The paper features some issues and main directions of the strategic development of a municipal entity in the field of solid municipal waste. The authors identify the major sources of waste and prove that for municipalities it is necessary to enhance the role of strategic planning, the effectiveness of monitoring and accounting, and implement monitoring systems in waste management. It is shown that the most important direction for the effective solution of these problems is the improvement of economic and organizational mechanisms for managing the sphere of solid municipal waste within an urban community. The paper contains the main tasks a community has to perform to improve the mechanisms of strategic management in the sphere of solid municipal waste. Management technology should be systematic and take into consideration the interests of the local population, enterprises and authorities as well as other stakeholders. It should be based on an integrated collection system that would reflect the system for collecting and transporting communal waste, technology for recycling wastes and methods for their utilization. The authors propose an approach to unify the technology for implementing processes in the field of solid municipal wastes. The approach is based on the system approach and employs methods of economic and logical analysis, as well as data of state statistics and municipal reports. The approach presupposes organizational and economic integration of stakeholders, which should increase investment in this area and reduce environmental tensions in the community.