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The purpose of this paper is to compare various landfill gas (LFG) and leachate treatment technologies in a life‐cycle perspective.

Since a landfill causes emissions for a very long‐time period, life‐cycle‐based environmental assessment was carried out to compare different technological options for sustainable leachate treatment and LFG collection and utilization. WAMPS, the life‐cycle assessment (LCA) model for waste management planning, was used for the environmental assessment of selected leachate and LFG treatment technologies.

Results of both direct measurements in the studied landfills and LCA support the fact that leachate treatment with reverse osmosis has the best environmental performance compared to aerobic‐activated sludge treatment. Recently, the collection efficiency of LFG in the studied landfills is relatively low. In order to improve the overall environmental performance of LFG management the gas collection rate should be improved. LFG utilisation for energy recovery is an essential part of the system. The results of the study show that the avoided impacts of energy recovery can be even greater than direct impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. Therefore, measures which combine LFG collection with energy generation should be preferred to treatment in flare.

It should be noted that the results of this study do not express the total environmental impacts of the entire landfill system, but only the eutrophicating impacts and global warming related to the studied leachate and LFG management options. Therefore, it is recommended that further LCAs investigate also other relevant impact categories.

The results of LCA modelling show that it is important to ensure the highest collection and treatment efficiency of leachate and LFG, since poor capture compromises the overall environmental performance of a landfill.

The paper provides a site‐specific data on sustainable leachate and LFG management in selected Estonian conventional municipal solid waste landfills. As such, the paper contributes to the development of the regional reference input data for LCA in waste management.

This chapter offers novel insights into how global corporations can innovate to tackle the global waste crisis and gain sustainable competitive positions. Using two of the most prominent types of global waste crises – food and plastic wastes – we discuss the dilemma of food and plastic waste, why innovations in global firms are needed to address them, and argue that a different perspective among those firms is needed, one which conceptualizes the development, dissemination and use of innovations in waste management, and one which recognizes that innovations, thus, created contribute to advancing the creation of economic, environmental and social value. We conclude using an overarching conceptual framework that depicts the complexity of the new perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the synergies among reverse logistics supply chain (RLSC), quality management (QM) and information management (IM) concepts to enhance the effectiveness of demolition waste management (DWM) practices.

A systematic literature review was conducted using 70 articles published between the years of 2006 and 2017, which were subjected to descriptive and thematic analysis.

The descriptive analysis established that the RLSC concept was dealt within the majority of the publications (61 per cent), followed by concepts related to quality in RLSC (24 per cent). Only 14 per cent of the articles were based on IM concepts related to RLSC. Quality and information are interrelated in the effective implementation of RLSC. The thematic analysis demonstrated that there is a need for using quality parameters in a regulatory environment in an information-based environment. Based on the findings, future research directions were developed.

The study encourages researchers to identify novel directions by combining these three concepts. The study developed a future research agenda regarding use of building information modelling (BIM) for existing buildings under novel technologies; analysis of secondary market demand and supply; and assessment of cost and safety management with quality in a BIM-enabled environment.

The practical implications include the application of sustainable management principles based on stakeholders and the regulatory environment.

Integration of the three concepts is an emerging area. This integration developed a robust approach to achieve QM in RLSC operations under a sound information flow enabling the optimisation of DWM.

The purpose of this paper is to formulate frameworks for the drivers and barriers of integrated sustainable solid waste management (ISSWM) with reference to conditions prevailing in India.

A multi-phased approach was adopted in this paper to come up with the conceptual framework of the drivers and barriers of ISSWM. In the first phase, drivers and barriers of ISSWM were identified based on a systematic literature review process. In the second phase, 25 experts having 15 plus years of experience in the field of sustainable development and environmental management were consulted to get their opinion. Validation and understanding of the interrelationship among the selected drivers and barriers were done based on the insights from expert interviews. And in the final phase, structural self-interaction matrix and transitive links are defined based on the expert opinion to come up with the theoretical frameworks of drivers and barriers of ISSWM.

Findings reveal the importance to have a system view point approach by giving equal importance to social, environmental and economic pillars of sustainability along with the technology component to effectively and sustainably manage the solid waste disposal. Institutional effectiveness and the robust policy and frameworks are the two variables found to have the highest driving power. Poor social values and ethics, huge population and illiteracy are the three most critical barriers faced by developing nations in achieving the sustainability practices in the solid waste management. The proposed frameworks of drivers and barriers of ISSWM will definitely help policy makers to effectively manage the sustainable waste management practices for developing economies by focusing on the key variables listed out.

One of the limitations is in the use of very limited sample size in the study. Another limitation is that total interpretive structural modeling fails to come up with the relative weightings of drivers and barriers used in the study. These limitations can be overcome by extending the research by using a semi-structured questionnaire survey with higher sample size for the empirical validation of the model.

This research will help to clearly understand the framework of drivers and barriers of variables and their hierarchical level based on the driving power and dependence. Since such articles focusing on the conceptual frameworks of drivers and barriers of ISSWM are found to be very scant, this paper will equally help academicians and waste management professionals to understand the concepts deeply, by getting answers to the fundamental questions of “what,” “why” and “how.” Developed framework of drivers explicitly shows the need to attain financial stability through the commercialization of the waste management initiatives, which will help to reduce burden on various governmental institutions. Commercialization opportunities will also help to have more successful start-up ventures in solid waste management domain that can provide improved employment opportunities and hygiene environment in the developing nations like India.

Based on the authors’ best knowledge, there is hardly any article that explicitly explains the conceptual frameworks of the drivers and barriers of ISSWM by considering the conditions prevailing in developing countries like India. And thus, this can be considered as one of the unique research attempts to build a clear conceptual framework of ISSWM. The study contributes significantly to the existing literature body by clearly interpreting the interrelationships and the driving power and dependence of variables of ISSWM.

Studies have shown that managing household solid waste from low-cost housing in urban and sub-urban communities is challenging, especially in developing countries and COVID-19 era. Previous research proved that the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies could be engaged to improve urban public services such as household solid waste. Thus, the study investigated 4IR role in improving low-cost housing solid waste management (LCHSWM) in the COVID-19 era across Malaysia's cities.

The researchers selected four Malaysian cities (Pulau Pinang, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Putrajaya) to achieve the study's objectives via a qualitative research design. The study engaged forty experts through semi-structured virtual interviews. A thematic approach was used to analyse the collected data.

Findings identified initial high implementation and maintenance costs, unwillingness to accept change, inadequate knowledge and skilled personnel to manage the operation, amongst others, as the perceived challenges facing 4IR technologies in managing low-cost housing solid waste across Malaysian cities in the COVID-19 era. Also, the study proffered measures to improve 4IR technologies usage.

This paper is limited to the perceived contributory challenges and proffered measures to improve 4IR technologies usage in managing LCHSW across Malaysian cities in the COVID-19 era.

Proffered measures will stir policymakers and the political class (city councils) to start thinking of an all-inclusive approach to addressing the issue of LCHSW in the 21st century. As part of the practical implications, the possible outcome might enhance collaboration between the public and private sectors to better service delivery to mitigate environmental degradation.

As revealed in the review, there is a paucity of literature regarding digital technology's roles in mitigating LCHSW across Malaysian cities in the COVID-19 era.

The key challenge that urban cities in most developing and transitional economies is confronting is municipal solid waste (MSW) management. Waste separation is a critical component to successful recycling management in terms of enhancing the quality of recyclables, reducing MSW and optimizing incineration. The urge to actualizing sustained waste separation behavior has been hindered by potential barriers. This study aims to examine the influences of external and internal stimuli of targeted households' waste separation intention in parts of China.

A multifactor framework predicting the process that leads to waste separation attitude and behavioral intention is proposed. SEM analysis is conducted in SmartPLS based on 371 survey questionnaires collected in Nanning city in China.

Policy regulation is the biggest determinant of attitude among external stimuli, while awareness of consequence has the strongest relationship with an attitude among internal stimuli. Facilitating conditions, subjective norms and moral norms are all significant predictors of attitude. As a result, increasing positive attitude leads to enhance waste separation lifestyle.

This study adopts a cross-sectional design to investigate the waste separation intention of local households. Data collection is restricted to one point in time for every individual. A mixed method is recommended. Quantitative research can examine variables provided in existing literature with numerical analysis. Qualitative research might be helpful to identify other unknown factors. Also, the survey questionnaires employ a self-reported manner, and respondents might be overrating to avoid embarrassment.

Future research is recommended to engage observation at houses or at the waste-collecting points for actual waste separation behavior. Moreover, this study measures intention toward household waste separation, but whether this intention will eventually lead to waste separation behavior is not a guarantee. Future study is recommended to examine whether intention translates into actual waste separation behavior.

Emphasizing the importance of policy element as a direct influence toward attitude, this paper focuses on the waste separation attitude accumulated from external and internal stimuli, and, concurrently, waste separation behavioral intention is influenced by accumulated attitudes. The study provides relevant policy development information of three Asian countries to enhance their present and future policy directions for a sustainable household waste separation management process

The purpose of this paper is to assess a comprehensive model that computes a single score in order to evaluate the sustainability of the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) system of a given city. The model was applied to calculate the sustainability index for the MSWM of Istanbul, Turkey as a case study.

Different sustainability indicators (including environmental, economical, and social parameters) along with exergy analysis were integrated to utilize an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) under a life cycle perspective.

The Istanbul case study helped to verify that AHP is an effective and efficient decision-making tool. According to the analysis, the current MSWM system of Istanbul is sustainable, and the sustainability can be improved only by changing the amounts to be treated by the current system without any new technological investments.

The Municipal Solid Waste Management Sustainability Index (MSWMSI) in this study allowed to integrate large amount of information on interrelated parameters and the sustainability indicators in the whole life cycle into one value that is useful for a general or a comparative judgment and helpful in MSWM decision making.

The fact that the weighting assigned to each component in the model is dependent on the decision makers’ evaluations enables the model to be tailored to any city of concern. The model allows the user to readily determine the relative contribution of each criterion or sub-criterion to the final MSWM selection. It is convenient to use and the computations can be run utilizing available specialized software as well as computing by hand.

This chapter provides an overview of waste management across Europe. It offers an outlook of evolution of waste generation and how European Union (EU) countries treat waste, by providing historical and current data as well as by describing a few best practices of waste management companies and municipalities throughout Europe. The circular economy framework applied to urban waste management and the zero waste strategy are described.

Currently, waste is regarded as a symptom of inefficiency. The generation of waste is a human activity, not a natural one. Currently, landfilling and incinerating wastes are common waste management techniques; but the use of these methods, in addition to wasting raw materials, causes damage to the environment, water, soil, and air. In the new concept of “Zero Waste” (ZW), waste is considered a valuable resource. A vital component of the methodology includes creating and managing items and procedures that limit the waste volume and toxicity and preserve and recover all resources rather than burning or burying them. With ZW, the end of one product becomes the beginning of another, unlike a linear system where waste is generated from product consumption. A scientific treatment technique, resource recovery, and reverse logistics may enable the waste from one product to become raw material for another, regardless of whether it is municipal, industrial, agricultural, biomedical, construction, or demolition. This chapter discusses the concept of zero landfills and zero waste and related initiatives and ideas; it also looks at potential obstacles to put the ZW concept into reality. Several methods are presented to investigate and evaluate efficient resource utilization for maximum recycling efficiency, economic improvement through resource minimization, and mandatory refuse collection. One of the most practical and used approaches is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, which is based on green engineering and the cradle-to-cradle principle; the LCA technique is used in most current research, allowing for a complete investigation of possible environmental repercussions. This approach considers the entire life cycle of a product, including the origin of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, usage, and final disposal, or recycling. Using a life cycle perspective, all stakeholders (product designers, service providers, political and legislative agencies, and consumers) may make environmentally sound and long-term decisions.