ABSTRACT
Integrated solid waste management (ISWM) based on the 3R approach (reduce, reuse, and recycle) is aimed at optimizing the management of solid waste from all the waste-generating sectors (municipal, construction and demolition, industrial, urban agriculture, and healthcare facilities) and involving all the stakeholders (waste generators, service providers, regulators, government, and community/neighborhoods). This chapter discusses the concept of solid waste management (SWM). Initially, SWM was aimed at reducing the risks to public health, and later the environmental aspect also be-
came an important focus of SWM. Recently, another dimension is becoming a critical factor for SWM, that is resource conservation and resource recovery. Hence, the 3R approach is becoming a guiding factor for SWM. On the one hand, 3R helps to minimize the amount of waste from generation to disposal, thus managing the waste more effectively and minimizing the public health and environmental risks associated with it. On the other hand, resource recovery is maximized at all stages of SWM. Lately, the new concept of ISWM has been introduced to streamline all the stages of waste management, that is source separation, collection and transportation, transfer stations and material recovery, treatment and resource recovery, and final disposal. It was originally targeted at municipal solid waste management (MSWM), but now the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is promoting this concept to cover all waste generating sectors to optimize the level of material and resource recovery for recycling as well as to improve the efficiency of waste management services. The ISWM concept is being transformed into ISWM systems to replace conventional SWM systems.
