Factors that impacted the development of municipal solid waste management: an analysis of visibility and influence

Abstract

Despite a remarkable progress in economic status of countries around the world, there are significant negative implications on the environment resulted from the escalation and complexity of solid waste generated. The development of common strategy to understand the interactions of solid waste management factors has become increasingly challenging due to the differences of city’s realities and local waste circumstances. There are many factors that influenced such differences, how the systems evolved overtime and shaped the future systems. Although various factors of solid waste management are applicable at a basic level in every country, the strength of each factor and depth of interaction with other factors are unique in each local context. The overall study aims to identify sets of fundamental factors and their interactions between one to another that are impacted the development of solid waste management in terms of their visibility and influence. Visible factors are commonly considered in the development of SWM solid waste management which are measurable by specific indicators or scale,quantifiableby measuring methods,considered indecision making and implementation processes, published for awareness and available for relevant access by public. Influence of factors refers to the impact of each factor on the development of SWM solid waste management. This study employs a two rounds Delphi to seek global experts’ views from developed and developing countries. This study has identified 43 fundamental factors with regard to the development of SWM solid waste management systems and classified them via a PESTLE (political, environment, social, technology, legal and economic) system. Global experts classified these factors in terms of their visibility and influence. The analysis of influence and visibility of fundamental factors in SWM solid waste management shows the different interactions of factors that impacted the development of SWM in developed and developing countries. A conceptual models on waste management status are employed to provide insights on how the ideal combination of fundamental factors can impacted in different conditions. Findings highlights on the need to adopt new perspectives in the selection of factors considered in regard to local waste management systems. Recognising and making use of selected invisible factors within a local context may hasten the implementation and effectiveness of initiatives taken towards the development of SWM systems. Factors in waste management may vary in influence and change dynamically alongside urbanization; this dynamic varies from one country to another and so factors need to be re-evaluated periodically. Alongside the use of a reliable evidence base, addressing the factors in terms of their visibility and influence is crucial if municipalities in developed and developing countries are to move towards more effective and locally optimised sustainable waste management systems.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Erni Mariana Mukhtar: orcid.org/0000-0003-0231-8322

ORCID for Ian Williams: orcid.org/0000-0002-0121-1219

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