Hi! In this course, you have already learned a lot about different technologies and methods for
adequate management of municipal solid waste. But you might still be skeptical, thinking that this will never work in your country or municipality because there is corruption, insufficient financial means, or no planning at all of solid waste management services. If this is the case, this module may well be the most important one for you. In this module, you will learn why it is important to have a Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan, what a Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan actually is, and how to elaborate a Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan in 7 steps. The content of this module is taken from the manual shown behind me, entitled: "Strategic Planning Guide for Municipal Solid Waste Management", available online at this link shown here. The guide consists of 7 steps which assist solid waste management practitioners prepare Municipal Solid Waste Management Plans for metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 inhabitants in low-income countries. Why is a Strategic Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan required? Well, unplanned municipal solid waste management often leads to public health deficiencies, environmental protection deficiencies, low coverage of the waste collection service, low organizational and managerial performance of the solid waste management service, no financial margin to allow progressive improvement in service quality, and often, the waste department has only capacity to solve day-to-day problems, "firefighting". Strategic planning serves to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
municipal solid waste management services by taking a broader view and addressing the problems based on their priority. So, what is a Strategic Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan? Before answering this question, we first need to have a look at the planning hierarchy. This hierarchy illustrates the conceptual separation of different outputs necessary in the development and
implementation of improved waste management practices. At the highest level is the policy framework, normally established by the national government. The next lower level is the strategic plan, which should operate within the framework of the policy. It is divided into two parts: The Strategy, which provides the strategic vision over the next 15 years, answering the question of: "Where do we want to reach?" And the Action Plan, which sets out the detailed actions necessary over the next 5 years to realize that vision. Therefore, a Strategic Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan can be defined as the guideline document which determines the needs and priorities and necessary actions to be taken to develop
solid waste management practices. Finally, an Operational Plan for the detailed implementation of the Strategy is required. It takes the Action Plan to a higher level of detail. Perfect! I bet that you are eager to be guided through the process of defining such a plan. So, let's start! The planning guide includes the 7 steps shown here that we will cover in the next slides. The diagram highlights two important aspects: First, the process has a lot to do with the management of relationships
and building consensus among stakeholders. And second, it is an iterative process, including regular revision and updates. Let's start with step 1. How should you start preparing a Strategic Plan? There are two major activities required to ignite the planning process: mobilising political support and organizing the work. For such a Plan to materialize, you need political will and support on behalf of the political leaders and senior decision-makers. The guide recommends establishing a steering committee of maximum 12 to 15 people to direct the process and provide the required political support. In parallel, you will need a working group of 5 to 10 members to translate the requirements of this steering committee into practical measures. In step 2, the guide will help you assess the present situation of the municipal solid waste management
in your city. The step can be divided into 4 distinct sub-tasks: Assessing the generated amount and characterization of the waste in the study area, reviewing the current solid waste management practices in place, predicting future waste quantities and capacity needs, and understanding current constraints and opportunities for improvement. In step 3, you should bring together for the first time all key stakeholders in an inception workshop. The goal is to create a strategic vision with all the inputs of the participants. This vision starts answering similar questions to the following ones: Why do municipal solid waste management services need to be improved? Where do we want these services to be in, let's say, 15 or 20 years? How are the services going to be improved? When will services reach the defined goals? Et cetera. Furthermore, in this step, the scope of the planning framework is also set. What is the geographical area for which you want to plan? For which period of time? What are the waste fractions you want to consider? What level of service quality, environmental and public health standards are you aiming for? Et cetera. Finally, once the vision and scope have been defined, key objectives and targets for the Strategic Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan can be established. The objectives should break down the Strategic Vision into actionable steps. Targets in turn are the quantitative translation of the objectives, which include a realistic time frame. For example, an objective could be: "Increase in coverage of street sweeping."
- point; whereas the target would be: "Expand street sweeping services to 90% of the central district area by 2025." So far, the steps have combined information and guidance on the content of each step,
the "what to do and how to do it", with the process of the Municipal Solid Waste Management Strategic Plan development, the "how to plan". Step 4 only focuses on the content, since its purpose is to identify and evaluate the practical options available for addressing each of the components
of the integrated sustainable waste management framework without giving insights of the planning process. The outcomes of this step would be used later in step 6. Here, your team needs to come up with alternatives for all the physical components, which consist of: generation, collection, treatment, disposal, and triple-R activities, which are circled in green color. As well as the governance components, including stakeholder inclusivity, financial sustainability and institutions and policies, circled in orange color. After coming up with a list of possibilities, the stakeholders should agree on a short list of preferred options for each component. In step 5, we combine the planning framework from step 3 and the preferred options from step 4 to come up with the most appropriate Strategy for a municipal solid waste management system
with the timespan of 15 years. This Strategy should focus on the high-level issues, leaving the consideration of the more detailed aspects of action planning to step 6. Based on the Strategy, in step 6, you will develop the Action Plan to turn the Strategy into practical reality. The Action Plan has normally a timespan of 5 years. Together, both documents will comprise the overall Strategic Plan. The Action Plan should provide the answer to the following kind of questions: What are the specific, detailed actions that need to be taken to implement the individual components of the overall Strategy? Who should take them, and when? And besides, it should also include an investment plan. Check step 4E for a full review of financial planning in the guide. In this table, we see the major areas that deserve special attention during action planning. Feel free to pause the video for a second to have a detailed look. The Strategic Plan... it's not an end in itself! The exercise is entirely worthless if there is no implementation phase. Therefore, step 7 will show you how to move from planning to implementation, how to regularly revise and update the Strategic Plan, and how to monitor the performance of municipal solid waste management systems. Have a look to box 7.1 in the guide for an extensive list of performance measures. This is it. After watching this module, you hopefully feel more comfortable explaining why it is important to have
a Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan, what a Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan actually is, and how to elaborate a Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan in 7 steps. For further information about the process, please check the guide.
