When the two city corporations in Dhaka strive to manage tonnes of waste, a significant portion of such garbage is recycled by a section of people who help develop a waste-based market, not less than a billion taka.
Market insiders said these people collect waste from different areas every day, facilitating both the city corporations to save garbage collection expenditure and landfill space.
Experts said even though 80 per cent of the waste remains on the streets due to lack of efficient collection system of the city corporations, these people help reuse and recycle 20 per cent of 23,000 tonnes of waste generated daily.
The people mostly from the disadvantaged section of the society sell different kinds of waste materials to mills and factories for using those as raw materials and to small and medium traders for remaking goods and supporting their business activities.
Alamgir, a teenage boy, collects paper waste every day from different offices through sweepers. He sells those in Neemtoli and Ananda Bazar and earns at least Tk 500 each day.
He said paper mills are the main clients of waste papers which they collect from another group of traders in Ananda Bazar area.
Shop owners in Ananda Bazar area buy not only garbage papers but also other items from 100 sources. Arif who is among 20 'vandari' shop owners said their number would not be less than 100 in areas like Karwan Bazar, Mirpur and Tejgaon.
While visiting Ananda Bazar area, this correspondent found that garbage collection mechanism for market like cork sheet, cork box, packing carton, readymade garment waste packages, wooden carton, broken and cut pieces glasses and electronic waste have developed.
The traders informed that these garbage items are traded in at least 10 areas of the capital city including Karwan Bazar, Tejgaon, Mirpur and Noabazar.
Imam Hossain, one of the traders, said he earns from Tk 100,000 to Tk 150,000 in case of mill clients and Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000 in case of individuals by selling cork sheets whose use increased in sectors like fisheries, medicine and construction.
Like Imam, Mokhlesur Rahman, the owner of Chandpur Enterprise, also earns a handsome amount of money by selling carton waste to paper mills.
He said due to increase in export and import activities, a huge quantity of carton waste is now generated in the country.
Taher Miah, former leader of Inter-city Old Goods Market Association, said the number of garbage traders is increasing as well as the quantity of different kinds of garbage.
Around 200 shops were set up in Neemtoli area over the last 30 years. The association has now 500 members.
Though garbage collectors and waste traders are managing a significant portion of garbage by their own initiative, experts said many valuable waste mostly food waste are left on the streets.
They said despite having organic waste potential due to rapid depletion of organic materials in the country's agricultural land, it still remains untapped. The government as well as DSCC and DNCC could not develop entrepreneurs to manage 80 per cent of the garbage, they added.
According to a study conducted by Waste Concern, a waste-based research and consulting firm, urban waste generation has increased by 78 per cent over the last decade till 2014 which is likely to reach 47,000 tonnes per day by 2025 from 23,668 tonnes now.
It says that 75 per cent of the total waste is food waste, followed by plastic waste (8.45 per cent), paper waste (7.22 per cent), fabrics waste (5.55 per cent), wooden waste (0.96 per cent) and metallic waste (0.27 per cent).
The study has also found that plastic waste which was 3.75 per cent of the total waste in 2005 has almost doubled in 2014. However, paper waste generation has dropped from 10.48 per cent in 2005 to 7.22 per cent. The latest study also found 'electronic waste' which was not seen 10 years ago. It was 0.35 per cent of the total waste.
Professor Ijaz Hossain of Chemical Engineering Department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said except for medical waste and concrete, all kinds of waste have market value and could be properly used if the waste collection system is streamlined.
He said biogas and organic fertiliser can be produced from organic waste, but other waste materials including plastic and impure garbage items can be compressed and extruded to turn those as good burner and energy generation.
Iftekhar Enayetullah, Director of Waste Concern, said as waste generation in urban areas is on the rise due to increase in per capita income, it will never be possible for the city corporations to resolve waste problem through collection and landfill.
Only entrepreneurship development can deal with waste management problem, he said, adding that it could reduce the expenditure of the city corporations in waste collection and dumping them at landfills.
The Waste Concern study found that as the waste collection method of all city corporations is done in crude form, 80 to 90 per cent of the waste remain on streets. Of the total waste, 80 per cent can be used for compost.
"The waste market is now a valuable market for generating compost, fuel, electricity and thus it can reduce greenhouse gas emission," Mr Iftekhar said, adding that the country has already developed a necessary ground to support the market.
Under its green banking and corporate social development programme, the Bangladesh Bank has been trying to facilitate the waste resource sector.
A central bank official said some 10 sectors have been brought under the green banking refinancing scheme through which nearly Tk 20 million loan is being provided for 26 products. These include agricultural waste, poultry waste and biogas which generate electricity.
The Waste Concern study showed that use of organic compost fertiliser in farmland can increase crop production by 25 to 30 per cent and reduce use of chemical fertiliser by 35 to 40 per cent.
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