Since 1997, Columbia University's Earth Engineering Center (EEC) has been conducting research on the generation and disposal of materials and products used in the USA and worldwide. Economic development has resulted in the annual generation of billions of tons of used materials, which represent a considerable resource but, when not properly managed, constitute a major environmental problem in both developed and developing countries.

The objective of the EEC was to identify and help develop the most appropriate means to manage various solid waste surveys and to disseminate this information through internet publications and technical meetings. The EEC is also collaborating with BioCycle magazine to conduct a biannual survey of MSW generation and disposal in the US, which is now being used by the US EPA to calculate greenhouse gas emissions from waste management. This research has involved many academic students on all aspects of waste management.

Since 2000, EEC has produced almost fifty theses and published almost one hundred technical papers. In 2002, EEC co-founded, with the US Energy Recovery Council (ERC; www.wte.org), Waste to Energy Research and Technology (WtERT), which is currently the leading US research organization on solid waste material and energy recovery. In the course of its studies, EEC has established that one billion tons of municipal solid waste is landfilled each year, landfills will continue to be used in the near future, and nearly 80% of the world's landfills are not equipped to protect surface and groundwater from contamination. Therefore, in 2008, EEC proposed an expanded Waste Management Hierarchy that differentiates between traditional and sanitary landfills.

In recent years, WtERT sister organizations in the USA have been established in several other countries such as Brazil, China, France, Greece and India. In the interest of the common goal of these organizations to promote sustainable waste management, it became necessary at the end of 2011 to create a US non-profit organization called the Global WtERT Council (GWC) and establish a GWC "Charter" that was agreed upon by the existing national members at the time. The GWC Charter is used to explain the Council's operations to other regions of the world that wish to become members and also to existing and potential industrial and government sponsors.