Planning for sustainable municipal solid waste management
Table 1: Who does what in solid waste management?
Practical Action
Householders and other
generators
Informal sector
Private sector
NGOs
Municipalities
Government bodies
Common
roles
Occasional roles
Informal-sector and solid waste management
In many developing countries, the informal sector makes a significant contribution to solid waste
management. Their work includes:
door-to-door waste collection (often contracted informally by householders) and depositing
waste in transfer points;
purchasing valuable recyclable items from householders and small businesses, thus reducing
the overall burden of waste management and recovering resources; and,
'waste picking' - searching for recyclable materials from waste on streets and at disposal
grounds.
Planning for improved solid waste management
Many municipalities struggle with achieving acceptable quality and coverage of SWM services
due to budget constraints, lack of cooperation of generators, conflicts between different
stakeholders, and the difficulty of managing transport fleets and identifying and managing
disposal sites. Better solid waste management is important because uncollected waste is an
eyesore, blocks drains and is a public health risk. Planning sustainable solid waste management
can be complex, but a logical approach and carefully considering the various stakeholders and
options will increase the chances of developing an efficient, effective and successful system.
Planning SWM must include a consideration of each of the stages in Figure 1, and all the actors.
Strategic planning
Strategic planning (SP) is a logical approach to developing appropriate, achievable action plans
for improving the quality, coverage and efficiency of SWM services. It can be summarised by the
following three questions:
What is happening at present? (Situation analysis)
What do you want to happen? (Goals)
How can you make this happen? (Strategic plan)
SP is a planning tool designed for long-term planning, particularly at town, city or even national
level rather than neighbourhoods or projects. It is geared towards developing a vision and long-
term roadmap with wide ownership following detailed consultations. This technical brief draws
on many of the principles of SP, but focuses more on the practical planning issues of improved
SWM.
See Wilson 2004 for more information.
Situation analysis
Planning begins with a study of the existing situation and systems. Planners should develop a broad
understanding of actors, opportunities, constraints, possible partners and so on. Key questions
include:
What existing information exists on waste streams, quantities and characteristics (see next
section)?
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