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Every year, many religious events attended by 300 million pilgrims take place in many holy cities and sites around the world. However, research on municipal solid waste is limited despite the reputation of religious events to generate substantial amounts of waste. This research aims to address this gap and contribute to new knowledge on municipal solid waste management at religious events by investigating and evaluating the municipal solid waste management system applied at the Arba’een event in Kerbala, one of the largest religious events in Iraq. Field observations and in-depth interviews with nine senior managers from Kerbala’s municipalities were conducted during the event in 2016, to develop an overall picture of the municipal solid waste management system applied during the event. The data were analysed using thematic analysis and fed to the ‘Wasteaware’ benchmark indicators framework to evaluate the performance of the event system. The results indicated that the system suffers from operational and governance weaknesses. Despite a focus on municipal solid waste collection and transportation, the collection coverage is only ~ 70%. There is no controlled landfill site in Kerbala. It is estimated that currently ~ 5% of the event municipal solid waste is recycled by informal recyclers: there is no formal recycling scheme. Kerbala does not perform well regarding governance. The inclusivity of providers and users of the municipal solid waste management services is minimal during the event, as the majority of stakeholders are not included in decision-making processes. Municipal solid waste management services are delivered free of charge, thus significantly influencing the financial sustainability of the system. This study recommends that MSW recycling should be encouraged through integrating the informal sector, improving public awareness and introducing a formal recycling scheme to make the event municipal solid waste management system effective and financially sustainable.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management has emerged as probably the most pressing issue many governments nowadays are facing. Traditionally, Waste-to-Energy(WtE) is mostly associated with incineration, but now, with the emergence of the bioeconomy, it embraces a broader definition comprising any processing technique that can generate electricity/heat or produce a waste-derived fuel. Under the ambit of the circular economy many nations are looking for, additional effort must be made to be sure of acquiring the most updated information and paving a sustainable path for managing MSW in such a frame. In this regard, we have undertaken a critical review of various technologies, with their updated progress, involved in the exploitation of MSW as a renewable resource, along with the critical advantages and limitations on energy and material cycling for sustainable MSW management. Incineration, the most widely used method, is nowadays difficult to further apply due to its dubious reputation and social opposition. Meanwhile, to address the organic fraction of MSW which currently is mostly unrecycled and causes disposal issues, the biological approach presents an attractive option. The new emphasis of bioeconomy leads us to understand how environmental biotechnologies should be better connected/integrated for more sustainable MSW management. This article is concluded with advances of future prospects, which can serve as a timely reminder to encourage competent authorities/researchers to work towards further improvement of the present MSW management system.

Improperly managed wastes that have been dumped in landfills over the years pose various challenges, but they also offer potential benefits. The feasibility of recycling such waste depends on the type of wastes, the condition of dumpsites, and the technology implemented for disposal. The selection of an alternative waste disposal method from the many available options for dumpsite remediation is a complex decision-making process among experts. The primary aim of this study is to assist in an extended multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method to reduce complexity in the proposed dumpsite remediation problem influenced by multiple criteria and to identify the optimal waste disposal method. Data uncertainties are managed with the proposed Fermatean fuzzy preference scale, and the importance of all socio-economic criteria is assessed using the full consistency method (FUCOM). The final ranking results of the weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method identify that the Waste-to-Energy (WtE) process could play a significant role in the disposal of land-filled unprocessed wastes, promoting sustainable waste management. Meanwhile, the methodology explores the idea that financial and logistical constraints may limit the feasibility of large-scale recycling efforts. This combination of environmental science and decision science addresses real-world challenges, helping municipal solid waste management authorities implement sustainable waste management practices.

Population and industrial growth have spiked product consumption, which in turn have caused an abrupt rise in municipal solid waste (MSW) production. Due to the lack of resources allocated to waste management, municipal inorganic solid waste (ISW) has increased exponentially, posing a significant strain on the environment and health. To mitigate these issues, sustainable waste management strategies need to be implemented to reduce environmental impacts and improve waste collection and disposal efficiency. The objective of our work was to analyse and identify the most effective techniques for disposing of ISW in India by employing multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM). This technique entails selecting the most suitable alternative based on a variety of competing and interactive criteria. A fusion decision model named the FULL COnsistency Method (FUCOM) and Multi-Attributive Border Approximation area Comparison (MABAC) based on the interval-valued q-rung orthopair fuzzy (IV q-ROF) was developed. Finally, a comparative analysis was performed to demonstrate the system’s robustness.

PurposeSmart cities in India are going to be a reality very soon by turning challenges into opportunities for the society. However, due to rapid increase in population burden, fast urbanization and growing demand of advanced services in the smart cities, the quantity of per capita municipal solid waste (MSW) has escalated. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has further challenged the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) system with the increasing amount of infectious wastes coming from households (HHs), quarantine centers, healthcare facilities, vaccination centers, etc. Therefore, the present study attempts to explore and analyze the various dimensions of sustainable MSWM system in the smart cities.Design/methodology/approachThe study identifies 13 factors of sustainable MSWM system from the literature, field surveys and stakeholders' opinions. Thereafter, stakeholders' opinions are collected and analyzed using total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) approach to explore the interrelationships among the factors of sustainable MSWM system. These relationships are further validated through the empirical investigation of the real-life case study of Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC), Odisha, India.FindingsThe TISM approach places all 13 factors into six levels in the hierarchical digraph depending upon the inputs received from the various stakeholders on their interrelationships. Study also validates the proposed TISM model by collecting the data of RMC, Odisha, on the development of MSWM system over the period of 2015–2021.Practical implicationsThe study also highlights various implications for the other developing cities and stakeholders to set up the roadmap for developing the sustainable MSWM system. Study defines “IT platform” and “awareness among citizens” as the base of the sustainable MSWM system in any smart city.Originality/valueThe present study is the first of its kind to explore the interrelationships among the factors of sustainable MSWM system by using TISM approach. Moreover, the proposed TISM framework is further validated through the empirical journey of one of the smart cities in India.

Effective management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is an essential function of the city municipal corporation. The present study reports on the existing solid waste management practices in four major cities of Himachal Pradesh (Sunder Nagar, Mandi, Baddi and Solan) in India, and suggests solutions for better management of the MSW generated at these locations. The overall generation of Municipal Solid Waste in Himachal Pradesh (HP) is 350 tons per day (TPD) of which the selected sites accounts for about 25% of the total MSW generated in the state. The collection efficiency of generated MSW in the study regions varies from 60 to 70%. Evaluation of the existing Solid Waste Management (SWM) practices at these study locations was determined using the ‘wasteaware’ benchmark indicators, which incorporate parameters integrating both qualitative and quantitative indicators for comparing the efficiency of municipal solid waste management system. Further, a simple matrix method has been utilized for comparing the efficiency of the management of the MSW generated at these four selected sites in Himachal Pradesh. Using the matrix method, it was observed that Sunder Nagar and Mandi towns received an overall score of 36% and Solan and Baddi 32%, respectively. The overall results suggest that existing solid waste management practices in four study locations are very poor and need considerable improvement. Some key recommendations have been proposed for the better management MSW at the four study locations in HP.

Although goal programming is one of the most used techniques for modeling and solving multi-objective optimization problems due to modeling elegance and mathematical simplicity. However, the existing goal programming methods have some deficiencies in assigning the weights and then finding the solution per the objectives’ priority to tackle the incommensurabilty in heterogeneous objectives. Therefore, this article proposes an efficient scalarization technique to solve the multi-objective optimization problem by introducing a modified goal function. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using some closeness measure to the ideal solution for several test problems. A real application of the proposed method is illustrated in finding the best locations to establish municipal solid waste (MSW) management intermediate facilities in Nashik city (India). The model selects the three best locations out of the given eight potential locations to establish facilities by considering environmental and economic objectives. Overall, this study provides a theoretical advancement supported by a real-life MSW management application.

According to the World Bank report, Colombia generated 5.6% (13 million tons per year) of municipal solid waste in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016. About 30% of this waste came from the three main cities of the country, Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali. Evaluation of the performance of municipal solid waste management systems is important for reducing environmental and public health impacts in cities. Wasteaware benchmark indicators have been used worldwide for monitoring those systems. The results of the adaptation of this methodology to the Context of a Latin American Country are presented in this research. The solid waste comprehensive management policy and regulatory framework in Colombia were considered. As a case study, the adaptation of Wasteaware was implemented using the data from the Cali solid waste management system for 2019. The results of the evaluation for Cali indicate that system presents a high overall performance (91%). Cali achieved the highest performance when compared to other Latin American cities. The implementation of this management instrument in Colombian cities will provide sufficient and relevant information regarding the municipal solid waste management systems. It is expected that this initiative will be replicated in other cities in Latin America.

Rapid urbanization and high population density have intensified the challenges of municipal solid waste management (SWM) in Dhaka, a megacity where effective governance is a critical factor. This paper presents a good governance framework, ward-based approach (WBA) and explores its sustainability potential towards SWM. WBA has been modeled and implemented for over a decade in the collection phase. In-depth interviews of the experts, surveys, document reviews were conducted and then employed triangulation to analyze and cross-validate the information, providing deeper insights into WBA. The contributions of WBA were examined to purposively select three aspects of SWM sustainability: (a) feasibility of waste-to-energy incineration, (b) achievement of local sustainable development goals (SDGs) and (c) compliance with the national SWM Rules. This paper argues that WBA demonstrates a promising governance framework to enhance sustainability of SWM. However, the inherent operational challenges of WBA may hinder the success unless tackled carefully.

Analysing municipal solid waste (MSW) management scenarios is relevant for planning future policies and actions toward a circular economy. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is appropriate for evaluating technologies of MSW treatment and their environmental impacts. However, in developing countries, advanced assessments are difficult to introduce due to the lack of technical knowledge, data and financial support. This research aims to assess the main potentialities of the introduction of waste-to-energy (WtE) systems in a developing Argentinean urban area considering the existing regulations about MSW recycling goals. The study was conducted with WRATE software and the proposed scenarios were current management, grate incineration of raw MSW and incineration of solid recovered fuel (SRF). In addition, a sensitivity analysis on the energy matrix was included. It was found that the production of SRF allows increasing the energy generation from waste by 200% and reducing the environmental impact of about 10% regarding the current MSW management system. Acidification Potential and Abiotic Depletion Potential were sensitive to changes in electricity mix. Results showed that if MSW reduction goals are achieved, changes in MSW composition will affect the performance of WtE plants and, in some cases, they will be not technically feasible. The outcomes of this study can be of interest for developing countries stakeholders and practitioners interested in LCA and sustainable MSW management.