Organization

Within two generations a majority of the world's 10 billion people will live in vast megalopolises and consume scarcer resources. These city dwellers will also produce more waste, which in addition to the issues of urban public health and quality of life, will offer enormous recycling-recovery potential. Each year less than a quarter of the waste produced worldwide is recovered.

Veolia Environmental Services' development of global waste management and recovery channels makes a vital contribution towards efforts to conserve raw materials in a world of increasingly scarce natural resources. We are also working to foster sustainable development, not only by adopting best labor and environmental practices but by fighting climate change through the avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions.

Veolia Environmental Services offers a broad range of services in a more tightly regulated sector and contributes to the public debate. We have formulated seven proposals to promote sustainable waste management, on the following topics:

• Agricultural recycling, which encourages the return of organic matter to the land, conditioning impoverished soil.
• Material recovery, which conserves natural resources by producing secondary raw materials and biomaterials from waste.
• Energy recovery, which helps drive the development of renewable energies and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Action to promote socially responsible, ecologically-sound environmental management, around the world, as well as research and training.
• Developing alternative waste transportation—rail and waterway—and the use of clean fuels.
• The introduction of tax incentives and financing policy designed to foster sustainable, economically viable waste management.
• The creation of an "ecological police force" charged with enforcing a uniform legal framework applicable to all facilities.