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Posted
13th May 2001
Steptoe
Principle Savior Of Cities Once again, as with micro-credit,
informal economics and now making trash a treasure, some third
world communities are showing the way forward to the so-called
first world. Urban waste disposal is an enormous problem waste
often piles up faster than cities can remove it. A pair of social
entrepreneurs in Bangladesh are tackling the problem by creating
a decentralized network of community-based composting plants.
As is so ofte Urban planners A.H.Md. Maqsood Sinha and Iftekhar
Enayetullah belong to the school of thought that "considers
waste as an economic resource from which marketable products
can be delivered." They have developed composting plants, as
well as barrel-type composting for slums and squatter settlements,
that are financially viable, reduce the amount of waste, cut
costs, and save on landfill area. Besides generating revenue
and employment, they provide a source of environmentally friendly
bio-fertilizer for the agricultural sector that can reduce the
extensive use of harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Finally, but perhaps most important, communities are cleaner
and healthier as a result. When it comes to urban waste, Dhaka,
the capital city of Bangladesh, is no different from other megacities
confronted with having to manage or "mismanage" the ever-increasing
problem of waste disposal. With a population that will soon
reach 10 million, the city's cash-strapped municipal government
simply does not have the capacity to cope with the more than
3,000 tons of garbage produced daily.
The
total waste collected by Dhaka City municipal workers and the
informal sector of scavengers, known as tokais, is less than
50 percent, and it is dumped in suspect landfills. The remaining
uncollected waste poses grave public health and environmental
hazards because it is left lying everywhere in streets, market
places, slums, open garbage dumps, vacant lots, on river shores.
It clogs drainage systems and enters storm drains meant for
rain water. There are no municipal services for collecting the
waste of slum areas, where more than 30 percent of the population
lives. Inadequate procedures for collection, treatment and final
disposal of solid waste causes pollution of ground and drinking
water, contamination of food supplies, and the spread of communicable
diseases, leading to a marked deterioration in the quality of
urban life. There is a large, informal industry for recovering
and recycling solid waste. The recycling chain begins with ferrywallas,
who go door-to-door to buy miscellaneous products, thus creating
the economic incentive for households to separate waste. After
passing through a number of intermediaries, the products eventually
make their way to manufacturers for use as raw materials. The
most visible and deprived groups involved in the recycling trade
are those collecting waste from dustbins, roadsides and garbage
dumps. Most are children; too young to work; and with little
or no education. They share the common name tokai, which means
the "picker." The informal sector's contribution to minimizing
the amount of waste should not be understated. Yet recyclables
plastic, paper, glass, aluminum, iron constitute a very
small portion of solid waste.
Some
70 to 80 percent of waste that is organic is left untouched,
because it is perceived to have no value. Below, tokais collect
recyclables from municiple waste. Abdus Samad (tokai), age 55:
"I collect paper to support my family. I have been in this trade
for 17 years. I was previously a day laborer. While working
I fell off a roof and broke my leg. Now I cannot do any heavy
work so I do this (collect paper). I set out and work till evening
walking eight to ten kilometers everyday. I donνt collect
moila (organic wastes). There is no value in that. Instead I
collect paper from the dump-bins and streets. The paper is sold
for Taka 2 per kilogram and on average I earn Taka 50 per day.
When it rains I cannot work. There is no value in wet paper."
Unless otherwise noted all photos © by Alasdair Macdonald
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