September 2000
Aborjona
O
Paribesh
a newsletter on
waste management and recycling
in Bangladesh.
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September 2000
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Aborjona
a newsletter on |
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE |
EDITORIAL |
Waste picker collecting syringe, and saline bags from dustbin near Dhaka, Medical College
Contributions, comments and suggestions may be sent to: Waste Concern. House # 21B, Road # 7, Block-G, Banani Model Town,Dhaka -1213, Bangladesh Phone: 88-02-9884774/ 88-02-608006, Fax: 88-02-9564732 Email: wastecon@dhaka.agni.com Web: www.wasteconcern.org
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Proper Medical Waste Management in Bangladesh: Urgent Need for Enactment of Law
Medical waste has become a major health hazard in many countries, including Bangladesh. Medical waste generated by hospitals, clinics and pathological laboratories in Bangladesh are presently being disposed of carelessly by the generators. This may cause deadly diseases like HIV and hepatitis among the people who handle it and also among the general public who may get infected unknowingly by coming in contact with such waste. As such, to protect the citizens from deadly diseases that may occur by improper disposal of medical waste, a joint effort by NGOs and GOs is urgently required to create awareness amongst the people of medical and para-medical profession and citizens. Moreover, government should enact necessary laws and regulations without further delay. We are lagging behind our neighboring country India, which has already enacted necessary law for medical waste management.
Editors Iftekhar Enayetullah & A .H. Md. Maqsood Sinha |
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INORGANIC WASTE RECYCLING IN KHULNA CITY
A BRIEF ANALYSIS Profile of Khulna City
Map of Khulna City Corporation Area
Solid Waste Generation Rate and Physical Composition: Some Statistics
Solid Waste Recycling System of Khulna City Informal sector in Khulna is playing an important role in recycling of solid waste. The existence of waste, mainly inorganic, has opened quite an extensive possibility for various groups of the community to utilize it. Informal sector is also playing a prominent role in collection of recyclable materials. All the buyers of the recyclable items belong to the informal sector and only a few formal manufacturers are involved in using recyclable substance as raw material. Although recycling of solid waste is not included in the national environmental policy, yet it has become a main source of income for several groups of the informal sector. Organic waste which forms almost 78% of the total waste has no significant selling value to the actors involved in recycling trade. Inorganic waste is their main source of income for livelihood, and this has created a complex system, with every actor having a self-functioning network. In order to a get a clear picture of solid waste recycling situation of Khulna city, a systematic sampling technique was applied to select sample households, tokais, feriwallas, vangari dokans and wholesalers by the authors. Information about the recyclable materials were gathered from each actor using questionnaire survey. Data on solid waste recycling practices were also collected from different areas of Khulna city. Recycling Trade Chain There are four stages of waste recycling in Khulna city which are described below: Stage 1: The primary source (households) generates wastes. These then finally go to waste bins, drains, roadsides and ditches. Some portion of the wastes of economic value such as paper, glass, tin cans, iron, old aluminium utensils, old clothes are separated for the purpose of sale to the feriwallas. Stage 2: Wastebin tokais retrieve material from the wastebins. Stage 3: Collected items from different sources are bought by different buyers (vangari dokans, wholesale shops) of the informal sector. Stage 4: The collected materials (after washing, drying and sorting) are sold to the manufacturers (small and large manufacturers for formal and informal sector) by vangari dokans or wholesalers. After processing/converting these go to the wholesale market and finally it goes to the users again. This cycle goes on till the wastes have no economic market value. Wastebin Tokais At the lowest stratum of the recycling industry is the wastebin tokais. They are visible in every community of the city and come from nearby slums and squatter settlements.It is estimated that at present 600 tokais are working in KCC area. This figure has been based on the data provided by the feriwallas, vangari dokans and wholesalers operating in KCC area. They scavenge any thing that has value in the recycling market.For recovering, they use either bare hand or bent rod or a wooden stick. They sell their recoverable material to feriwallas or vangari dokanandar usually in small volume. Following Table1 shows the daily quantity of recyclables collected by the tokais. Table 1 shows that among the collected items by wastebin tokais percentage of iron is highest followed by paper and plastic. Aluminium and hard plastic is the most profitable item for the waste bin tokais.
Feriwallas Feriwallas are playing a very
important role in the recycling process. They are the buyers of separated
recyclable items stored for selling at the primary source. Our study shows
that there is more than 300 feriwallas involved in the chain of recycling
network of Khulna. This estimate has been based on the information provided
to by the vangari dokandars, feriwallas and wholesalers.
Table 2 shows that paper (37.56%) is the highest amount a feriwalla fetches
every day. Most of the papers comprise of newspapers, magazines, books
and other source separated clean papers. Iron is in the second highest
position of his collection (23.48%), which is very popular to the local
recycling manufacturing industries for its low price as raw material.
Most of the glass items (9.39%) are reusable bottles. Broken glasses are
also traded. In Khulna the average daily income of feriwallas varies between Tk. 20 to Tk. 150. On an average a feriwalla collects 21.75 kg of recyclable items in Khulna per day and earns a monthly income of Tk. 950.
Vangari Dokans Next to the dump and wastebin tokais and feriwallas is the vangari dokans. They operate locally and gather quite a sufficient amount for broker or wholesaler. Old and discarded materials are called vangari and shop is called dokan. These two words together denote shops of old discarded materials called the vangari dokan locally. Most of these dokans sort, clean, and sell the recovered materials before selling. Usually, they employ workers to assist them in operation, Usually, they take the help of family members of the tokais attached to the shop. These are the first nodal points within a network which connects collectors with the manufacturers. These shops purchase scrap materials from tokais, collection crews feriwallas, and after sorting they sell directly to the wholesalers or through brokers. There are more than 100 (estimated) big and small vangari dokans all over Khulna city. Normally, each and every shop has a contingent of tokais and freiwallas to supply them with recyclable waste materials. Municipal collection crews also supply them with recyclable items. Tokais and collection crews sell their goods on cash-delivery basis. It is important for them to have as large a number of suppliers as possible, in order to be assured of a good turnover to support himself. Providing loans is the most important means of the vangari dokandar to tie the tokais and feriwallas to himself. Vangari dokandar and tokais tend to distrust each other but they are very much dependent on each other. On average, they have 5 to 6 numbers of tokais and feriwallas attached/obliggated to them. Average monthly income of Vangari dokan as found from field survey is Tk.3828.
Wholesalers The step from Vangari dokans to wholesalers represents an economic leap. Wholesalers operate on a very large scale and sell directly to the companies of manufacturer of recycled products. In KCC area there are more than 12 wholesale shops. They receive their supply from all over Khulna. Most of the wholesalers sort, clean and sell the recovered materials to industries both in the formal and the informal sectors. They operate on a very large scale and supply industries and manufacturers with necessary quantities of raw materials. Sorting of purchased materials into different grade is the main job of these wholesalers. They employ 5 to 10 people to sort these dirty materials. Size of these wholesale shops varies according to supply. Wholesale shops usually specialize in certain products such as paper, plastic, glass, iron & tin or aluminium. Some of these only deal in the paper supplied by the feriwallas and brokers. Most of the wholesalers buy their raw materials from the brokers and occasionally from the vangari dokans. They do not buy directly from the tokais. One of the important reasons for this is the quality and low quantity. Personal contact between vangari dokan and wholesaler plays an important part in this trade. Sometimes the wholesaler helps the vangari dokandar with loans, just like the relationship between the tokais, feriwallas and vangari dokans. Trade between wholesalers and manufactures is more formal than the existing relationship between the vangari dokans and tokais. Some time wholesalers use their own mode of transport. It may be a pedalled rickshaw or open trucks. The price of these materials is reflected by the supply and demand of the market.Wholesale shops usually specialize in particular products such as metal, glass or plastic.
Manufacturers Final destination of the materials collected by different actors starting from feriwallas, wastebin tokais comes to manufacturer through a chain of buyers like vangari dokan, wholesaler and brokers. From the field survey it was found that apart from bone and paper all manufacturing industries are located outside Khulna district. Conclusion The potential of recycling industry can be assessed from their income and activities. At present it is estimated that between 4709 to 9419 people are working in the informal sector activity relating to waste recycling in Khulna. Informal sector is responsible for recycling of 6.5% (estimated) of the total 200 ton/day of the solid waste generated in Khulna. Informal sector deals only with the inorganic wastes. In Khulna it is estimated only that 40% of the total generated waste is collected by Khulna City Corporation. Khulna City Corporation spent Tk. 28,803,000 (US$ 533388) during 1998-99 financial year for solid waste management and collects only 80 ton/day. Thus per ton expenditure for solid waste management in Khulna is Tk. 986.40 It may be seen from Figure 2 that informal sector is responsible for removing 12.06 ton of solid waste per day in Khulna. It is estimated that informal sector is saving KCC Tk 4,342,035 (US$ 80408) annually by removing 12.06 ton of solid waste. Summary of Findings The entire recycling network of Khulna City follows a well-established pattern. In Khulna City Corporation area, 6.0 percent of the total generated waste is retrieved by informal sector. Apart from bone and paper, all other retrieved materials are transported to industries located in Dhaka, Jessore, Kushtia and Barisal as raw materials for new products. Although informal sector extracts most of the readily recyclable materials from Khulna's waste stream, still there remains considerable value in what they leave behind. This value lies in organic portion of the waste (78% of the total waste) that can be converted into compost.
Notes: Feriwallas It is a locally used name for the person who purchase or barter waste and old aterials from different sources by investing a capital or taking loans from the owner of the buying shop. They usually carry a cane basket on their head to carry the load.
Informal Sector Extensive economic activity which is usually small-scale, labour-intensive, unregulated and competitive.
Mahajans This is a locally used word to name the owner of the buying shops ( both the vangari and wholesale shops.
Tokais The word 'Tokai' means 'I pick'. It is locally used name for those who collects waste from wastebins, road sides and dumpsite and consider wastes as ore. Wastebin tokais and dumpsite tokais fall in this group.
Vangari Dokan The word 'vangari' means scrap and 'dokan' means shop. Altogether the meaning is small shops which deal in buying and selling of recyclable wastes, old and scrap items.
Wastebin Tokais Pickers who are engaged in recovering recyclable from the wastebins, road sides.
Reference: Sinha, A.H.M.M. and Enayetullah, I. 2000. ãStudy on Resource Recovery from Solid Waste in Khulna City.ä Dhaka: Water and Sanitation Program South Asia-The World Bank. REGIONAL NEWS Waste Collectors Are Operating A Composting Unit on Neighborhood Level: An Indonesian Example By: Christian Zurbrugg and Christina Aristanti 1.0 INTRODUCTION Urban areas are the focal point of environmental problems and these extend over a wide range of spatial scales; i.e., the household, the place of work, the neighbourhood, the city, the wider region, and the world. In rapidly growing cities of the developing world, urban Solid Waste Management is currently regarded as one of the most immediate and serious problems faced by urban governments. Inadequate or unavailable solid waste collection and services result in indiscriminate dumping of waste on streets and public areas, clogging of urban drainage systems, contamination of water resources, and proliferation of insects and rodent vectors. Such conditions increase health risks by direct human contact with solid waste, and constitute major factors in the spread of gastrointestinal and parasitic diseases. Even if the efficiencies of existing collection systems are improved significantly, a large section of the population will realistically not be served by municipal services, especially in low-income areas where insufficient pressure is exerted on municipalities to provide the necessary services. In other words, residents of low-income areas have to manage their own waste and develop alternative waste collection systems adapted to their economic needs. Most municipalities are also responsible for final disposal of solid waste. Inadequate disposal, often through uncontrolled dumping, poses a serious health risk to the population concerned and constitutes a major cause of environmental degradation in most cities of the developing world. Numerous dumps or landfills have almost reached their maximum filling capacity, and new sites are increasingly difficult to find or are located far from the collection areas, thereby, leading to high transport costs. One way to improve this state-of-the-art is to promote resource recovery. Recycling of different materials from municipal solid waste is often a well-functioning activity conducted by the informal sector. However, organic waste material, which often makes up more than 50 % of the total waste, still has an important recovery potential. From the perspective of solid waste managers, organic waste recycling not only reduces disposal costs and prolongs the life span of disposal sites, but it also reduces the environmental impacts caused by the sites, as the organics are mainly responsible for leachate contamination and methane problems. Recycling and returning of organic waste to the soil will significantly contribute to enhancing the sustainability of the urban world. Involving the population in the use of compost promotes awareness of the waste resource recovery and composting activities, creates employment and generates income. This paper presents a pilot project initiated by SANDEC and Yayasan Dian Desa in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Main focus of the project was placed on small-scale decentralised composting operated by a community-based primary waste collection service. The objectives of the project were to encourage low-income urban communities to manage their own waste collection, to integrate resource recovery and recycling into their collection scheme, and also to gain experience with such systems for replication in other communities.
2.0 PILOT PROJECT YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA 2.1 The Community of Minomartani and its Primary Collection The overall responsibility for Yogyakarta's solid waste management lies with the Municipal Cleansing Department, which currently manages around 68 % of the generated waste. The Municipal Cleansing Department has delegated the management and responsibility of the primary waste collection to the administrative departments of the community. To assist this organisational structure, the Cleansing Department supplies primary collection carts, sets up transfer stations and assures a reliable secondary collection. Prerequisite for the selection of the pilot project area was a well-established community-based primary collection scheme, enough organic Waste to be processed, and an active interest of the community leaders and waste collectors in participating in the scheme. The community of ãPerumahan Minomartaniä was selected on the basis of these prerequisites. This community area comprises 1,600 households with a total population of 7,800. The area is divided administratively into 6 community units (RW), which are in turn subdivided into five or six neighbourhood units (RT) each, amounting to a total of 30 RTs. In the Minomartani area, four of the six RWs have combined their efforts to establish and manage a joint community-based primary waste collection unit, the ãMinomartani Garbage Management Unit (UPSM)ä. Eleven waste collectors are employed by this waste management unit and are supplied with handcarts for the daily waste collection service (Figure 1: A). Depending on the income of the households, each serviced household pays a monthly fee of Rp. 500-1500 (0.07-0.20 US$). Furthermore, each neighbourhood unit pays the Municipal Cleansing Department Rp. 9000/month (1.22 US$) for the secondary collection service. 2.2 Composting Site Characteristics After holding a formal meeting with the local leaders of the community units and the Garbage Management Unit representatives, the concept of a composting unit linked to the primary collection scheme was finalised and first steps were taken to select an appropriate site. Finding space for
Figure- 1. . A illustrates household wastecollection by handcarts. B waste sorting. C A composting with its bamboo tunnel for aeration. D Turining the compost pile Construction of the composting unit took one month and was completed solely by the six waste collectors waste who decided to participate in the composting project at an earlier stage of the scheme. 2.3 Composting Operation The waste delivered at the unit mainly originates from households (~ 60 %) and partly from a university complex (~ 40 %). The household waste is collected on a daily basis by handcarts. The mean transport distance from the households to the composting unit, located on the outskirts of the community area, amounts to one kilometre. Waste from the university complex is collected twice a week by a small truck. The amount of raw waste processed at the composting unit of Minomartani averages 2.4 tons per day (April 1999). The raw waste is first sorted manually into organic and inorganic fractions as well as into recyclable which can be directly resold (Figure 1: B). The inorganic, non-recyclable fraction is transported to the nearby transfer point from where it is collected and transported to the municipal landfill by the Public Cleansing Department. The organic fraction is subsequently piled around a bamboo triangle tunnel, which serves to aerate the compost pile (Figure 1: C). This composting technique was tested in Jakarta between 1989 and 1992 by the Center for Policy and Implementation Studies (CPIS) jointly with consultants from the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID). Based on the results of the study, the composting unit of Minomartani started a similar composting system, which was developed further during the project. A total of three piles a week are heaped with two days of organic waste per pile. The temperature of the piles is monitored on a daily basis during the first four weeks. Temperature logs have shown that the piles should be turned on a weekly basis (Figure 1: D). Moisture content is determined by a simple manual method during the turning process, and the pile is watered if necessary with a watering can. Non-degradable material is periodically removed during the turning process. In the fourth week, the compost is left to mature for an additional month, after which it is screened and bagged for sale. The screened organic residues are returned to the fresh compost pile. After working on the unit for a month, the waste collectors were trained in the composting principles and steps, in processing the final product and in quality control to perfect their skills and knowledge. To improve labour efficiency, a time and motion study was also conducted after the first two months of operation. 3.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Technical Aspects From a technical perspective, the composting unit can be regarded as successful. Unwanted by-products like odour, leachate and fly breeding were avoided through a periodic monitoring program with planned response actions and well-trained and motivated staff. The compost produced is of good quality, as the total nitrogen value amounts to 0.75 % (dry weight basis) and the C/N ratio to 19. The system of piles with passive aeration tunnels work well. However, as no parallel tests were conducted without tunnels, it is difficult to say how far the ventilation tunnels contribute to the composting process. In the late thermophilic phase (after 3 weeks) and in the following mesophilic phase, the bamboo tunnels are omitted. No significant changes were observed as regards the duration of the process. A time and motion study revealed that sorting is the most time-consuming activity (Table - 1). However, compost quality will Most likely suffer if sorting time is decreased. To this day, sorting efficiency has not been increased yet. To increase efficiency during screening, a simple crusher powered by a diesel motor was developed and used to crush the compost prior to screening. This mechanical system was, however, not very successful as it could hardly handle the moist compost and was, therefore, frequently out of order. 3.2 Social, Organisational and Financial Aspects During project start-up, the unit comprised 6 waste collectors in charge of composting. Meanwhile, 15 people from the serviced community are employed at the composting unit. They all hold a respected position within the community. From an organisational perspective, 6 senior workers supervise the unit and also train new or temporary workers from other composting sites. The total workload based on weekly man-hours is summarised in Table - 1.
Table - 1. Weekly workload, categorized by type of composting work at the site (based on 300-kg/day compost production).
Revenues from the sale of compost to Dian Desa (local NGO), who is also responsible for marketing the product, are 450 Rp./kg (0.06 US$). 4.0 CONCLUSIONS Composting municipal solid waste combined with a primary collection scheme has potential in any urban solid waste Management system. The main factor influencing financial sustainability of composting units is the market demand for the compost product. Combining waste collection with composting activities can strengthen the financial viability of the scheme, as the revenues from collection fees and recyclable materials can help cover composting operation and marketing costs, thereby allowing a more competitive compost pricing policy.
Seen from a broader economic perspective, decentralised composting significantly reduces municipal solid waste management costs, creates employment in the communities, raises environmental awareness, and is a step towards sustainable urban management. However, until now, detailed studies of decentralised composting's economic and financial benefits for the municipal authorities and for the city's population is still lacking. This should be one focal point of future research, as quantitative data is one of the main needs of decision-makers when evaluating composting as an option in their city's solid waste management system. NEWS IN BRIEF
After one year of necessary training on operation and maintenance of the resource recovery (composting) plant, Waste Concern will handover the plant to DCC. Waste Concern has already signed an agreement with private sector to market the compost to be produced for the resource recover plant. Waste for the resource recovery plant shall be collected from the adjoining neighborhoods using door-to-door waste collection method. It may be mentioned here this the first municipal-private partnership in waste management sector of Dhaka city. Earlier in a meeting before signing of the agreement Mayor of Dhaka, Mohammed Hanif assured DCC's full support to the representatives of UNDP, Ministry of Environment & Forest and Waste Concern for implementation of this project. ASIAN MAYORS' FORUM 2000 'Fighting Urban Poverty An international seminar of
Asian Mayors' Forum 2000 entitled 'Fighting Urban Poverty' was held between
June 26-29, 2000 in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The Seminar
was jointly sponsored by the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Asian
Development Bank Institute, the Asian Development Bank, the United States-Asian
Environmental Partnership (US-AEP), UNDP/UNCHS (Habitat) Urban Management
Programme (UMP), The Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI) UNDP, Regional
Urban Development Office (RUDO) South Asia/USAID, CITYNET and the Institute
of Housing and Urban Development Studies. Mr. A. H. Md. Maqsood Sinha,
General Secretary of Waste Concern, participated as a Resource Person
and presented a note paper on 'Community Based Decentralized Composting:
Experience of Waste Concern in Dhaka. Representatives of about 60 Asian
Municipal Corporations were present in the Forum.
WEBSITE OF WASTE CONCERN In order to disseminate the information about the activities of Waste Concern in Bangladesh, it has recently launched its web site. The address of the web site is www. wasteconcern.org The site includes the following features:
LAUNCHED USING PUBLIC-PRIVATE-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP APPROACH Waste Concern under the Sustainable Environment Management Program of the Government has installed a community based decentralized composting plant in the premises of Green Road Government Staff Quarter. Under, this program, solid waste from 650 households of the aforesaid government quarter is collected daily from door-to-door. The collected waste is sorted into organic and inorganic categories. The organic waste is composted using hybrid composting technique (a combination of barrel type and aerobic windrow composting technique). Land for the composting purpose has been provided by the Public Works Department (PWD) along with water and electricity connection under an partnership agreement between PWD and Waste Concern. Staring fund for establishment of the resource recovery plant has been provided by the UNDP. Green Road Staff Quarter Residents' Welfare Association is actively participating in the program. The community is contributing regularly for the operation and maintenance of the program. Moreover, a "Green Force" community action group has been formed by the Waste Concern for the aforesaid quarter comprising youths and housewives. After community mobilization and imparting training on waste separation, recycling and composting, Waste Concern will hand over the project to local community group. The compost produced from the plant will be sold through different outlets. MOU for the sale of compost produced from the composting unit has already been signed with private fertilizer marketing company. It is expected that revenue generated from the project from sale of compost and contribution received from the households shall make the self sustainable.
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THIRD
COMMUNITY BASED RESOURCE RECOVERY
