Circular economy, international cooperation, and solid waste management: a development project in La Paz (Bolivia)

This paper introduces the preliminary results of a development project focused on waste recycling and recovery in La Paz (Bolivia). The aim is to share best practices and present real-world challenges in implementing appropriate waste management systems in developing countries. Environmental pollution, social inequality, lack of resources, and economic discrepancies are challenges still present in the 21st century, and a global call for action is needed to support sustainable development. The project “LaPazRecicla”, financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, provides perspectives useful for policy-makers, waste management practitioners, and circular economy visionaries. The approaches used for developing the actions, the activities carried out, and the main results are presented. The outcomes of the project provided two main indications, both positive and negative: on one hand, cooperation among interdisciplinary actors and financial support can give the chance of improvement, suggesting international donors to continue in this direction; on the other, political instability, lack of local technical knowledge, and the absence of planning in a long-term period makes these actions unsuitable for a tangible change. Global reflections are required in order to measure the potential benefits of small-scale projects, evaluating the time needed to move towards a sustainable future in low-income countries.