Sustainable Integrated Waste Management

Sustainable Integrated Waste Management (SIWM) has always been essential to human civilizations. A society's characteristics should be taken into consideration while developing SIWM strategies. According to worldwide patterns, the systems are focused on sustainability challenges, primarily by integrating 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle) technology. However, the kind and extent of advancements toward sustainability differ and are contingent upon a nation's economic standing. Rich nations with ample resources, such as South Korea, Japan and USA can afford to invest more in 3R technology. The majority of current initiatives center on “Zero Waste” and/or “Zero Landfilling,” which is undoubtedly costly for countries with poorer fundamentals like those of India, southern African countries or southeast Asian countries like Indonesia. It is necessary to evaluate the practical requirements of SIWM systems in these economically weaker countries. Also, due to the COVID-19 pandemic–induced catastrophe, waste creation has altered internationally in almost every industry, necessitating extra care. SIWM not only offers novel approaches to address contemporary waste management problems, but it also suggests several important prospective suggestions to comprehensively reduce the likelihood of pandemics in the future. Hence, the purpose of this chapter is to evaluate pertinent organizations and policies, identify the underlying barriers to waste management in the world, and provide integrated sustainable management as a solution to the shortcomings.