Current scenarios, obstacles, possibilities, and innovations for sustainable municipal solid waste management following COVID-19 pandemic in Kathmandu valley, Nepal

Solid waste management (SWM) issues continue to be at the forefront of worldwide environmental policy towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Despite the fact that it has been over two and a half years since the original COVID-19 outbreak, the entire world is still suffering from the infectious sickness caused by coronavirus. As a consequence, the garbage generated by families, businesses, and medical institutions has changed in composition. Use of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gloves as well as hand sanitizers by frontline workers in medical facilities, banks, shops, the sanitation industry, and other organizations, as well as by the general public, has shifted the waste generation trend in a new direction and presented new challenges. To provide improved health and human security, an effective and long-term sustainable SWM system is required. This study discusses the current status of SWM, identifies the challenges encountered by the SWM sector during the pandemic, as well as the underlying possibilities to eliminate existing system gaps. In the industrial revolution 4.0 era, attaining sustainability in waste management is becoming increasingly realistic, reliable, transparent, efficient, and optimal through the use of IoT, GIS, and ICT. It would further try to make some recommendations of few futuristic Solid Waste Management technologies which might be adapted in Nepal for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of SWM in change circumstances instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While providing innovative responses to current waste management constraints, the research also makes several crucial recommendations to policymakers to assist them deal with any future pandemics in a comprehensive manner. This research contributes to the accomplishment of the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as good health, and wellbeing (SDG 3) and Climate Action (SDG 13).