Abstract: Waste material that is introduced into waste inlet units (10) is managed by connecting the inlet units to a temporary storage volume (3) for charging the storage volume with the waste and by controlled, intermittent opening of the storage volume for the removal of accumulated waste therefrom. Specifically, waste is introduced into each inlet unit during an inlet charging phase; shaft charging vacuum (CV) is applied to the storage volume and is maintained continuously therein except when waste is removed from the storage volume; and the charging vacuum and atmospheric air (AA) is intermittently communicated to the inlet unit to charge the storage volume with the introduced waste.