How to ensure sustainable waste management in our cities?

Sustainable waste management is an efficient and environment-friendly strategy to deal with the wastes generated by city dwellers every day. 

It is a process of handling wastes at a minimum cost that targets waste reduction at the source, adopts reuse and recycling at its core so that the final disposal methods induce the least amount of pollution. 

The goal here is to create a sustainable and healthy environment. To do so, the fight against pollution must incorporate sophisticated waste treatment technologies, policies and laws to encourage the implementation of waste management.

Urban authorities in developing countries, including Bangladesh, usually spend 20-50%  of their total budget on waste management. But the level of service is quite deplorable. 

The World Bank says that, compared to developed nations, residents in developing countries, especially the urban poor, are more severely affected by unsustainably-managed waste. 

Households dump their rubbish in open places, roadsides, water bodies or into the drains. Over 90% of waste is disposed of in unregulated dumps or burned openly. 

Both biodegradable and non-biodegradable solid wastes are dumped together in unsanitary landfill sites. Clinical wastes are also disposed of similarly along with hazardous waste from other sources like industries, slaughterhouses, households etc. 

Environmental or social impact assessment is not conducted during the selection of landfill sites, although Bangladesh Environmental Conservation Act 1995 requires such assessments before creating a landfill. 

Unsurprisingly, the site becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes, flies and other insects, creating both environmental and health hazards.

Moreover, there is no formal system of segregating waste into recyclable and non-recyclable categories. So recycling is not an option. 

Waste pickers collect recyclables like cans, paper, plastic, rubber, tire, glass, GI wire, iron, tin etc. at the disposal site. Most waste pickers are children and women who are chronically underpaid. Besides, they are constantly exposed to various dangerous chemicals. 

Collected wastes from drains are dumped on the street, spreading malodour. Especially on rainy days, the dumped wastes spread over the roads and create a disgusting situation for the inhabitants and vehicles. 

Sweepers dispose of the human excreta from pit latrines or septic tanks following manual methods. Some households even connect their septic tanks with the drains. 

All these bad practices in urban waste management create serious health, safety, and environmental consequences. 

Poorly-managed waste disposal sites serve as the breeding ground for disease vectors and contribute to global climate change through methane gas emission.

Waste management workers mainly work on a temporary and contract basis. Their salaries are trivial, their education and training are almost non-existent and they do not wear any protective gear or use health safety equipment, even though these are provided by the authorities. 

The current practices in waste management are unlikely to achieve anything in terms of meeting the sustainable development goals. 

Published research reveals that local governments lack waste management capabilities and they are trying to confront these challenges with a very poorly equipped system. 

If you ask the local government authorities about this situation, they always cite a resource crisis. They say that they lack sufficient human and financial resources to cope with the growing piles of waste. 

Yet the stakeholders do not believe it: 70% say that there is no shortage of budget or manpower. According to them, the central government allocates funds, but the cities do not utilise them properly. 

Then what should we do? 

We need to change people's minds first and make them aware of and supportive of sustainable waste management. Then the people will pressurise their local governments to clean up the messes they see and smell near their homes. 

Poorly-managed waste disposal sites serve as the breeding ground for disease vectors and contribute to global climate change through methane gas emission.

Popular culture, environmental advertising and campaigning for cleanliness by influential political leaders will also be helpful to enhance people's awareness of and support for environmental protection. Such campaigns could also help to change the culture of waste management in Bangladesh. 

Indeed, a very effective way of improving this situation at both ends is to make the development and implementation of waste management policy a more-participative endeavour.  Bureaucracy-made or even politician-made policies indeed tend to get ignored in Bangladesh. 

Getting the people involved in choosing waste dump sites and giving them easy methods to report uncollected dumping are initiatives worthy of undertaking. They can also report waste management employees who are not responsible in their jobs to hold them accountable. 

Waste management is indeed very expensive. So, better auditing and supervision are needed to shepherd these large sums. Not only pilferage but also waste and lack of the best use of funds also contribute to the problem. 

So, pragmatic steps should be taken to design audit, hierarchy and complaint procedures so that all staff and officials involved in waste management are fully accountable and they operate with maximum honesty and efficiency.

Most importantly, we must not forget about the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! 

In modern times, very few experts advocate for dumping solid waste. A complete solid waste management policy does not only conceive of waste disposal but also includes workable policies to reduce the total amount of waste generated, to reuse and recycle things where possible. 

We have to use our resources efficiently and honestly and enhance our capabilities using the available technology. Our goal should not be to wait for any rich country to give us huge capital or technology on short-term projects that we could not possibly continue to use with our resources when the project finishes. Rather, the efficient usage of technology, human resources and strategy need to be implemented permanently. 

Dr A. K. M. Mahmudul Haque is the Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Rajshahi. He can be reached at: akmmahmudul@ru.ac.bd

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.