Urban solutions to reducing carbon emissions through solid waste disposal

The Regional Plan Association (RPA), in partnership with the World Bank Institute, has initiated the Metropolitan Strategic Planning Lab (MetroLab), a platform for cities across the world to share challenges and solutions to metropolitan planning and management. With the emergence of climate change as the central theme in the upcoming MetroLab conference, the Capstone team was engaged to research the current and impending effects of climate change on global cities. As RPA is completing its Fourth Regional Plan for the New York metropolitan region, solid waste disposal was identified as an important yet overlooked problem in regional planning. The team researched innovative and more effective solid waste disposal methods and policies. Based on comparative research of leading practices from cities around the world, the team delivered a didactic report on innovative, implementable municipal solid waste disposal strategies to be applied to regional planning practices worldwide.