Publication

Abstract : The multifaceted impacts of waste management surpass traditional sanitation concerns, gradually shaping economic arcs, social equity, and environmental sustainability. This chapter critically evaluates the interlinked economic, social, and ecological dimensions of waste management and offers an innovative framework that integrates circular-economy principles, informal-sector dynamics, and climate resilience into a unified sustainability agenda. Drawing on global best practices and data from both high-income and low-income contexts, the chapter highlights how waste, often seen as a liability, can be transformed into a driver of green employment, community empowerment, and resource efficiency. Notably, the chapter advances a novel triple-impact assessment model, which combines lifecycle analysis with socio-economic impact metrics and geospatial risk profiling. Through this model, the chapter exposes the hidden costs of poor waste governance, including gendered health burdens, informal-sector marginalization, and long-term ecological degradation, issues often underrepresented in policy discourse. This chapter establishes how integrative waste management can help achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), include SDG 6 focusing with water, and sanitation, SDG 8 focusing on decent work and economic growth, SDG 9 industry, innovation and infrastructure, SDG 11 focusing on sustainable cities and communities, SDG 12 focusing on responsible consumption and production, SDG 13 focusing on climate action, and SDG 17 focusing on partnerships for the goals. By proposing integrative policy instruments and technology-enabled interventions such as AI-based waste sorting, blockchain for recyclables traceability and big data analytics, the chapter positions waste management as a strategic lever for attaining multiple Sustainable SDGs. This highlights the urgency of transitioning from linear to circular systems and calls for inclusive, data-driven, and climate-smart waste management approaches, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions of the Global South.