Planning for sustainable municipal solid waste management
Practical Action
Solid waste management: the basics
Solid waste management (SWM) involves the collection, storage, transportation, processing,
treatment, recycling and final disposal of waste. Systems need to be simple, affordable,
sustainable (financially, environmentally and socially) and should be equitable, providing
collection services to poor as well as wealthy households. SWM should aim to improve the
environment, provide direct health benefits, support economic productivity, and provide safe,
dignified and secure employment. Figure 1 illustrates typical SWM processes.
Many developed countries have formal door-to-door collection systems ( in Figure 1). However,
in low-income countries waste generators (e.g. householders), domestic helpers or private waste
collectors carry waste to transfer points (see photograph 1).
This stage is indicated by , and is referred to as ‘primary collection’. A transfer point is an
intermediate place at which waste is deposited and stored before being transported to the final
disposal site.
Local authorities then collect waste from the transfer point and convey it to the final disposal
site. This stage is indicated by and is referred to as ‘secondary collection’. Finally, waste is
disposed of to a variety of standards according to available resources and knowledge. This stage
is called final disposal.
Recyclable materials may be extracted from the waste stream from the points of generation,
transfer or disposal. In reality there are many variations on Figure 1: for example, sometimes
large private sector companies manage everything.
Figure 1. Solid waste management process diagram
Source: Rouse and Ali 2002.
Stakeholders in SWM are many and varied. Table 1 presents the common roles and
responsibilities of various actors. Understanding existing roles is an extremely important first
step in planning.
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