To correctly address the complex and challenging task of waste management, urban societies have developed and implemented waste management policies. However, authorities in developing countries are still struggling to establish waste management policies and provide acceptable waste management systems. This study examines the current Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) policy in Maputo City, the capital of Mozambique, and the barriers to its implementation according to seven fundamental policy instruments: legislation and regulation; voluntary agreements; economic instruments; education and influence over behavioral change; monitoring, information and performance assessment; choice of technology; and community linkages. The Delphi method, a group problem-solving technique, was applied to collect information from experts, and 26 barriers hindering waste management policy were definitively identified.
Understanding waste flows within an urban area is important for identifying the main problems and improvement opportunities for efficient waste management. Assessment tools such as material flow analysis (MFA), an extensively applied method in waste management studies, provide a structured and objective evaluating process to characterize the waste management system best, to identify its shortcomings and to propose suitable strategies. This paper presents the application of MFA to municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in Maputo City, the capital of Mozambique. The results included the identification and quantification of the main input and output flows of the MSWM system in 2007 and 2014, from the generation, material recovery and collection, to final disposal and the unaccounted flow of municipal solid waste (MSW). We estimated that the waste generation increased from 397×10 tonnes in 2007 to 437×10 tonnes in 2014, whereas the total material recovery was insignificant in both years - 3×10 and 7×10 tonnes, respectively. As for collection and final disposal, the official collection of waste to the local dumpsite in the inner city increased about threefold, from 76×10 to 253×10 tonnes. For waste unaccounted for, the estimates indicated a reduction during the study period from 300×10 to 158×10 tonnes, due to the increase of collection services. The emphasized aspects include the need for practical waste reduction strategies, the opportunity to explore the potential for material recovery, careful consideration regarding the growing trend of illegal dumping and the urgency in phasing-out from the harmful practice of open dumping.
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