The experience with the application of the existing quantitative
indicators in various cities also revealed a need to refine them
beyond a numerical score so as to discern significant differences
in performance levels between cities with apparently similar
scores: e.g. even if collection coverage in a middle income city is
close to 100%, the quality of the collection service may not yet be
comparable to the best systems in the region. So the quantitative
% indicator(s) for each physical component are now complemented
by a composite, multi-attribute ‘quality’ indicator assessed against
five or six component criteria.
Separating the physical components of a waste and resource
management system into just three parts is a simplification and
requires some compromise judgments to be made. Component 1
is driven primarily by public health and focuses on waste
collection, but also includes waste transport and transfer prior to
delivery at a treatment or disposal facility. As such, it is not even
on the waste hierarchy. Component 2 is driven by environmental
protection and focuses both on eliminating uncontrolled disposal,
bringing waste management onto the bottom level of the waste
hierarchy, and also on the technologies for proper treatment and
disposal. Component 3 is driven by the resource value of the waste,
and focuses on the ‘3Rs’ at the top of the waste hierarchy – reduce,
reuse, recycle.
One key issue is under which component the various available
technologies for waste treatment are assessed. The conventions
adopted here can be summarised as follows: