Designing a Flexible and Adaptive Municipal Waste Management Organisation Using the Viable System Model

Abstract

Changing consumption patterns, new packaging materials, innovative waste processing, and recycling technologies, but also unforeseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in the presence of the climate crisis and ecological degradation, necessitate the development of flexible and adaptive municipal waste management infrastructure and processes governed by equally flexible and adaptive organisations. In this regard, this paper presents the design process for such an organisation based on the Viable System Model (VSM). The VSM is a systems approach for the methodological diagnosis and design of organisations that can adapt to, and survive, changes in the environment that they are part of. Through a reference case of a large municipality in Greece, we demonstrate how the VSM and the related VIPLAN methodology can be used for the methodological development of flexible and adaptive municipal waste management systems (MWMS) for governing organisations.