Across the planet each person on average, produces somewhere between 0.2 and 1 kilogram of solid waste (garbage) per day, depending on a wide range of factors, not counting industry and construction activities, which produce even larger quantities. Much of the solid waste in developing countries is dumped into piles of varying size. From mounds along roadways, to dumps acres wide, these areas are unlined, and completely exposed to the elements , leading to contamination of the surrounding environment as materials degrade.

By Burton Frierson NEW YORK (Reuters) – Twelve of the worst pollution problems in the developing world are being cleaned up, demonstrating that tens of thousands of others also could be improved, according to a report [pdf] released on Wednesday. The clean-up sites, ranging from Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster area to the polluted streets of Delhi, were in the fourth annual World’s Worst Polluted Places Report issued by the New York-based Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland. In contrast to previous years’ reports [pdf], which highlighted contaminated sites or specific pollution problems, the 2009 edition focused on clean-ups and solutions. “Tens of thousands of polluted sites contaminate local populations — as many as 500 million people are poisoned each day in the developing world,” the report said. “Only a few of these problems have been fixed. But it’s a start and worth recognizing.” The group’s initial search for potential success stories yielded just 45 candidates. Making the final list were the only 12 cases that appeared to provide verifiable and credible evidence of success. “Here we are talking about successes but there’s only 12 of them,” Richard Fuller, president of Blacksmith Institute, told a teleconference of journalists. “We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the West cleaning up our pollution problems here and at the same time we’ve shifted all our industry overseas and what we’ve done is ended up poisoning all these people in all these places overseas.” …

Global pollution-fighters find scant success