How Waste Crisis Altered the Common Understanding: From Fordism to Circular Economy and Sustainable Development

As waste proliferation becomes an apparent problem in the European Union (EU), there are two ways to cope with waste generation: circular economy (CE) and sustainable development principles and strategies. The present study demonstrates a socioeconomic approach of sustainable waste management (SWM) with understanding over the negative externalities of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) and household hazardous waste (HHW) management. Discussion over the adoption either of weak or strong sustainability covers the gap over what policy is better for copying with waste. Hence, SWM should be a core strategy for policymakers who deal with the waste crisis. Waste generation also creates a plethora of negative externalities to the environment; however, a peculiar and virtuous aspect of waste is the capability of generating energy from it. Waste-to-Energy (WtE) has been neglected due to the occurrence of other crises like the exponential population growth, urbanization, industrialization, economic turbulences, COVID-19, and war: shortly—the multi-crisis. The present study contributes to the existing literature by delving into the impacts of waste on peoples’ lives and the transition from the linear into a circular pathway.