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Integrated Sustainable Waste Management

ISWM is based upon the principles of equity, effectiveness and efficiency.

It combines three components to produce sustainable solutions to waste management problems.

  1. The different elements of the whole waste trajectory from waste generation to final disposal are mapped out.
  2. Not only the technical and financial aspects of the system are analysed, but also environmental, social, health, legal, political, institutional and economic aspects. This approach ensures that all the local issues affecting waste management in a specific area are taken into consideration.
  3. All of the stakeholders involved and/or affected by the waste management trajectory are identified and encouraged to participate in the ISWM assessment and subsequent planning and implementation phases of projects as a means of creating consensus and ensuring commitment to the final ISWM solution. 

Under this heading you can find information on:

  • The ISWM Concept
  • How to conduct and ISWM assessment
  • How to use ISWM in strategic MSWM planning
  • Useful ISWM publications
  • Other related links

DocumentClosing the Circle (23 Sep 08)

Bringing Integrated Sustainable Waste Managment Home

A book for practitioners in the field of waste management in developing countries. A reference that combines theory and practice.

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DocumentAssessing the Sustainability of Waste Management Using the Concept of ISWM (23 Jan 08)

This paper presents the concept of Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) in the context of assessing the sustainability of waste management alliances. ISWM differs from conventional approaches towards waste management by seeking stakeholder participation, by including waste prevention and resource recovery explicitly, by encouraging the analysis of interactions with other urban systems and by promoting an integration of different habitat scales (city, neighbourhood, household).

Read more or download Mapet 1992 ebook.pdf  (1,022 kB)

FileOutline for ISWM assessment (30 May 07)

The outline offers a useful checklist when doing an assessment on the waste and sanitation situation in a city or part of a city. It follows the ideas of ISWM and can be used with the publication, Putting ISWM into Practice. As such it asks for

  1. a baseline,
  2. the technical aspects,
  3. the environmental aspects,
  4. the financial and economic aspects,
  5. the socio-cultural aspects,
  6. the institutional aspects,
  7. the policy, legal and political aspects,
  8. education and capacity building
  9. defining priorities.

The checklist is not exhaustive and it can be amended for own purposes and on local circumstances.

ISWM assessment outline.pdf  (12 kB)

DocumentIntegrated Sustainable Waste Management in La Ceiba (10 Jan 06)

Lessons learnt from the UWEP programme in Honduras

Read more or download La Ceiba City Study.pdf  (955 kB)

DocumentIntegrated Sustainable Waste Management in Bangalore (10 Jan 06)

Lessons Learnt from the UWEP programme in India

Read more or download Bangalore City Study.pdf  (1.16 MB)

DocumentIntegrated Sustainable Waste Management in Batangas Bay (10 Jan 06)

Lessons learnt from the UWEP Programme in the Philippines

Read more or download Batangas City Study.pdf  (1.04 MB)

DocumentIntegrated Sustainable Waste Management in Bamako (06 Jan 06)

Lessons learnt from the UWEP Programme in Mali

Read more or download Bamako City Study.pdf  (1.37 MB)

DocumentStory of UWEP (06 Jan 06)

An overview of the goals, activites and accomplishments of the 8 year programme UWEP (Urban Waste Expertise Programme) and UWEP Plus.

Read more or download story of UWEP.pdf  (667 kB)

ArticleISWM in action (16 Aug 05)

A short report on a village meeting in Topoli, Bulgaria. The ISWM methodology was chosen to involve the population in deciding on the development of a model for sustainable water and waste management.

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DocumentIntegrated Sustainable Waste Management ~ The Concept (31 May 05)

Part of Integrated Sustainable Waste Management - A Set of Five Tools for Decision-makers - Experiences from the Urban Waste Expertise Programme (1995 - 2001)

It presents a framework for understanding urban waste management problems. By analysing the current SWM situation decision-makers create a starting point for ISWM planning. The document also presents the steps suggested to develop an ISWM plan

Read more or download tools_ISWM concept_eng ebook.pdf  (381 kB)

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