Integrated Sustainable Waste Management - ISWM

Other problems are caused or made more serious by factors that are not technical or financial, but relate to:
managerial (in)capacities,
the institutional framework,
the environment,
or the social or cultural context.
In these cases, it is not money or equipment that provide solutions, but rather changing social, institutional, legal, or political conditions.

The Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) has been developed from the above experience, to assist with plans for improvement for encountered problems in municipal waste management.
ISWM principles
The ISWM concept takes as a point of departure four basic principles:
Equity: all citizens are entitled to an appropriate waste management system for environmental health reasons
Effectiveness: the waste management model applied will lead to the safe removal of all waste
Efficiency: the management of all waste is done by maximising the benefits, minimising the costs and optimising the use of resources, taking into account equity, effectiveness and sustainability
Sustainability: the waste management system is appropriate to the local conditions and feasible from a technical, environmental, social, economic, financial, institutional and political perspective. It can maintain itself over time without exhausting the resources upon which it depends.
Concept

ISWM recognises three important dimensions in waste management:
Stakeholders
Waste System elements
sustainability aspects
The waste management hierarchy - a policy guideline that is part of many national environmental laws and policies - is another cornerstone of the ISWM approach.
What does ISWM do?
Promotes technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable solutions -- which do not degrade the environment -- to waste management problems in cities in the South.
Promotes the development of a waste management system that best suits the society, economy and environment in a particular location.
Provides a tool to look more in-depth at the actual needs of communities and municipalities in the South and in Eastern Europe. It helps municipal managers and their technical staff to go beyond the simple importation of Northern models, systems and technologies.
For further reading:
Integrated Sustainable Waste Management: the selection of appropriate Technologies and the design of sustainable systems is not only a technical Issue. - Conference Paper, 2000
Integrated Sustainable Waste Management - the Concept (part 1 of Tools for Decision makers Experiences form the Urban Waste Expertise), 2001
Community and Private (formal and informal) sector involvement in municipal solid waste management in developing countries, conference paper, 1995
Economy and finance in integrated sustainable waste management