Lae City (LC) of Morobe Province is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. Due to the abundant natural resources it inherits, the resultant urbanization has led to an influx of the human population. This increase in population as a result of industrialization has led to increased municipal solid waste (MSW) accumulation. To address this exigent issue, which affects the nation’s carbon footprint, it is imperative to review socio-economic and geographic factors to establish a feasible approach for managing MSW efficiently and sustainably. In the quest to achieve the same, the present assessment focuses on the 3 core waste management hierarchy systems to support sustainable development for LC by reviewing existing opportunities and challenges associated with the current MSW management system and the associated policies. The result shows that as a sustainable approach to MSW management of LC, a zero-waste campaign for resource recovery engaging all stakeholders can be implemented since the organic content of MSW generated in LC is as high as 70%. Moreover, the dumping of MSW at the dedicated dumpsite site can be minimized if policies are strengthened and the proposed waste avoidance pathway is implemented strictly. In addition to this, to avoid the contamination of groundwater and recovery of methane, the use of the Fukuoka approach in the existing landfills has been suggested to capture leachate without any huge expenditure. Graphic abstract

The International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC) (http://iync.org/) was held in Sydney, Australia during 8 13 March, 2020, and co-hosted with the Australian Young Generation in Nuclear (AusYGN) (http://ausygn.org/). The IYNC and AusYGN are organizations, which committed to ensuring that the youth are engaged and supported within the nuclear industry, and able to capitalize on the numerous professional opportunities for careers, networking and development. Under the theme "Diversity in Nuclear", the mission of the IYNC2020 was to promote and enable the diversity of people engaged in the many peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.