1Evaluate municipal solid waste management problems in developing countries, a case study: Isfahan, Iran

Rapid urbanizationand industrialization, population growth and economic development in developing countries make management of municipal solid waste more complex comparing with developed countries. Further, the conventional municipal solid waste management (MSWM) approach often is reducetionist, not tailored to handle complexity. Therefore, the need to a comprehensive and multidimensional approach regarding the MSWM problems is increasing. The concept of integrated solid waste management (ISWM) is accepted for this aim allover the world. This paper analyzes the current situation as well as opportunities and challenges regarding MSWM in Isfahan according to the ISWM framework in six aspects: environmental, political/legal, institutional, socio-cultural, financial/economic, technical and performance aspects. Based on the results obtained in this analysis, the main suggestions for future ISWM of Isfahan are: (i) promoting financial sustainability by taking the solid waste fee and reducing the expenses through the promoting source collection of recyclable materials, (ii) improving compost quality and also marketing the compost products simultaneously, (iii) promoting the private sector involvements throughout the MSWM system

Keywords:

Integrated Solid Waste Management , Isfahan , ecycle