Traditionally, waste management planning has been put into the technical, environmental and economic context only, and solid waste management (SWM) focused largely on technology. Under increasing pressures on resources (of land, energy, finance, and environmental quality), legislation, living standards, public response to eco-environmental pollution, political, it is clear that SWM is becoming increasingly an social-technical profession, and should be examined in a broader context rather than that of traditional approaches.

The paper indicated using systems approaches and methodologies to engineer an integrated conceptual systems model. It found that twelve areas should be changed systematically in order to improve the whole municipal solid waste management (MSWM) operations for meeting future challenges and needs in terms of management, organization, technology, eco-environment, economics, society, urban planning, and legislation.

It concluded that systems engineering (SE), when combined with other social approaches, could help managers in their decision making and strategic mananagement planning processes related to topics such as administration structure reforms, policy planning, financial structure establishment, service development and performance enhancement, technology selection, processes & procedures innovation in MSWM.