Abstract
Solid waste management is as old as human civilization, although only considered an engineering discipline for about
one century. The change from the previous focus on public cleansing of the cities to modern waste management was
primarily driven by industrialization, which introduced new materials and chemicals, dramatically changing the types and
composition of waste, and by urbanization making waste management in urban areas a complicated and costly logistic
operation.
This book focuses on waste that commonly appears in the municipal waste management system. This chapter gives an
introduction to modern waste management, including issues as waste definition, problems associated with waste, waste
management criteria and approaches to waste management. Later chapters introduce aspects of engineering (Chapter 1.2),
economics (Chapter 1.3) and regulation (Chapter 1.4).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Solid Waste Technology and Management |
| Volume | Volume 1, Chapter 1.1. |
| Place of Publication | Chichester, West Sussex, UK |
| Publisher | Wiley |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Pages | 3-16 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-405-17517-3 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
