Urban sustainability is the idea that an urban area can be organised without excessive reliance on the surrounding countryside and be able to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The aim of this is to create the smallest possible environmental footprint and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, compost used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and to make the urban area overall contribution to climate change minimal. Therefore allowing the next generations and future generations to have the required resources without compromising them.

It is estimated that over 50% of the world’s population now lives in urban areas and that this will rise to 70% by 2050. Such a change will influence urban sustainability even more. One major area in sustainability for urban areas is the environment. Waste management is a very important aspect for urban areas as not only is the amount of waste increase as the population of urban areas increases. Within the UK the average person produces 517kg of household waste every year but luckily waste disposal in the UK is fairly efficient.
However many other countries are more efficient in waste management and recycling such as Germany 48% and Switzerland 52%. Resources need to be managed rather than disposed of as landfills are the least sustainable option and cost money to manage. The best way on managing waste in urban areas is to try and reduce, reuse and recycling. Businesses are being encouraged to reduce the amount of packaging used, while customers are being encouraged not to accept plastic bags. Sometimes re-use of milk containers and soft drink bottles and jam jars happen and occasionally shops will charge cash deposits on glass bottles and ink cartages. While items such as paper, glass, metal cans, plastic and clothes can all be recycled.

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