Developing a sustainable waste management system

Bangladesh should explore an effective operational framework for sustainable waste management. Such a management should target reaching towards waste minimisation in the long run through different means which include waste disposal, waste processing and waste recycling. Since waste management is highly expensive (about 20-50 per cent of total budget of municipal authorities in developing countries is spent on waste management), it would be difficult for local authorities in Bangladesh to take full responsibility unless other public sector institutions and private sector do not jointly take part in the process. In a standard practice (as shown in Figure 2), municipal authority could take more responsibility for plastic waste collection along with private/community-based initiatives while waste processing can be carried out through public-private partnership and waste recycling could be done by the private sector. Local communities have to play a major role in this whole process.
There are successful examples of waste management in different countries which could provide better understating on it for Bangladesh. In case of waste collection, participation of local communities along with local authorities is found to be effective. For example, Goa in India has successfully implemented community-based primary collection of solid waste.
However, there is limited success in case of applying 'separation approach' in waste collection in developing countries. Such initiatives are successful in developed countries like Japan, Sweden, Denmark and the USA. These have been done by using bins of different colours for different types of materials and collection is performed either by the municipalities or contractors. Introduction of such initiatives would need to be thought of even on a limited scale in municipal areas in Bangladesh. The process could be further extended by including local NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in the waste collection process. This service could be commercially viable by inclusion of local unemployed youths.  
Waste collection is to be followed by developing an efficient transfer operation of waste at minimum transport distances and at less cost. On one hand, the transfer points should be carefully designed to facilitate the community-based collectors and on the other, these points should ensure less environmental pollution and less activity of scavengers. More importantly, these transfer points should be accessible to individual collectors for collecting necessary amount of wastes. There should have appropriate incentive for such individual collectors for collecting plastic and other wastes. Better equipment for collecting waste and better financial support (at present it is absent) could encourage them to ensure better waste processing. The private sector could come forward to offer better price for collection of different kinds of plastic waste.
In case of plastic waste recycling, the private sector usually plays a lead role. However, the scope of activities of the private sector needs to be expanded. There should be an integrated supply chain of collection, processing and recycling of waste with proper mechanism for collection of all kinds of plastic waste for recycling. At present, bulk and heavy items are collected for recycling. However, the pricing structure in case of collection of these wastes are not so encouraging for individual collectors. According to a filed survey, individual collectors receive only Tk 25-30 for collecting one kilogram of HDPE/PET/PP/PS, Tk 12-14 for soiled HDPE/PET/PP/PS and only Tk 0.5-2 for LDPE (Polyethylene). Considering the time spent and efforts made by individual collectors, such price is not encouraging. Moreover, some of the items, particularly light weight plastic items, have very low commercial value. Thus the private sector should offer better price for all categories of plastic waste in order to encourage collection of materials for their factories. In case of plastic waste having less commercial value, the private sector/local authorities can work with local NGOs which have better network with poor communities in urban municipal areas. These NGOs could closely work with the entrepreneurs in order to ensure better processing and recycling of waste.
An effective solid waste management requires innovative approach. Given the limited resources available to the local authorities, it is important to identify cost-effective means to deal with a huge volume of municipal waste. An initial step in this case will be awareness building on environment and sanitation issues among the urban communities. A dedicated and skilled workforce will be required in the offices of local authorities such as city corporations which could set the ways and means to raise awareness of the people about disposal process of solid waste, particularly plastic waste.
Without close participation of community in plastic waste disposal, and its collection and processing, it would not be possible to solve the problem entirely by the local authority. In this context, community needs to be motivated adequately about overall cleanliness, waste reduction, waste collection and disposal from respective premises for recycling. Taking ownership by the community about waste management leads to success in waste management. A community-based approach can consider involving local NGOs and other community leaders not only in the process of waste collection but also in the process of sorting the waste before disposal. NGOs could also provide technical support to individual collectors in the process of collecting plastic waste in a better manner; besides, they could provide support for better livelihood to poor collectors and can extend healthcare facilities. It is important to strengthen campaign in the media and academic institutes.
Incorporating private sector in public task is often found effective and less time-consuming. Since plastic waste is recyclable, the private sector is very much interested to take part in this process as collected waste is good low-cost alternative against imported raw materials. In this context, national and local government should work together to develop a legal framework with adequate scope to involve the private sector, NGOs and local community in taking part at different phases of solid waste management. A part of the required service has commercial value which could be privatised and such process of privatisation or public-private partnership could be extended to different segments of the value chain of plastic waste management. The use of different kinds of plastic waste for other purposes needs to be explored. A combined effort of the concerned stakeholders would pave the way for developing a sustainable waste management in the near future.
Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem is Additional Research Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh.
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