Solid waste management is one of the most difficult environmental problems in the urban center of developing countries, where services are often grossly deficient, particularly in low-income settlements. These settlements often comprise a sizable proportion of the city's area and population. Rapid urban growth, increasing population density, traffic congestion, air and water pollution, increasing per capita generation of solid waste, and lack of land for waste disposal contribute to the aggravation of solid waste management problems. Future demands will increase with expanding residential, commercial, and industrial sectors and increasing economic development. This paper aimed to examine the current practice of solid waste management programs in the city of Al-Marj, which is located in the central northeastern area of Libya. Various problems of wastes in past and present, waste minimization hierarchy and people attitudes and awareness towards' waste management are defined. We found that the lack of effective relationship between various stakeholders contributes to the unsuccessful good solid waste management practices in the study area. Sustainable solid waste management in Libya can be achieved through active participation of these stakeholders.
INTRODUCTIONMunicipal solid waste management has appeared as one of the greatest issues facing by many developing countries [17]. Problems in solid waste management of most developing countries, such as Libya, differ from those found in industrialized countries in terms of composition, density, political and economic framework, amount of waste, access to waste collection, awareness and attitude. The wastes are heavier, wetter and more corrosive in developing cities as compared to the developed cities [9]. Over the past 50 years, the practice of waste management has emerged and currently it encompasses disposal, treatment, reduction, recycling, segregation and modification [12]. Despite increasing industrialization and urbanization, dumping of solid waste, particularly in landfills, remains a major means of disposal and implied treatment [16]. Major developments have occurred in landfill technology and in the legislative control of waste categories that can be subject to disposal by landfilling. Unfortunately, many landfills remain primitive in their operations. Alternative treatment technologies for solid waste management are available, namely, incineration with heat recovery and waste gas cleaning as well as accelerated composting [4]. However, these technologies are criticized by environmentalists because of possible hazardous emissions, failure to eliminate pathogenic agents, and failure to immobilize heavy metals. Landfill operators and contractors are also criticizing these technologies on the basis of waste management economics [12].Different definition has been given to refer to the solid waste. Rimberg [24] defined solid waste as garbage, refuse and other discarded solid materials, including solid waste materials resulting from industrial, commercial and agricul...