Strategic management of solid waste in Tehran: a case study in District no. 1

Background: Successful waste management programs are linked to internal factors, SW (strength and weakness points), and external factors, OT (opportunities and threats), and at the macro level are grounds for sustainable development. Studies may be related to David’s study which presented a method to quantify strength, weakness, opportunity, threats (SWOT) analysis. Methods: In this study, designed to investigate recycling and managing dry residues in District 1, threat factors were studied and internal factors evaluation (IFE) and external factors evaluation (EFE) matrixes were scored. Tehran Municipality District 1 has 10 subdistricts and 26 neighborhoods. The dry residues from Municipality District 1 that currently weigh approximately 2678 tons per day. Results: Results showed that WO strategies for improving weaknesses and employing opportunities available in District 1 are ideal. After constructing the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM), WO strategies were prioritized. Conclusion: The evaluation matrix of internal and external factors in the city of Tehran indicated that waste management has weak internal factors. Meanwhile, evaluation points of external factors showed that, in the current situation, SWOT could achieve good results. Waste management systems are involved with different multi-disciplinary factors; therefore, trends in the development of waste treatment technologies have been led by various social, economic, and environmental drivers in Tehran