La gestión de los residuos sólidos en los países en desarrollo: cómo obtener beneficios de las dificultades actuales?

Solid waste management in the less developed countries: how to overcome present difficulties and to obtain benefits? The study of urban waste management in less developed countries permits us to put into evidence different systems. Each of these has its own logic, but they are strongly inter weaved. Their modelization (that is, their simplification), which we propose to do in this paper, looks to illuminate the principal characteristics of a very complex reality. We propose to observe three systems that respond to both geographic and historic logics. They refer to self management of the public management and of the shared management . These three systems are imbricated to allow the management of waste in a city such as Lima (Perú), finally building a compound system . Following the example of the management of solid waste in the Northern countries, most part of the public policies of the South cities look for technically modernize the management of their waste. The hypothesis of this text is that this strategy builds strong inequalities in such cities, related to the quality of service, because they do not have the resources to put them into functioning in all their territories. On the contrary, some experiences, even minor, look for taking advantage of the present condition, taking in account the best way of the different dimensions of sustainable development, by using the strong practice points of certain populations, such as the recyclers. This voluntarist adaptation should, however, make malabar with the different population vulnerabilities, designed to a progressive attenuation. El estudio de la gestión de los residuos en las ciudades de los países en desarrollo permite poner en evidencia diferentes sistemas. Cada uno de ellos tiene su propia lógica, pero se encuentran muy entrelazados. Su modelización (es decir, su simplificación), cosa que nos proponemos hacer en este artículo, busca iluminar las principales características de una realidad muy compleja. Podemos observar tres sistemas que responden a lógicas, a la vez geográficas e históricas: la autogestión , de la gestión pública y de la gestión compartida . Estos tres sistemas se imbrican para permitir gestionar los residuos en una ciudad como Lima (Perú), construyendo finalmente un sistema compuesto . Siguiendo el ejemplo de la gestión de los residuos sólidos en los países del Norte, la mayor parte de las políticas públicas de las ciudades del Sur buscan modernizar técnicamente la gestión de sus residuos. La hipótesis del presente texto es que esta estrategia construye fuertes d