Integrated waste management (IWM) is the waste management strategy currently employed throughout the United States. This can be defined as the complementary use of a variety of practices to safely and efficiently handle municipal solid wastes (MSW) from residential, commercial and institutional sources. IWM practices currently include:

• source separation, recycling, composting (aerobic digestion - including vermicomposting - and aneaerobic digestion), incineration and combustion, and landfilling.

Waste generators (residences, businesses, municipalities) typically pay a tipping fee to have waste collected, hauled off site, and processed. Processing usually involves separating waste into materials which can be recycled, composted, incinerated for waste-to-energy, and finally disposed of in a landfill. Tipping fees are charged by the tonnage, so the lighter the waste content the cheaper it is to be hauled and the cheaper it is for the generator. Currently the largest portion of the waste stream by volume is organic residuals, the heaviest segment of which is food waste. For this reason, it behooves individuals and municipalities to compost or otherwise recycle as many organic materials as possible. Unfortunately, current recycling levels average only 35% nationwide. United States waste management statistics from 2006 are presented in BioCyle's 16th annual nationwide survey, "The State of Garbage in America" (Vol. 47, No. 4, p. 26, April 2006). The article can be viewed at http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/000848.html

An historical perspective on the waste industry in the US, Canada, and Europe is richly illustrated in “The Future of Waste”, (BioCycle, January 2004, pp. 59-62), by Helen Spiegelman and Bill Sheehan. Sheehan is cofounder and director of the Athens, Georgia-based Product Policy Project (www.productpolicy.org) and cofounder of the GrassRoots Recycling Network. Helen Spiegelman is a cofounder of the Product Policy Project, and she is also a board member of the Recycling Council of British Columbia and past president of the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation, both in Vancouver. The article is available in PDF format with their permission by clicking here.

Reprint of "The Future of Waste" (BioCycle, January 2004, pp. 59-62) Article Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader Software which can be aquired by clicking here.

A valuable insight into sometimes opposing philosophies about waste is offered by Guy Crittenden in his editorial entitled Zeroing in on Waste printed in Solid Waste & Recycling magazine (June/July 2005). The specific philosophies Crittenden evaluates are "integrated waste management (IWM)" and "extended producer responsibility (EPR)". Click here for the editorial.