How appropriate are “appropriate waste management technologies”?—Defining the future challenge

Abstract

The growing concerns of resource depletion and the consequential environmental degradation coupled with the ever widening gap between the developed and the developing countries has produced a need for a critical evaluation of waste management technologies. The conventional-criteria based definition of appropriate technologies is unsatisfactory. The principles of sustainability must be incorporated along with issues such as infrastructure capacity and the technology gap. It was concluded that a relevant technology based on holistic principles is more “appropriate” than one based on a set of criteria.