Project

Reducing UPOPs and mercury releases from healthcare waste management, e-waste treatment, scrap processing and biomass burning.

Lead country

Colombia

Participating countries

Colombia

Project status

Under implementation

Implementing period

From January 12, 2017 to January 12, 2022

SDGs addressed by this project

SDG targets

  1. 3.9 Reduce deaths from pollution
  2. 12.4 Achieve environmentally sound chemical, waste management
  3. 12.a Build developing country capacity on sustainable consumption, production

Project ID: 5481

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Technical team

  • Chemicals and Waste Programme

Technical area(s)

  • Persistent organic pollutants
  • Heavy metals

Sub-area(s)

  • Unintentional POPs (e.g. furans, dioxins)
  • Mercury

Landscape(s)

  • Human altered areas

Sub-landscape(s)

  • Industrial site
  • Rural areas

Transformed sector(s)

  • Materials and manufacturing

UNDP role(s)

  • Capacity development / Technical assistance
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Institutional mechanism and system building

Strategy

  • Management operation
  • Monitor inventory
  • Law regulation

Sub-strategy

  • Waste management
  • Waste/pollutants monitoring
  • Pollution control

Social inclusion

  • Private sector
  • Local community/CSOs
  • Waste pickers.

Gender equality

  • Awareness raising (on gender)

Gender result effectiveness scale

  • Gender responsive

Pathway(s)

  • Systems pathway
  • Sci-tech pathway

Risk reduction target(s)

  • Hazard control/mitigation

SDG target(s)

  • 3.9 Reduce deaths from pollution
  • 12.4 Achieve environmentally sound chemical, waste management
  • 12.a Build developing country capacity on sustainable consumption, production

Conventions and protocols

  • Stockholm Convention (POPs)

Private sector(s)

  • Large corporations
  • Small and medium-sized enterprises

Hot topic

  • Structural/system transformation
  • health.

About this project

Description

Introduce Best Environmental Practices (BEP) and Best Available Technologies (BAT) to reduce the release of unintentionally generated Persistent Organic Pollutants (UPOPs) and mercury from the treatment of healthcare waste (HCW), the processing of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), processing of iron and steel, and biomass burning in the sugarcane sector.

Objectives

The main objective of this 5-year project is to introduce the Best Environmental Practices (MPA) and the Best Available Technologies (BAT) to reduce the release of unintended Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and mercury from the treatment of hospital waste, of waste processing of electrical and electronic devices (WEEE), of steel processing, and of the burning of biomass in the sugar sector.

USD $5,950,000

Grant amount

USD $32,915,018

Leveraged amount (co-financing)

1

Source(s) of fund

Sources of fund

 

  • Global Environment Facility – Trust Fund ($5,950,000)

Implementing partner(s)

  • Government of Colombia

Project metrics

Outcome 1:

Prevent and minimize the generation of unintentional POPs and carry out their inventory

 Indicators:

100 g-EQT of releases of unintentional POPs avoided.
300 kg of mercury, treated and stored in an appropriate manner in the health and electronic waste sectors.
A number of new collaboration mechanisms with funding for sustainable management solutions for natural resources, ecosystem, chemical and waste services at national and / or sub-national level, dis-aggregated by type of association.
1.1 One (1) inventory of unintentional POPs developed
1.2 Four (4) evaluations at the national level in the sectors and the reports of the completed evaluations
1.3 Ten (10) demonstration projects implemented that lead to the reduction of 100 g-EQT unintentional POPs released.
2.1 One (1) complete evaluation on the use of equipment containing mercury in the health sector and one (1) guide on the substitution of mercury-containing equipment in the health sector formulated and developed.
2.2 Demonstration projects implemented in the health and WEEE sectors, as a result of the improvement of the management and replacement of 300 kg of mercury through the introduction of BEP and BAT.
3.1 Four (4) national guidelines based on BEP and BAT, and two (2) technical regulations, one on WEEE and the other on the management of hospital waste published.
3.2 One (1) registration system for the generation and management of WEEEs in Colombia established.
3.3 Four (4) training programs for the developed authorities, and two (2) training programs for the developed laboratories.
4.1 Two (2) publications with lessons learned about the published demonstration projects.
4.2 One (1) Project Initiation Workshop and five (5) annual workshops organized.
4.3 One (1) midterm report and one (1) final evaluation report prepared.
Outcome 2:

Prevention and reduction of mercury releases
Outcome 3:

Strengthening of the institutional, administrative, legal, technical and regulatory framework for the reduction of unintentional POPs and mercury.
Outcome 4:

Dissemination of lessons learned, Monitoring and Evaluation
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Project reports and documentation

 

Project Document (ProDoc)