Municipal solid waste collection and disposal systems are becoming increasingly costly. Yet in many cities in South Asia, a sophisticated unofficial system recovers such waste and turns it into valuable materials. The challenge for policymakers is to see that municipal systems continue to accommodate this private materials recovery pathway, so defraying public costs. The opportunity may be jeopardised by current policy shifts in favour of more efficient waste collection services. Nonetheless, the most sustainable part of the private materials recovery system may manage to adapt to change.

These observations stemmed from research conducted by a multi-disciplinary team from the UK Consortium on Urban Management. Researchers from the London School of Economics and Loughborough University led field studies in selected Asian cities. Institutional analyses were performed at the University of Birmingham. The team's main findings were that:

• materials recovery from households and small businesses depends heavily on source separation. A major role is played by poor female members of households and domestic workers, who separate higher value materials to sell to waste buyers who, in turn, sell to dealers and processors
• current perceptions of materials recovery emphasise the role of waste pickers. They appear to play a minor but highly visible role in materials reclamation. Waste pickers reclaim low value materials from street or city dumps, access to which is often controlled by municipal employees
• expenditure on municipal solid waste management can easily consume 50 percent or more of a city budget. The current drive to contain waste management costs by increasing the efficiency of collection may not affect source separation and high value materials recovery, though it may undermine low value materials recovery and the livelihoods of poor pickers.

Policy implications arising from the study include the following:

• Policymakers should inform themselves about relationships between municipal waste and private or informal recovery systems. Public policy reforms need not artificially try to integrate these systems. They should allow existing linkages to adapt to changing waste management practices.
• Social policy may provide the best safety net for waste pickers whose jobs are threatened by the increased efficiency of restructured waste collection systems. Policy should be restructured to achieve better efficiency and environmental results without too heavy an adverse effect on materials recovery.
• Private contractors cannot be expected to achieve high rates of materials recovery but they can be highly efficient collectors. The private recovery system based on household separation should be allowed to operate side-by-side with a privatised or public collection system.
• non-governmemtal organisations may play key roles as facilitators and advocates but not as managers.

Funded by: ESCOR, Department for International Development (1994 - 1996)

id21 Research Highlight: 1998-Feb-12

Further Information:
Mansoor Ali
Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
University of Loughborough
Loughborough
Leics
LE11 3TU
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1509 222885
Fax: +44 (0) 1509 211079
Contact the contributor: wedc@lboro.ac.uk

Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), University of Loughborough, UK

Other related links:
The Urban Management Consortium, UK