ABSTRACT
This chapter investigated the waste management practices in the four case study cities such as Adelaide (Australia), San Francisco (USA), Stockholm (Sweden) and Dhaka (Bangladesh) to better understand the key issues and priorities of waste management systems in terms of governance, technology and regulatory policies. Waste management systems in the case study cities are different from one another. It is evident from the case study of waste management systems in Adelaide, San Francisco, Stockholm and Dhaka that waste management systems have been developed and implemented based on their local socio-economic and environmental priorities. Despite various waste management strategies in the different cities, a number of common problems that all four cities have been facing include the devaluation of resources, an increasing generation of waste, the complex composition of waste streams, and challenges around waste avoidance and minimization, optimum resource recovery and zero landfills. This chapter concludes that each city has its own circumstances and, thus, a ZW waste management strategy has to be developed based on local priorities. Lessons can be learnt from each city and hence, based on this acquired knowledge, a more advanced and effective waste management strategy can be developed by considering local conditions. Based on the waste management priorities (collection, recycling, recovery, treatment and zero disposals) cities need to adapt their local strategies to tackle local and global waste problems.
