Considering the global waste crisis and the pivotal role of education in promoting sustainable urban behaviors, identifying and elucidating the components of an urban waste management curriculum appears essential. Accordingly, the present study aimed to identify and clarify the components of an urban waste management curriculum. This study is a qualitative inquiry of the synthesis type (meta-aggregation). The main approach of the research was based on an inductive content analysis framework and Sandelowski and Barroso’s seven-stage model, including question formulation, systematic literature review, search and selection of articles, data extraction, analysis and synthesis of findings, quality control, and presentation of results. The study population consisted of all domestic and international studies published between 1995 and 2025, retrieved from reputable databases such as SID, MagIran, CIVILICA, ProQuest, ERIC, Sage, Elsevier, and Google Scholar. After screening and assessing the quality of articles using the CASP tool, 48 high-quality studies were ultimately selected for analysis. The findings indicated that the urban waste management curriculum is based on four main layers: the outer layer (policy and culture), encompassing alignment with laws, regulations, and public culture; the structural layer (management and technology), emphasizing infrastructure, resource management, and innovative technologies; the educational layer (learning and empowerment), focusing on practical skills training, social participation, and enhancing students’ responsibility; and the core layer (specialized knowledge and innovation), addressing specialized processes, management of specific wastes, and innovations based on the circular economy. The results of this study not only provide a layered model for designing an urban waste management curriculum but also offer an operational framework for implementation in schools and educational settings.