The Role of Current Environmental legislations In Regulating Municipal Solid Waste Management

Abstract

The management of the municipal solid waste system is one of the important environmental issues that haunt the governments of some countries, so they strive to enact legislation that guarantees integrated management. International legislation, laws, and agreements recognize the human right to live in a clean environment. During the past years, we find that the environmental legislation in Egypt did not give sufficient attention to municipal (household) waste management, and radical solutions that can be applied has absented. Perhaps this is due to the absence of specialized legislation or to the weakness of its texts, or the result of the failure to apply these texts in a manner that satisfies the ordinary individual in society. This research aims to evaluate the role of these legislations in achieving the integrated and correct management of municipal solid waste and using it in an economically beneficial manner. The descriptive analytical approach, which includes data collection, understanding, measurement, interpretation, and analysis, was used to verify the adequacy of the current legislation in regulating solid (municipal) waste management in Egypt, and then identify the deficiencies in these legislations, and provide appropriate recommendations to address the weaknesses. The findings showed that the current specialized legislation dealing with this issue is a great achievement that may have been long overdue for decades, but it may not be sufficient, and its practical application suffers from some weaknesses, which stand in the way of completely eliminating the negative environmental and health manifestations associated with municipal solid waste system management