Food scraps, discarded packaging and products designed to be used only once may seem far removed from global climate diplomacy, but they are moving to the center of the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) on Wednesday as the conference devotes its third day to zero waste, circularity and methane reduction.
As world leaders arrive in Antalya for the first day of the Leaders’ Summit, the focus is on a challenge that begins in everyday life but carries consequences for the global climate, how the world produces, consumes and disposes of its resources.
Türkiye’s COP31 presidency has set a target of halving the projected increase in global annual waste generation by 2035. The ambition is to curb the growth of waste rather than simply reduce current waste volumes by half, while encouraging countries to prevent waste at its source, expand reuse and recycling, and incorporate waste-related methane reduction into their national climate plans.
The scale of the challenge is considerable. According to the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Global Waste Management Outlook 2024, global municipal solid waste generation is projected to rise from 2.1 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050.
The consequences extend well beyond overflowing landfills. The report estimated that the global cost of waste management, including the hidden costs of pollution, poor health and climate change, reached $361 billion in 2020. Without urgent action, the annual cost could climb to $640.3 billion by 2050.
A shift toward a circular economy, in which products and materials remain in use for longer instead of being discarded, could offer a different outcome. UNEP estimates that a comprehensive circular economy approach could generate net annual gains of $108.5 billion by 2050.
Wednesday’s programme is designed to explore how such ambitions can translate into practical measures. Sessions will examine food waste and methane reduction in cities and businesses, ways to measure progress toward a circular economy, and approaches to recovering food and reducing losses across the supply chain.
A U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) session will bring together experiences from Türkiye, China and Tunisia, looking at solutions ranging from the recovery of organic waste in tourism and agriculture to industrial cooperation and integrated municipal waste management.
Türkiye's first lady, Emine Erdoğan, has repeatedly argued that addressing the climate crisis requires a fundamental change in consumption habits, not simply better waste management.
Speaking at the opening of New York Climate Week in New York on Sept. 21, she warned that "no target will be sufficient on its own, and no technology will be a solution on its own” if societies continue the habits driving today's environmental problems.
Her message places responsibility on governments and businesses as well as individuals, calling for longer-lasting and reusable products, production systems that prevent waste and international cooperation to make sustainable choices easier.
The focus also places Türkiye’s own Zero Waste initiative in the broader climate debate. Launched in 2017 under first lady Emine Erdoğan’s leadership, the initiative promotes more responsible consumption and the efficient use of resources. It gained international recognition in 2022 when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution proposed by Türkiye and supported by 105 other countries, designating March 30 as the International Day of Zero Waste, first observed in 2023.
The COP31 presidency has also announced that the conference secured both an event sustainability management certificate and a Zero Waste Certificate before opening, describing the achievement as a first in COP history.
Ultimately, zero waste is about more than what happens after something is thrown away. It begins with the food that is saved, the materials that are reused and the resources that are never wasted in the first place.
The challenge for COP31 is to turn that principle into measurable progress, ensuring that waste reduction becomes a practical part of climate action rather than another pledge left on paper.