“Sound Material Cycle (SMC) Society” and “Material Flow” both largely remain an alien concept for most cities of Asia’s developing countries, which routinely struggle to manage increasing daily waste within their municipal limits. However, the huge populace fuelling the growth of these cities has its own frugal ways and modest means which have catapulted them to the top spot in the world’s Green Index (study conducted by the National Geographic), making them the most environmental-friendly denizens of Planet Earth. To arrest this diverse reality, this multi-country research reviews urban expansion and analysis of lifestyles to ascertain changing material flows in domestic sectors as well as prevailing reuse and recycle practices, which may be considered as a precursor to the idea of establishing a SMC Society. Further, field realities from the selected cities of India, Indonesia, Viet Nam as well as Japan are being captured to arrest miniscule and oft-ignored dimensions of cyclicity of the materials at the household, community and city levels. Descriptive, qualitative and technical analysis of selected key material sectors (such as construction, packaging, automobiles, consumer electronics, etc.) of these case-study cities is helping to establish that cities are ideal candidates for promoting SMS pathways.
Peer-reviewed publication