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ABSTRACT
Solid waste management is one of the principal pollution problems in many urban areas of developing
countries, and its control has so far not been addressed in a sustainable analysis. In order to guide the
works of building urban sustainable societies focusing on sustainable waste management activities, the
construction of sustainability indicators turns into a useful mean, as indicators prove to be valuable by tools
in aiding local authorities in decision making, monitoring and judging specific policies.
In 1993, the University of Leeds initiated The Quantifiable City project , with the aim of developing a generic
meso-scale computer model of city processes focused on sustainable development objectives. Towards
this goal the Quantifiable City project identified sustainability indicators using the PICABUE method, which
is the one adopted by the present study. This method defines eight reference indicators in each principal
waste management phases. Reference indicators are then augmented, defining a total of 79 indicators.
The construction of sustainability indicators for a waste management approach with the aim to be applied in
developing countries must mainly consider social, managerial, technical and economic aspects.
INTRODUCTION
The most serious environmental problems in developing country cities are related to the lack of sanitation
systems. The current challenge of urban planners and politicians is to design and rehabilitate cities, in
general, into a sustainable basis, where the advantages of the cities could be maintained without causing
degradation of national and international environments.
In the specific area of waste management, it has been stated that a perfect sustainable society should not
generate waste exceeding its own capacity of mainly treating and disposing of it (Stren et al., 1992). In order
to guide the works of building urban sustainable societies focusing on sustainable waste management
activities, the construction of sustainability indicators for a waste management approach turns into an useful
tool for planning, as "indicators should be built into the strategy to demonstrate progress, or the lack of,
towards achieving the strategic objectives" (SWAP, 1995).
Working with the same method used by the University of Leeds project for the construction of indicators of
sustainable development (PICABUE), and also considering the generic scenario of waste management in
developing countries -and in particular the Brazilian scenario-, the present study encompasses the
Quantifiable City project indicators already developed on waste management issues and reveals additional
ones, appropriate for the reality of developing countries.
GENERAL CONCEPTS
The main structural concepts towards sustainability indicators are:
Sustainable development
"Development that improves the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting
ecosystems"('Caring for the Earth' - IUCN-WWF-UNEP, 1991). This definition consider development in
terms of its impact on peoples quality of life, and human impact on the wider ecological environment. It is
also worth reminding that to be sustainable, cities must not exceed the carrying capacity of their support
regions or hinterlands.
Indicators
"Ideally, an index or an indicator is a means devised to reduce a large quantity of data down to its simplest
form, retaining essential meaning for the questions that are being asked of the data. In short, an index is
designed to simplify. In the process of simplification, of course, some information is lost. Hopefully, if the
index is designed properly, the lost information will not seriously distort the answer to the question" (Ott,
1978). The construction of sustainability indicators takes into account the response of a certain selected
issue throughout one of the principles of sustainable development.
Solid waste is "any substance which constitutes a scrap material or an effluent, or other unwanted surplus
substance arising from the application of a process and any substance or article which requires to be
disposed of as being broken, worn out, contaminated or otherwise spoiled" (Welford, 1993). The main
phases of the urban cleansing system are storage, collection and transportation, treatment and final
disposal. Each phase must be defined as a function of the characteristics of the waste generated, followed
by technical and financial criteria.
Generation - To know the characteristics of the waste means to know its quality (composition) and the
amount generated. The most appropriated way used to measure quantity is by weight, although the
measurement in volume is also important in landfill capacity studies. In a general way, areas which
concentrate more wealth tend to generate more waste per person. The quality of waste also depends on
local habits, and on how developed the area is.
Storage - Waste storage system must be choosen as function of quantity and qualitative waste
characteristics, the frequency in which the collection is operated, the type of building (house, flat), the cost
of the containers, and the type of the containers (returnable or not).
Collection - This is the most expensive activity in waste management. It spends from 50 to 70% of the
waste management budget. The collection system is directly related to waste transportation from the
generating sources to treatment plants or final disposal site.
Transportation - The motor vehicles mostly used in urban collection systems are ordinary trucks, trunk
trucks and compactors trucks.
Treatment - It is an intermediary phase between collection and final disposal. Its aim is to process the waste
before disposing of it, in order to better achieve economic, sanitary and environmental results. Different
ways of processing the waste can occur together. The main known ways of treatment are compactation,
griding, combustion, composting, and recycling.
Final disposal - In fact, the only method of final waste disposal is the landfill, which can be classified into
ordinary landfill, controlled landfill, and sanitary landfill. When solid waste is disposed of in landfills,
transformations may occur, such as biological, chemical and physical reactions. Thus, the main concerns
about landfilling solid waste that can affect human health and the environment can be summarised in the
uncontrolled release of gases, the impact of gas release on the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere, the
potential groundwater and surface waters contamination by the uncontrolled release of leachate, and the
potentiality in developing disease vectors in improperly managed landfills.
The recent world policy in solid waste management goes towards waste minimisation. There is a great
concern about the limited capacity of final disposal sites (landfills) in receiving daily loads of waste. Based
on this, systems that have been created to treat waste -and by doing this, reducing waste volume- have a
large contribution on this subject.
The principal phases on waste management seen before are the stake points in defining sustainability
indicators for a waste management approach. It is necessary first to understand how the waste management
system works and what are its operational demands in order to identify parameters that, based on the
principles of futurity, equity, and environment, will be able to define sustainability indicators on this issue.
"Solid waste management problems continue to plague many urban areas of developing countries, where
cities spend 20 to 40 percent of their revenues on refuse collection and disposal, yet fail to collect 30 to 50
percent of their solid wastes. Without adequate collection, treatment or disposal, solid wastes obstruct
drainage, promote disease vectors, and are aesthetically offensive. These problems are particularly acute in
the sprawling, impoverished areas surrounding many major cities"(Light, 1990). Although the ultimate trends
have been the privatisation of some services, it is worth reminding that the State has its specifically role, by
nature, in several of them, as like as the regulation of waste management, while operational phases can be
managed by the private sector. Both initiatives (governmental and private), however, can be perfectly
conduced in a participatory basis, where communities and all kind of organised associations can discuss
together its role and actions towards a sustainable society (Stren et al., 1992).
Developing countries, as the proper terminology suggests, live a process of changes: they follow a path that
began on the underdeveloped stage and aim to reach the developed phase. The concept of development,
used to label the nations of the world, is strongly related to economic wealth. Munn (1992) points out that
the word development is often taken to mean growth, particularly in the context of economic or industrial
development. Following this concept it is easy to conclude that development, in that sense, generates a
consumer society, which then is able to consume a variety of goods produced by its industries and,
therefore, able to generate more solid wastes. Not only the amount of wastes generated is increased, but
also its type -industrial refuse- is going to be a new challenge to waste management bodies in developing
areas, as they are seldom prepared to deal with that new subject. What happens is a significant change in
waste composition; from almost organic material to a considerable increase of industrialised matter.
In short, waste management activities in developing countries are mainly affected by urban population
increase; the rising of a consumer society; low political priority that is given to the sector; absence or bad
organisation of the body responsible for refuse collection, treatment and disposal; lack of data to plan the
system; lack of knowledge about waste characteristics; non defined policy for the sector; lack of regulation
about the matter; reduced financial resource to invest on the sector; inefficiently or inappropriate use of
equipment; low socio-economic living conditions of the population; uncorrected way to dispose of solid
waste; ragpickers (informal labours); lack of labour organisation; and almost non-qualified labours.
As other developing country cities reality on a waste management analysis, Brazilian cites, in a general way,
are also far off reaching a sustainable management pattern. The main aspects that must be considered to
the construction of sustainability indicators for a waste management approach applied to the Brazilian
reality, in short are the limited financial resources to be applied on waste management sector; massive
participation of government on waste management activities; distinct scenarios in waste management
varying from city to city; massive presence of informal labourers (ragpickers); very low rate of waste
treatment; very high rate of disposing of the waste in a wrong way; recent experience of local governments
in running waste segregate collection; high costs of segregate collection systems maintained by local
governments bodies; and considered net of establishments that deal with waste recycling.
As can be seen, waste management activities in developing countries still need to be addressed in a
sustainable analysis, although socio-economic conditions on those areas have already introduced several
strategies that are perfectly compatible to a sustainable society; recycling, as an example.
Several studies have been carried out with the aim of defining models of sustainable city development. In
1993, the University of Leeds started The Quantifiable City project with the aim of developing a generic
meso-scale computer model of city processes focused on sustainable development objectives. The
completed model will be used to investigate the interactions between city activities and their impact on the
physical, ecological and human environment. In its final form the model would facilitate the investigation
and prediction of sustainability impacts produced by alternative future urban development scenarios. The
model will act as a focus facility available as a planning tool for city policy makers and for other
sustainability researchers wishing to test their research in a modelled environment" (Mitchell, 1995). Up to
1995, the Quantifiable City project defined 23 sustainability indicators directly or indirectly related to waste
management issues.
The method used to construct sustainability indicators in the present project is the same method used on the
Quantifiable City project. The PICABUE method derives its name from the seven steps that must be
followed on the indicators construction, which are:
"Stake holders to reach a consensus on the Principles and definitions of a sustainable development that
are used and the objectives of the sustainability indicators programme;
Identify and select Issues of concern;
Construct/select indicators of issues of concern;
Augment indicators developed in the third step by sustainable development principles identified in fourth
step;
Modify fourth step indicators to address Boundary issues;
Develop Uncertainty indicators from fourth step augmented indicators;
Evaluate and review final sustainability indicators" (Mitchell et al., 1995).
The identification and selection of issues of concern for a waste management approach considers the
principal phases -and their specific characteristics- of waste management activities.
On the Quantifiable City project, quality of life is the principal sustainability goal. The Quantifiable City
project identified six themes of quality of life: health; personal development; community development;
security; physical environment; and natural resources, goods and services. The present study, working only
with the theme of natural resources, goods and service, where waste management fits in, identifies the
phases of waste generation, storage, collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal, as the primary
components of sustainability indicators on a waste management approach. By applying the third step of the
PICABUE method and from the relevant literature, reference indicators are then defined in each one of the
six primary components.
On the following step, the three main principles on sustainable development (futurity, equity, and
environment) are crossed with each reference indicator in order to identify sustainability indicators. A futurity
augmentation approach "express the rate of consumption of a resource relative to the resource renewal or
substitution limit" (Mitchell, 1995). The achievement or not of services/facilities amongst different social or
economic groups is sought by the equity principle augmentation. The environmental augmentation aims to
identify how relevant ecological elements with resource value are being threatened by actions which involve
environmental pressure. In some cases, special considerations were given towards the spatial units which
the indicators relate to (boundary considerations), and also related to the lack of knowledge (uncertainty
considerations). Those considerations are not presented on this paper (total of six).
It is worth reminding that unlike the Quantifiable City project development, the present study does not
construct indicators based on public opinion survey, and neither does it count on the evaluation of external
collaborating groups during the phase of indicators evaluation. Because of the limitations on developing the
present study, indicators have been constructed based only on literature survey, and the review of them
took in consideration the indicators evaluation criteria pointed out by the PICABUE methodology. These
criteria, however, do not imply in being all of them applied by each indicator in its evaluation analysis.
These eight criteria are relevance and scientific validity; sensitive to change across space and/or groups;
sensitive to change over time; supported by consistent data; understandable; expressed with an appropriate
data transformation; measurable; and open to the setting of targets and critical limits.
The following tables present the results achieved. Each indicator represents an evaluation done on how
easy to obtain the respective data on the context of local governments in developing countries should be
(taking the average local administration in Brazil as reference). Therefore, * represents easy, ** moderately
difficult, and *** dificult:
easy - when the minimum organisation of the waste management is necessary to respond those questions;
moderately difficult - when data to be collected need special survey that can be conducted by the waste
management body. In this specific classification it is worth pointing out that even uncertainty information
were here classified. It is the example of waste generation and waste landifilling. On the first case, as the
amount of collected waste is not 100%, its is impossible to state the correct amount of waste generated. The
same happens on the case of final disposal, where a significant part of the non collected garbage ends to
be disposed of on illegal and unknown sites. In both cases, surrogate measures should be to work with
estimated values;
difficult - when data to be obtained need special survey that can not be conduced by the waste management
body, either by its technical limitations, or by the complexity of the demand.
RESULTS
Until the computer model -which is the principal goal of the Quantifiable City project- is not already defined
and adapted to be applied to developing countries reality, this project indicators can be useful to
demonstrate the need for reliable data collection, and to indicate which kind of data must be collected.
Further analysis of them can be an aid to the discussion and determination of future local standards.
Besides, sustainability indicators need to be already defined, and in practice evaluated, previously to the
application of a computer model.
It can be seen that waste management encompasses many issues that must take into account towards the
establishment of a sustainable society, even considering possible difficulties that local governments in
developing countries deal with. The evaluation of the results of this study shows that 39% indicators can be
easily accessed, other 39% present moderately difficulties in obtaining data, and the remaining 22% are
under the classification of being difficult to be answered. The study also shows that:
The present challenge to an urban sustainable society is the attempt to rehabilitate cities into a
sustainable pattern;
Indicators are powerful tools to show trends, to aid in decision making, monitoring and judging specific
policies;
The construction of sustainability indicators for a waste management approach to be applied on
developing countries must mainly consider social, managerial, technical and economic aspects;
Indicators must be flexible to be applied to a variety of geographical areas with different scales, in
different managerial situations;
Basic data on waste management activities is essential to be known once considerable number of
indicators is based on percentage of total Municipal Solid Waste either generated or collected;
Indicators must be adaptable to different scenarios of waste management. For this reason, they refer to
local regulation when having to deal with standards or limits;
Indicators constructed on the principle of equity almost consider either different levels of social classes
or different areas (districts) of a city as parameters because these two are easy to be measured as
reference on the respective analysis;
The construction of indicators must also consider indirect costs involved in some activities, in order to
evaluate its real feature into a sustainable analysis. As an example, collection system that involve
dwellers and/or ragpickers as an integral part of the system;
The massive presence of informal labours on the collection phase is one constant to be considered on
indicators construction phase for less developed countries.
REFERENCES
IUCN; WWF; UNEP Caring for the Earth. Second report on world conservation and development
London 1991
LIGHT, G.L. Microcomputer Software in Municipal Solid Waste Management: A Review of Programs
and Issues for Developing Countries. World Bank Water and Sanitation Program, 1990
MITCHELL, G. Sustainability Indicators for the Quantifiable City Project. The University of Leeds,
January 1995
MITCHELL, G.; MAY, A.; McDONALD, A. PICABUE - A Methodological Framework for the
Development of Indicators of Sustainable Development A consultation paper for the Quantifiable City
Project. The University of Leeds, January 1995
MUNN, R. E. Towards Sustainable Development. in Atmospheric Environment, v 26a no 15 p 2725-31
October '92
OTT, W.R. Environmental Indices: Theory and Practice. Ann Arbour Science Publishers Inc. Michigan -
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STREN, R.; WHITE, R.; WHITNEY, J. Sustainable Cities - Urbanisation and the Environment in
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SWAP - Save Waste & Prosper : Environmental Strategy - Consultancy Research - Project Management
The Sustainable Management of Solid Waste - Draft 13 p 1995
WELFORD,R & GOULDSON,A Environmental Management & Business Strategy. Pitman publishing -
Glasgow - 1993