Indicator-based proposal for the analysis of Municipal Solid Waste management systems

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management activities are important tasks of both national and local governments, as they can induce significant impacts on the environment, the economy and the living quality of the population involved.

The optimal design of a MSW management plan depends greatly on the waste production values and its distribution over the territory, among others. For the optimal design of a MSW system the use of indicators is proposed. Indicators are defined as "the numerical expression, of non-dimensional character, obtained from the fusion of several environmental variables by means of specifically defined weighting criteria". In the scientific literature several proposals about indicators that are focused only on operational aspects of MSW management activities (collection, street cleaning, etc.) are found. Only a decade ago, some indicator groups have begun to emerge in different countries. Such indicators include, in addition to the operational context, social, economic or environmental aspects related to waste management.

The objective of the work has been to make a choice and proposal of a set of social, economic and environmental indicators related to waste management activities, which will allow the analysis of integrated management systems of solid urban waste, considering all the implications that the operations of production, collection, transport, separation, recovery and disposal of the waste suppose from the economic, social and environmental perspectives.