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Analysis: Unlocking Waste-to-Energy for Energy Security and Regional Growth
Energy security has become a pressing global concern. Recent disruptions in energy markets have underscored the vulnerabilities of relying on centralized systems fueled by imported commodities. Mass-burn WtE facilities offer potential solutions here: stable, dispatchable electricity and heat from a fuel—municipal waste—that every city produces locally and continuously. For regions heavily reliant on volatile energy imports, that is no small thing.
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: World Bank Group Support to Help Philippines Expand Resilient Water and Sanitation Services for Water Security and Jobs
The project is expected to generate 8,700 jobs within five years of completion, rising to around 46,500 jobs over a 25-year period.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Making Waste Pay: The Keys to Sustaining Paying Customers in Solid Waste Management
Despite growing discourse around the revenue potential of waste to wealth — i.e., reimagining waste as a valuable resource — profitability in municipal solid waste management remains low in India and other low- and middle-income countries. As Vishwanath Varma, Archana Masih, Diksha Rana and Ashish Kapil at Waste Warriors Society argue, this challenge has led to a growing focus on collecting user fees from households — yet that goal is easier said than done. They share analysis based on Waste Warriors Society’s user fee records and customer surveys, which reveals key insights on how to retain paying customers in solid waste management and other user fee-based models of social entrepreneurship.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, WASH
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Research: Microplastic Pollution Can Fuel Rise in Antibiotic Resistance
Plastic pollution and drug-resistant infections are usually regarded as separate global crises. But emerging research suggests links between them: Microplastic particles in the environment are colonized by bacteria, and those bacteria develop antibiotic resistance at an unprecedented rate.
- Categories
- Health Care, WASH
- Region
- Global
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China and the West Are Taking Opposite Paths on EV Battery Recycling
China has 85% of the world’s recycling capacity and a mandate to shred old packs. The U.S. has another plan: use them to save the power grid first.
- Categories
- Technology, WASH
- Region
- Global
- Tags
- e-mobility, recycling, renewable energy, solar, waste
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After the Grant Ends: Why Rural Water Utilities Fail — And What We Learned from Building One
For decades, rural water projects in low- and middle-income countries have followed a familiar pattern: Infrastructure is built, communities are trained, a ribbon is cut — and within a few years, the system stops working. After leading the early operations of Max TapWater, a social enterprise providing piped water in rural Bangladesh, Saif Islam identified a fundamental reason for these failures: Investment continues to prioritize capital infrastructure over the operational and maintenance budget needed to sustain it. He explores this challenge, and shares other lessons he has learned about how rural water facilities can sustain operations beyond the grant period.
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Analysis: India Is Drowning in Its Own Wastewater. These Two Engineers Decided to Turn It Back Into a Resource.
India generates 72,000 million litres of wastewater every day. It treats 28 percent of it. The other 72 percent flows, untreated, into rivers, lakes, and land. Amrit Nayak and Krunal Patel think the problem is not the water — it is the architecture of how treatment gets built.
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Global
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Analysis: A Nigerian Teen Is Turning Agricultural Waste Into Biodegradable Sanitary Pads
Auwal-Panti’s project was selected in a shortlist of 35 global teams for the 2026 Earth Prize, organized by the Earth Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit that empowers, educates and inspires young people to tackle environmental challenges.
- Categories
- Agriculture, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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