Quality of life and alliances in solid waste management - contributions to urban sustainable development

This paper examines the contributions that new alliances in urban solid waste management (SWM) systems can make to the quality of life by improving effective provision of this urban basic service, based on case studies of three multi-million cities in developing countries: Chennai, India; Manila, Philippines; and Lima, Peru. It starts with a systematic examination of the main types of alliances formed around SWM activities (including formal collection, transportation and disposal as well as informal collection, trade, re-use and recycling). These include public‐private, public‐community, community‐private and private‐private alliances. The main conclusion is that local authorities work together with large enterprises and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), but refuse to deal directly with the informal trade and recycling enterprises which recover large fractions of waste ‐ linking to them only through NGO or community-based organisation (CBO) mediation. It goes on to examine the contributions different alliances can make to sustainable development in cities, utilising the multiple goals of sustainable development as developed by Satterthwaite in 1997 (Urban Studies 34 (1997) 1667). Using a nine-point indicator system, it shows that current contributions of alliances between local authorities and large enterprises lie mainly in the area of improved disposal, cleaner neighbourhoods and financial viability. In contrast, alliances between local authorities, NGOs or CBOs and through them informal trade and recycling enterprises contribute more heavily to financial viability, employment, and cleaner urban neighbourhoods, as well as greater reuse and recycling of waste fractions. ≈ 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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