Resumen de Looking for a better information support in solid waste management: the case study of panama city
Jorge Miguel Torrente Velásquez
Developing countries in general, lack sustainable municipal solid waste management systems in place. They tend to adopt waste management solutions as protocols from developed countries without proper adaptation while leaving behind the context of their situation and assuming beforehand that the results obtained locally will be equivalent to those obtained in developed countries granting these protocols. Despite efforts to successfully accomplish this, these systems seem to achieve limited improvements to remain sustainable over time. These sustainability issues are rooted in both the generation and management stages of the municipal solid waste management system. Drawbacks mostly affecting the generation stage are related to societal materialism, while those mostly affecting the management stage are related to political lethargy and technical nescience. A comprehensive consideration of these drawbacks should be achieved to understand the option space of solutions and get real improvements that account for noticeable progress in municipal solid waste management systems of developing countries. This thesis claims that managers of municipal solid waste management systems of developing countries should consider procedures created through local knowledge and consciousness before adopting foreign protocols for long-term municipal solid waste management systems sustainability. They should conduct diagnostic strategies capable of adequately identifying the actual symptoms of WheiU VXVWaiQabiliW\ SURblePV fURP all WechQical, SRliWical, aQd VRcial aVSecWV¶ SRiQWV Rf YieZ. TR accomplish this, this thesis poses the research question: Is that possible to devise a diagnostic strategy based on better and more transparent information to support the decision-making process of developing countries on using procedures instead of protocols before adopting MSW management systems from abroad? Devising such a diagnostic strategy may allow tailoring the use of adopted municipal solid waste management systems and fosters the adequate use of procedures. This thesis proposes that, instead of a static picture based on the standard typology of foreign municipal solid waste management systems, an effective diagnostic strategy should be devised to obtain a more dynamic and comprehensive representation of the current situation. The methodological approach aims to i) select a Case Study of a developing country failing to accomplish operational sustainability of its municipal solid waste management system due to social, political, and technical drawbacks; ii) define intrinsic issues tackling drawbacks specific to the Case Study; iii) establish key checkpoints to characterize defined issues; iv) determine fundamental questions from the characterization of defined issues; and v) devise the diagnostic strategy by answering the determined fundamental questions through a compendium of four different studies (published papers), each one tackling a defined issue. The Case Study of Panama City was selected, epistemological, material, socioenvironmental, and governance intrinsic issues of its municipal solid waste management system were identified, key checkpoints were baVed RQ YalidaWiQg cUXcial aVSecWV RQ MSW PaQagePeQW V\VWeP¶V acWRUV, baVeliQe daWa, aQd SlaQQiQg, 7 as well as MSW generation patterns and studies, performed to raise the following fundamental questions: i) Is it always reliable the information obtained from assessments conducted from foreign consultancy on local MSW generation of developing countries without involving local experts?; ii) How to produce more valued materials for recycling from MSW managemeQW V\VWePV Rf gRRdV¶ importing non-industrialized developing economies and mitigating the flow of MSW derived from the consumption of imported goods?; iii) How to allocate responsibilities for the societal impacts produced by landfill environmental pressures derived from uncontrolled MSW disposal in developing countries?; iv) Can better analysis of MSW generation patterns improve the quality and transparency of MSW management systems' decision-making of developing countries? These questions were answered by each published paper, thus enabling me to affirmatively answer the research question and devise the diagnostic strategy.
