Can technology and collaboration solve our global waste woes?

This is part of a series of primers on current affairs and issues in the news, and what they mean for Singapore.

Uncollected bin bags pile up on Poplar Road in Birmingham, central England, on April 15, 2025. Residents are desperately trying to get rid of an estimated 17,000 tonnes of trash that has piled up since refuse workers ramped up a strike last month. Four weeks in, the city council has declared a "major incident," the prime minister has had to defend the government's response in parliament, and residents say their problems are worsening by the day. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

The world generated 2.3 billion tonnes of municipal waste in 2023, according to the United Nations.

PHOTO: AFP

Chin Hui Shan

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SINGAPORE – For over a month since March 11, rubbish has been piling up on the streets of Birmingham, a city in England of more than a million people, while bin collectors go on strike over pay.

Residents have had to endure the stench and filth from black bags piled up in front of their homes and on the pavements that are overflowing with food scraps, dirty diapers and other household waste, while rats roam over the rubbish or lie dead from eating poison put out to kill them.

Can technology and collaboration solve our global waste woes?

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