Introduction

Society is increasingly conscious of the importance of solid waste management (SWM) in the context of sustainable development. This chapter emphasizes the essence of sustainable development as part of the package of tools for making decisions about SWM. It provides a common framework for sustainable development and relevant basic principles that support such ideas. The guidelines describe possible actions to establish a framework for a wide range of SWM activities across diverse spatial and temporal scales. Sustainable development concurrently addresses both spatial and temporal characteristics that must be clearly defined from local, regional, and global viewpoints for current and future generations. In the context of SWM, the concept of sustainability applies to the whole SWM industry sectors, process technologies, and individual process plants.