Waste Reduction

Urban solid waste management is considered to be one of the most serious environmental problems confronting urban areas in Bangladesh. At present there are 522 urban centers in the country including 254 municipalities and 6 City Corporations (BBS, 1997 and NILG, 2002).

Recycling of inorganic waste is common in many countries and practised by the informal sector. Composting however is still not wide spread, though often more than 50 % of the total waste amount is organic and biodegradable. Many institutions doubt the feasibility of composting as a sustainable means of organic waste recycling. Indeed the image of composting is dominated by the failed examples of oversized, over-mechanised, and centralised plants.

Small scale and decentralised approaches are more successful but often also struggle with the marketing of the compost product. Most previous projects regarding composting with initiated with a focus on technological or social issues. The importance of financial aspects and the availability of markets for compost were often neglected. According to the process cycle of composting, marketing is the last link in the chain. On the other hand, a detailed market analysis and a marketing strategy for the compost product are essential for the success and durability of a plant set-up and should be elaborated beforehand.

With over 3.3% annual growth in urban population in Bangladesh during 1991-2001 census years, solid waste generation has also increased proportionately with the growth of urban population. As such, most of the urban local bodies are finding it difficult to keep pace with the demand for adequate solid waste management and conservancy services provided by the urban local bodies. Consequently, a backlog between demand and supply for solid waste management in most of the urban local bodies is created. Lack of financial resources, institutional weakness improper choice of technology and lack of public awareness about solid waste management has
rendered solid waste management services far from satisfactory.

Comprehensive waste characterization studies have not been conducted in Bangladesh. In addition none of waste disposal sites in the country is equipped with weighbridge. However, recently Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) at its waste disposal site has installed a weighbridge to measure the amount of waste being disposed. Consequently, there is limited reliable information related to quantity of wastes generated in the urban areas of Bangladesh. Due to lack of information, estimates were made of the amount of waste generated. The estimates were based on the information available from other countries and cities having similar socio-economic condition to those prevalent in Bangladesh.

Solid waste generation in Bangladesh is growing proportionately with the growth of urban population. Above table  shows the growth in solid waste generation over the years.

Presently, the solid waste management system in Bangladesh is not well organized. However, efforts are under way to improve the organizational structure for solid waste management in different cities/towns. For instance, Dhaka City Corporation has recently established a Solid Waste Management Cell to improve the waste management services in the city. In most of the city corporations and municipalities there is no separate department for solid waste management. Solid waste management is organized and run by conservancy section of the urban local bodies, whose prime responsibility is maintenance of the sanitation system.

Generally in most of the urban local bodies have insufficient number of staff involved in waste management activities. In addition to the shortage of personnel, the staffs are handicapped with relatively small amount of resources available to them for management of solid waste in their particular area of operation.

Organizational Structure of Conservancy Section in Urban Local Bodies in Bangladesh

Increased urban population means increased generation of household wastes in cities. Dhaka, the biggest city, has several open dumping sites for disposal of household wastes. Dhaka's population exceeded 10 million in 2001. Dhaka City Corporation estimates around 3000 tons of garbage per day from its 10.07 million population having an area of 325 sq. km. Per capita garbage generation per day varies from 0.35kg to 0.4kg in Dhaka. Per capita garbage generation in Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) is 0.43 kg/day (2003). Total collection of waste
by RCC is around 300 tons per day. Khulna City Corporation collects nearly 300 tons/day of wastes from its city dwellers. Most of the garbages are dumped in landfill sites owned by the city corporations.

DCC area is composed of 360 km 2 with a population 6.5 million, which are approximately 27 percent of the total megacity area. DCC area generates about 3000-3500 metric tons of municipal solid waste daily. Total land required for disposal of solid waste in Dhaka City is estimated at 110 ha per year. With increase in population and horizontal expansion of the city, it has become very difficult to find waste disposal sites in future within easy access for solid waste disposal consequently necessitating long haulage and increase in transportation cost. Inadequate collection and uncontrolled disposal of solid waste results in a serious threat to inhabitants and environment. Waste recovery such as recycling and composting is an option of reducing the waste amount to be disposed of. Furthermore, valuable nutrients and organic matter are returned to the soil.

Amount of Waste Generated, Collected and Transported to Dumping site in Dhaka City

There have been several positive developments in the country to improve the solid waste management situation in the urban areas of Bangladesh over the last few years, which are as follows:

• Dhaka City Corporation with support from the JICA is preparing a master plan for the solid waste management of Dhaka city
• Two projects on landfill gas recovery along with height increase of Matuail landfill site of Dhaka and establishment of 700 tons/day capacity composting plant has been approved by the National CDM Board of the government. This project will be implemented shortly by private sector using CDM financing and public-private partnership approach.
• UNICEF along with 14 city corporations and municipalities and Department of Public Health
  Engineering have been implementing community based composting projects and barrel type
  composting.
• Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) with support form ADB has taken initiative
  to prepare Solid Waste Management Plan for eight secondary towns of Bangladesh.
• UNICEF is also initiated a project to establish Recycling Centers in 24 city
  corporations/municipalities as well as preparation of solid waste management plan.
• Urban Solid Management Handling Rules of Bangladesh’ is being prepared under the
  Sustainable Environment Management Program (SEMP), which is implemented by the
  Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and supported by UNDP.
• Bio-medical Waste Handling Rules’ is also being prepared under SEMP.

In order to improve solid waste management in the urban areas of Bangladesh following issues should be considered:

• Promotion of source-separation of waste.
• Tax incentive for use and production of recycled product
• Promotion of public-private-community partnerships
• Promotion of recycling/ composting/ no-burn technology and less land filling of waste
• Promotion of more waste related projects using Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
  opportunity.

One main constraint for a replication of the composting scheme is the lack and high cost of land. However, in Dhaka, different and the municipality have recently shown interest in composting activities and are supporting the idea by providing land for such purpose due to the demonstration effect of the Mirpur project. The Public Works Department has given permission to use land at six different sites, two of which are now developed and operating as composting  plants.

Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has also provided land to Waste Concern, where a 5 tons/day capacity composting plant has been constructed recently. Construction cost for the 4 new composting plants in Dhaka is being met by the Ministry of Environment and Forest of the Government of Bangladesh under its “Community Based Urban Solid Waste Management Project in Dhaka”. These are being implemented by Waste Concern with support from the UNDP, since September 1998. This project is one of the components of Sustainable Environment Management Program (SEMP) of the Government of Bangladesh. Waste Concern has also designed another composting plant at Khulna, the third largest city in Bangladesh. The cost of the construction was borne by SDC. The composting plant is now being run by a local NGO in Khulna. Recently, Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) the second largest in Bangladesh has also agreed to provide land in the city and requested Waste Concern to initiate a composting