Actions and policy tools for local governments to achieve integrated sustainable waste management

Valdir Eduardo Olivo,Pedro Domingos Marques Prietto,Eduardo Pavan Korf

doi:10.5327/z21769478968

Abstract

Integrated management of municipal solid waste seeks sustainability under the premises of environmental protection, health promotion, and economic development. In this context, this article proposes actions and policy tools for local governments to improve quality and governance in waste management. A set of 23 actions is proposed based on existing conceptual models and available legislation. The results are presented in three levels as follows: planning of the administrative and operational structure, waste management, and performance evaluation. The results showed that the proposed actions need to be implemented through policy tools, such as municipal legislation, social communication, normative instructions, and technical studies. The applicability of the proposed methodology, which might be replicated in any municipality to increase the efficiency of the waste management system, was positively evaluated in a medium-sized Brazilian city, which presented an overall attendance level of 52%.

Highlights

Waste management is one of the essential public services and is considered a “basic human right.” If not properly provided, it represents a threat to public health and the environment (UNEP, 2015)
Integrated waste management must be based on the principles of sustainability and depends on the commitment of the local government to carry out the actions proposed in this article
Assessment – performance indicators A.1) Establish quality indicators to assess the efficiency of the municipal management system

Summary

Introduction

Waste management is one of the essential public services and is considered a “basic human right.” If not properly provided, it represents a threat to public health and the environment (UNEP, 2015). Waste management is one of the essential public services and is considered a “basic human right.”. Integrated management is being widely adopted by municipalities to properly handle local waste (Asefi and Lim, 2017). This system allows the municipalities to adapt to the existing norms, guaranteeing physical structure, economic sustainability, and social responsibility. It includes the physical elements of the system, the interested parties, encompassing the technical, environmental, financial, sociocultural, institutional, and political dimensions (Van De Klundert and Anschutz, 2001)

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Conclusion