Ecuador: Support to the government for the establishment of solid waste management regional project

Ecuador’s waste management sector faces major challenges—with only 6 percent of waste being recycled and only 54 percent of municipalities using adequate disposal sites. Reliance on illegal dumps and inefficient infrastructure contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, environmental damage, and lost economic opportunities.

As waste management falls under municipal jurisdiction, improving the sector requires enhanced local capacity and financing. Although Ecuador has a developed framework for private participation in the delivery of public services, including PPPs and concessions, the mechanism has yet to be fully adopted by subnational governments.

To tackle these issues, PPIAF and the World Bank are supporting Ecuador in developing a roadmap for regional solid waste management PPPs. This activity aims to provide a knowledge product that guides subnational governments in developing and implementing regional waste management services encompassing collection, disposal, recycling, and treatment.

The roadmap will provide legal, institutional, and economic analyses to guide subnational governments in crafting bankable regional waste PPPs. By leveraging private expertise and investment, these PPPs can introduce cleaner technologies, formalize recycling, improve climate resilience, and drive service efficiencies.

The roadmap will position Ecuador to capture more emissions from landfills and enable it to attract private sector investors as it pursues this goal. Beyond reducing harmful emissions, implementing well-structured PPPs and concessions will contribute to the dissemination of global standards and include recycling facilities that reduce pollution and offer improved employment opportunities for women.

Ecuador’s Guayas region is a promising early partner, having expressed interest in piloting a regional waste PPP. As the country’s largest metropolitan area, Guayas offers an ideal proving ground for demonstrating the potential of the PPP model in the solid waste management sector. Lessons from this effort can then inform similar initiatives across Ecuador.