Author(s)

A. Governanti, M. La Gennusa, G. Rizzo & G. Scaccianoce

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of synthetically evaluating the environmental performances of urban solid waste systems. This, in fact, represents a crucial point in the management process of complex systems that local administrations are called to cope with, in order to provide decisions about policy options that involve different issues characterising the quality of life of people. Suitable methods of evaluation are clearly required for this aim. This work introduces the dashboard of sustainability and the ecological footprint approaches as aggregate indicators of the performances of solid waste management systems. The methods have been selected due to their intrinsic simplicities, provided that the required data are available, although the first one can be defined as a political tool, while the second one can be defined as a technical tool. An application of both methods to the situation of Sicily is proposed here. 1 Introduction Waste management does represent an important issue to cope with in order of achieving sustainable features in the governance of urban contexts. With the increasing levels of lifestyle of people, in fact, enormous quantities of solid waste are currently released in industrialised as well developing countries. A suitable approach to this problem is therefore a crucial in the aim of properly addressing the environmental performances of towns.

Keywords