According to the concept of Integrated Sustainable Waste Management, there are six main principles which should be considered when looking at waste management:

1. Minimizing the generation of waste at source
2. Minimizing the negative environmental impacts of waste produced
3. Reusing materials in their current state
4. Recycling, composting and recovering materials for use in a different state
5. Recovering energy through incineration, anaerobic degradation etc
6. Disposing of remaining waste in an environmentally safe manner (usually in sanitary landfills)

These six principles form a hierarchy, with the most desirable option being the minimization of the creation of waste in the first place, and the least desirable being disposal of waste in a landfill. ISWM takes an integrated approach and provides a framework for selecting the appropriate technologies. Such a system will usually incorporate all of these elements at various levels of society (household, city etc) and will also take into account interactions of the waste management system with other urban systems.

Composting Technologies

Biogas Technologies

Landfill Practices