If not properly dealt with, waste poses a threat to public health and the environment. It is a growing issue linked directly to the way society produces and consumes. Waste management is a basic human need and can also be regarded as a 'basic human right’. Ensuring proper sanitation and solid waste management sits alongside the provisbn of potable water, shelter, food, energy, transport and communications as essential to society and to the economy as a whole. Despite this, the public and political profile of waste management is often lower than other utility services.