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  Business Times Singapore 17 Feb 07
ADB urges wasteful Asians to modify consumption style

(MANILA) Newly well-off Asians are becoming more and more wasteful as they emulate the West's consumption patterns and the environment is suffering as a result, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday.

Some estimates show that in Asia, the world's export and manufacturing dynamo, 90 per cent of production materials are never used in the final product and some 80 per cent of all products are discarded after a single use, ADB said in a statement.

'The result is greatly expanded economic production characterised by wasteful resource use compared to global standards and high levels of waste.'

The average daily output of solid waste alone from Asia's largest cities is estimated at 760,000 tonnes and expected to rise to 1.8 million tonnes per day by 2025, the bank added.

'New production and consumption patterns have altered the quantity and nature of materials that must be managed, especially in Asia's urban areas,' said Nessim Ahmad, director of ADB's environment and social safeguards division.

'The growing volume and toxicity of waste disposed of on land into the air and waterways is simply threatening to overwhelm our cities.' The bank said proper waste recovery, treatment or disposal is 'very costly' and 'is increasingly beyond the financial resources or political will of many national and municipal governments'.

Asian companies are also gradually realising that this forms part of hidden costs that directly affect their international competitiveness, it added.

The bank said regional and economic integration was also accelerating the cross-border trade in used goods, with Asia accepting 'tens of millions of pieces of discarded electronics equipment every year' that contains more than 1,000 different substances, 'many of which are toxic'.

'There are compelling reasons to take action,' Mr Ahmad said. 'As world markets become more open and competitive, achieving resource efficiency can make a critical difference in the ability of a nation's products and services to compete both in the global market and at home.'

ADB said it is committed to a 2004 project by the world's top eight industrial economies to encourage the concept of 'reduce, reuse, and recycle' in materials management. - AFP
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