Waste management and research and the sustainable development goals: Focus on soil and groundwater pollution

摘要

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations (UN) most definitely brings well-needed hope in today's technically advanced yet tumultuous and trou-blesome world where large segments of the population are des-perate, helpless, and generally left out. It connects poverty alleviation, human wellbeing, and environmental protection in new and more integrated ways. The 2030 Sustainability Agenda brings hope by stimulating action over the upcoming years through the implementation of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their 169 associ-ated targets in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet, thus hopefully shifting the world onto a sustainable and resilient path where no one is left behind. International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) was among the first institutions embracing the SDGs and, judging by its undertaking of the hefty global initiative to close the 50 most polluting dumpsites of the world, ISWA is clearly committed to ensure that the SDGs are indeed effectively implemented as soon as possible. Closing dumpsites constitutes an implicit or explicit target for many of the SDGs, as outlined in the September 2016 ISWA Roadmap Report, unveiled during the ISWA 2016 World Congress in Novi Sad.