As overwhelmed municipalities in developing countries pass responsibility for rubbish collection to private operators, what can be done to ensure that the poorest sectors of the community are not left out? How can small-scale primary collection systems become efficient and self-sufficient? Can the poor themselves participate in privatisation schemes?

A publication from Loughborough University’s Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) suggests how waste collection micro-enterprise initiatives can be based on existing practices. Looking at the role of sweepers in South Asia, it argues that the entrepreneurial skills of the poor are often overlooked as larger, more organised systems of solid waste collection are developed. The report shows how area based organisations (ABOs) can facilitate or manage collection or serve as small contractors.

Primary collection is the collection of solid waste from households and its subsequent transportation to transfer points. Typically in the south this is done manually, using a hand or animal drawn cart. Municipalities employ a large number of male and female sweepers. A South Asian city of five million people typically employs ten thousand so called low-caste sweepers. Remuneration arrangements vary but most are paid by municipalities and may also receive top-ups from client households. By contrast with developed countries, the collected waste has very little paper, plastic, glass or metal. Highly developed systems of waste collection, recovery, reuse and recycling are market based and market driven.

Key findings of the report are that:

• Privatisation schemes have been based on imported models, been badly planned and have ignored informal sector activities at street level and potential for community-based organisations to play a role.
• Privatisation schemes have failed to deliver improved rubbish collection services paid for by consumers as politicians generally block attempts to raise user charges.
• Municipal waste services are poorly financed and lack mechanisms for cost recovery.
• Community demand, and willingness to pay for, waste collection services often remain latent until stimulated by an activist or a community based organisation.
• When sweepers are paid by householders their services often do not extend into low-income areas. Informal arrangements between sweepers do not encourage development of a cheaper and more reliable service.

The study finds evidence that well-managed locally run services can cover the cost of primary collection, including management costs, much better than municipalities can on their own. It recommends that:

• Sweepers’ job security should be retained via a basic guaranteed income and legalisation of additional earning from private work.
• Municipal monitors are needed to enforce basic performance standards, encourage cross-city consistency in charge rates and enforce prohibitions on burning of waste.
• Involving ABOs reduces duplication of collectors’ efforts, creates a clearer demand for improved secondary storage and waste collection and may help create jobs for the very poorest.
• Small initiatives are likely to be more pro-poor and help overcome the reluctance of many sweepers to change current arrangements.
• NGOs should boost the financial and managerial capacities of ABOs and waste-collection micro enterprises and lend them funds to purchase equipment and tools.

Source(s):
‘The sweeping business: developing entrepreneurial skills for the collection of solid waste’, Water, Engineering and Development Centre, Loughborough University by S. M. Ali and A. P. Cotton, 2001

Funded by: DFID (IUDD)

id21 Research Highlight: 16 January 2002

Further Information:
Mansoor Ali and Andrew Cotton
Water, Engineering and Development Centre
Loughborough University
Leicestershire
LE11 3TU, UK

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

Contact the contributor: P.Cotton@lboro.ac.uk

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

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'Getting rid of rubbish: more than a technical issue'

'Rubbish disposal begins at home?'

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'Living with Waste: Public Valuation of Solid Waste Impacts in Bangkok'