public health and urban resilience.
Organic waste in dumpsites and landfills produces methane. Open burning releases black carbon and toxic pollutants. Weak collection and disposal systems create avoidable emissions alongside serious risks to people and the environment.
Better waste management can reduce these harms, strengthen local resilience and create routes to climate finance. But climate integration means more than adding climate language to a proposal.
This session will explore how to identify emissions and climate risks within a waste system, connect practical service improvements with wider climate and health priorities, and make a stronger case for investment.
🗓️ TBC
📍 TBC
Session 7: Financial sustainability
Vishwas Vidyaranya, Co-founder, Ambire Global
Waste management is an ongoing public service, not a one-off intervention.
A project may perform well during its funded period, but fuel, salaries, maintenance, spare parts, communication, supervision and safe disposal must still be paid for once the grant ends.
Financial sustainability does not necessarily mean making a profit or recovering every cost through user fees. It means understanding the full cost of delivering the service and developing a realistic, fair and durable way to meet it.
Public finance, service fees, private sector participation, material sales, producer responsibility, climate finance and grant funding may all contribute. This session will explore how those pieces can fit together, alongside the difficult trade-offs involved in cost recovery, investment readiness, risk and long-term viability.
🗓️ 14 October 2026
📍 2:00 pm UTC
Building beyond the project
No single foundation is enough on its own. Leadership without evidence can lead to poor decisions. Appropriate technology without inclusive engagement may not be used. Strong project design without a viable financial model will not last.
The seven foundations work together to create waste systems that are more resilient, more locally rooted and better able to adapt when circumstances change.
Built to Last is an opportunity to step back from the pressure to deliver the next project and ask a bigger question: what will it take to build waste systems that people can rely on long after the launch, pilot or grant has ended?
Join us to learn from people doing this work, examine the difficult choices involved and strengthen the foundations of your own projects and services.
