Integrating Garbage Recycling Activities into a Solid Waste Management System

Concept As Defined By The Pre-Feasibility

The concept that has been researched for the pre-feasibility consists of developing scavenging and recycling at the landfill sites and preventing scavenging and recycling within the city. It is felt that if scavenging and recycling can be shifted to the landfill site then there will be no impediment to the waste reaching the landfill. Right now it is sorted out within the city since the recycling industry is located in the inner city. For determining how feasible this concept is dialogues and workshops were conducted with DMC and KMC staff, representatives of the recycling industry, scavengers, private sector solid waste management companies, dealers, middlemen and itinerant waste dealers. Summary of the findings of these dialogues is given below.

• The itinerant waste dealers have no problems with the concept. Their business they feel will remain unaffected since they sell clean garbage directly to the recyclers usually from long distances from the recycling industry.
• The scavengers have a problem. If they are to work at the landfill site then they would like to have a space to live which they can call their own, and water and electricity. These facilities are available to them in the city. They would also like to have access to cheap food which is available in the city and may not be available at a distant landfill site.
• The informal recycling industry and also the excessively polluting formal industry would like to move away from the city as they have constant conflict with their neighbours. However, it requires land, road access, electricity, water and preferably living space for its workers. It is willing to pay for these facilities.
• The DMC/KMC staff feels that the system will work provided the DMC/KMC staff is given a financial incentive in managing the collection and transport of solid waste from the kutchra kundis to the landfill sites.
• The private sector entrepreneurs are supportive of the proposal. They have expressed an interest in developing and managing landfill sites provided they are easily accessible and not too far away from their areas of operation. They are also interested in solid waste collection and disposal to the landfill sites provided this is on a reasonably small scale to make it financially viable for them, given their financial and management constraints.

Summary Of Findings Of The Study

A major problem related to solid waste management for Karachi is that the solid waste does not reach the official landfill site. There are a number of reasons for this. These are given below.

• Scavengers pay the DMC staff informally to persuade them not to pick up the waste so that they can scavenge and remove the recyclable material from it. The DMC staff saves money on POL as well in the process, which it pockets.
• There are scavenger’s colonies in Karachi which also pay the DMC staff per truck for delivering the waste to them instead of taking it to the official landfill site.
• There is only one landfill site for the whole city and distances to it can be of upto 40 kilometers on bad roads. This is a disincentive to the drivers and DMC staff and private sector operators. It is also economically unviable since a truck can only make one trip a day. Therefore, they take the solid waste to a number of nearby unofficial sites where it is picked by scavengers of recyclable material.
• Both the DMCs and the KMC suffer from poor management of the solid waste system. In addition, the manner of organising, collecting and disposal does not relate in anyway to the scavenging and recycling activities, except informally.
• Waste is also taken to potter’s settlements where it is used as fuel in kilns. Here again, the DMC staff are the beneficiaries.
• The recycling industry provides employment to more than 55,000 families and its annual turn over is over Rs 1.2 billion. Its activities have increased by over 65 per cent in the last seven years and it is estimated that there are more than 1,000 recycling units. Almost all of them are in the informal sector. It is estimated that 25 per cent of them are formal units located in the industrial areas of the city and most of these are involved in making board out of waste paper.
• The neighbours to the informal recycling industry are constantly agitating against its presence in their areas since it creates environmental pollution and degradation and social conflict. For this reason, there are also court cases against the industry and as such much of this industry wishes to relocate to a more “friendly” environment.
• Thirty-five studies on solid waste have been conducted on Karachi by various agencies in the last 20 years. None of these studies have tried to integrate the recycling industry and processes with the solid waste management system. As a result of this study, these previous studies have been collected and placed in the Urban Resource Centre in Karachi.