RESEARCH ARTICLE Indicators for establishing and assessing waste management systems in developing countries: A holistic approach to sustainability and business opportunities Mahdi Ikhlayel 885‐137 Higashifukai, Chiba, Nagareyama 270‐0101, Japan Correspondence Mahdi Ikhlayel, Ph.D., Chiba, Nagareyama 270‐0101, 885‐137 Higashifukai, Japan. Email: mahdi.ikhlayel@ieee.org Abstract Waste management is a pressing issue for sustainable development, particularly in developing countries. Its urgent nature is an outcome of the increasing waste produced and the poor waste management in several developing countries. Waste is associated with negative environ- mental impacts, dangers to public health, social acceptability, and economic aspects. Several factors exacerbate the waste problem: inadequate waste disposal methods, mixing portions of waste electrical and electronic equipment components with municipal waste, and informal recycling. Other factors are a lack of awareness of the toxic nature of hazardous waste and limited legislation to regulate and control the disposal of hazardous waste. Focusing on municipal waste and waste electrical and electronic equipment, this article classifies the levels of waste management and proposes 26 indicators for assessing and enhancing waste manage- ment systems. The purpose of this research is to make a contribution to accelerating the transition to sustainable development in developing countries and to highlight business opportunities. KEYWORDS indicators, integrated waste management, integrative thinking, stakeholders, sustainability, sustainable development 1 | INTRODUCTION 1.1 | Background Waste refers to materials of little or no value to humans (Pichtel, 2005). In this context, disposal of such materials may be preferred (Pichtel, 2005). Traditionally, municipal waste has been managed so that it is isolated from the living environment, and therefore, it was given a low priority. Massive quantities of generated waste as a result of dynamic population increases, economic and industrial develop- ment, and lifestyle changes have made waste management an urgent issue. The environmentally safe waste management may always be a problem because societies will continue to produce more waste due to the drivers of their growth and the demands for developing modern societies (Rada, 2016). As discussed by Kissinger, Sussman, Moore, and Rees (2013), the resource use and waste generation in cities make urban centers key contributors to global ecological change. For exam- ple, carbon emissions and resource depletion cause severe stress in ecological systems. Now waste management has emerged as a signifi- cant issue for sustainable development (SD). Waste management is a complex problem with technical, socioeconomic, legal, ecological, polit- ical, and even cultural components (Chang, Pires, & Martinho, 2011). Therefore, traditional management approaches to this problem must be revisited as they create unsustainable societies (Seadon, 2010). In today's modern societies, an efficient waste management system that isolates the adverse impacts of waste on the environment and protects human health is a fundamental service that should be provided by municipalities. Because proper management of waste requires the active participation of residents, the public awareness levels should be a concern for local governments. Therefore, an interdisciplinary under- standing of the nature of waste issues is necessary when developing sustainable plans. The question here is how to advance sustainable waste management practices so that they will be appraised as a constit- uent of SD. Various articles have been written about sustainability research, SD, and indicators for measuring sustainability in different domains, such as agriculture, water resource management, and natural Received: 29 July 2017 Revised: 19 September 2017 Accepted: 2 October 2017 DOI: 10.1002/bsd2.7 Bus Strat Dev. 2018;1–12. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/bsd2 1