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Waste generation in huge amount is key feature of modern industrial and urban
economic system, where increasing the production is a prime goal. Waste management is
the mechanism of collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal of waste
materials and is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, aesthetics or
amenity. Waste management practices differ for developed and developing nations, for
urban and rural areas, and for residential and industrial generators. Management for non-
hazardous residential and institutional waste in metropolitan areas is usually the
responsibility of local government authorities, while management for non-hazardous
commercial and industrial waste is usually the responsibility of the generator.
In Bangladesh the municipal authorities are mainly responsible for managing the waste.
There are three systems of solid waste management, one is the ‘formal system’ where
municipal authority is responsible for solid waste management other is the ‘community
initiatives’ which is based on primary collection on solid waste by community based
organization and finally ‘Informal system’ represented by the large informal labor force
involved in the solid waste recycling trade chain dealing mainly with inorganic waste.
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As the food waste is organic in nature, this huge amount of organic solid waste
can be converted in to compost. Many developing countries do not depend on the method
of landfills for disposal of waste, they use composting, incineration and other advanced
technology for the purpose of appropriate disposal of municipal waste in addition to
landfills.
Composting is an easy and affordable method. This method can only deal with
organic portion of waste. Composting is a process of biological decomposing of organic
solid waste where chemical fermentation takes place by micro-organism under an aerobic
Condition. compost comes out through natural process, compost is a complex pattern
involving hundreds of different organisms including bacteria, fungi, worms & insects.
Organic components in waste that include food and vegetables may constitute 70% to
80% of total waste. Segregation of 80% from the total waste for composting helps reduce
the volume to a substantial level. Remaining 20% of waste requires less land area for
dumping.
Importantly use of organic waste as raw materials of compost reduces the
environmental impacts caused at the sites by odor, dust, flies, mosquitoes, insects, germs
& diseases. Massive use of chemical fertilizer and intensive agriculture causes prolong
depletion of organic contents in the farming soil. Application of compost in the
agricultural land can supplement the deficiency, add necessary nutrients in the soil and
sustain productivity.
Returning of organic waste to the soil would significantly contribute to
enhancement of sustainability of agriculture product. As such substitution of chemical
fertilizer by bio-fertilizer has thus got potential market demand in an agro-based country
like Bangladesh.
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OVERVIEW OF BANGLADESH
Bangladesh, officially the peoples Republic of Bangladesh is a country in south Asia. The
country is in a tropical Zone on the globe, with six seasons in the year namely, summer,
monsoon, and autumn, Late Autumn, Winter & Spring.
Bangladesh is a developing country with about 150 million people
in an area of 148,300 Sq Km. The density of population stands at 881 (BBS 2003) per Sq
Km. The rate of birth is about 3 percent. It is very difficult to divert a significant amount
of its resources to address any particular problem, which may be the management of
waste or rendering other civic services to the citizens. This is why many important areas
of necessity in Bangladesh are left unattended.
The global location has the effect on the characteristics of the climate of
Bangladesh such as high temperature, seasonal variation of rain and excessive humidity.
Its climate is subtropical and tropical with temperature ranges from 11°c to 29°c in winter
and 21°c to a top of 40°c in summer. The overage annual rainfall varies from 160 cm to
400 cm at different areas. The government undertakes plan for any development paying
due attention to the seasonal variation of the country. Seasonal variation influences the
quality of waste in terms of moisture contents, weight and ingredients. In the months of
June and July additional waste generated from the supply of large amount of seasonal
fruits.
Basically Bangladesh is a rural based country. Rural agricultural economy still playing a
dominant role in total economy. After independence economy of Bangladesh started
centering at the urban places in the sectors of business, trade commerce & industry.
Conversely agricultural economy could not hold back the rapidly expended population at
the rural areas of Bangladesh. The changing scenario encouraged huge migration from
rural places to the cities and towns. The cities and towns could not get ready with
necessary service facilities to accommodate the huge inflow of population from rural
areas
The rapid growth in population has resulted in a huge demand for processed and
packaged foods. As a result of this demand, large amounts of water, air, electricity and
fuel are consumed on a daily basis for food processing, transportation and preservation
purposes. Although not one of the most heavily polluting, the food industry does
contribute to the increase in volume of waste produced as well as to the energy expended
to do so.
Waste disposal is an emerging problem in Bangladesh. There are 522 urban centers in the
country including 254 municipalities and 6 City Corporations. The increase in waste
generation can be primarily attributed to factors such as rapid rate of urbanization, rural-
urban migration, changing consumption pattern and high population growth rate. While
the magnitude of the problem is relatively small and manageable in rural areas, it appears
to be growing significantly in urban areas in recent times. Among the major
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environmental concerns confronted today in the urban areas of Bangladesh are problems
relating to proper management of solid waste. Lack of financial resources, proper policy,
institutional weakness, improper choice of technology and lack of public awareness about
solid waste management has rendered solid waste management services far from
satisfactory.
Since waste of all forms are primarily the creation of normal human living, it is to
be expected that the more people living in a particular physical space, the more acute will
be the problem of waste. With a population density of over 800 people per square
kilometer, management of waste, especially solid waste, is a big problem for Bangladesh.
Rapid population growth will only further accentuate the problem in the future.
However presently, a number of commendable steps have been taken by the
government to promote low cost, appropriate decentralized community based composting
technology based on socioeconomic and climatic condition of the country.
Characteristics of solid waste:
The composition and resulting character of waste are always dependent on the
source of its generation. Each city has a unique blend of activities and resulting waste
characteristics. Experience shows that residential areas of Bangladesh generate
approximately 60% of wastes.
In urban areas of Bangladesh solid waste has a very high organic content. Table 1
shows that solid waste of Dhaka city has also similar amount of organic matters High
moisture and organic content coupled with high prevailing temperatures make frequent
removals necessary to avoid bad smell due to rapid decomposition of waste.
Composition of Waste:
Table 1
Waste composition Bangladesh (Dhaka) (% by weight)
Food and vegetable wastes 70
Paper Products 4
Plastics 5
Rags
Metals 0.13
Glass and ceramics 0.25
Wood 0.16
Garden waste 11
Other (stones, dirt etc.) 5
Moisture 65
Source: Ahmed, M.F. and Rahman, M.M. 2000
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A sum of 70% food & vegetables, 4% paper products and 11% Garden wastes
comes to about 85%. This is the organic components of the wastes. This 85% organic
waste is biodegradable and the rest is non-biodegradable.
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WASTE GENERATION Self-Disposal or Illegal
(16,380 tons per day) Dumping
On the roads, low lying areas, and in drains
-Domestic
-Commercial
-Industrial Recycled by informal sector
-Street Sweeping
-Health Care Facilities
COLLECTION
Community bin System
Demountable Container Recycled by informal sector
House-to-House Collection
(Community initiative)
TRANSPORTATION
Open Truck Collection
Demountable truck
Tractors & trailers
WASTE DISPOSAL
Unsanitary crude dumping Recycled by informal sector
FORMAL SYSTEM
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Technology used to manage solid wastes in Bangladesh:
Traditional labor-intensive methods are used for solid waste management in Bangladesh.
Due to lack of specific guidelines to manage waste in the country, official initiatives to
promote segregation of waste at the source is almost absent. Waste is simply collected
from the designated communal dustbins and demountable containers, transported by open
1.5-5 ton capacity trucks, demountable containers, tractors and trailers and disposed in a
crude unsanitary way in nearby low-lying areas of the cities/towns.
Collection system is inadequate and involves 4 or 5 times of handling of a
particular waste before it is finally disposed at an open dumping site. The waste
collection system relies on communal containers located along the roadsides. Some of
these containers are stationary concrete bins that are to be entered by workers, who
shovel the waste into baskets for manual loading into open trucks. Other containers are
demountable that are mechanically loaded by demountable trucks. The premises of this
system are that resident will walk to the nearest bin with their waste and put it inside.
Unfortunately, that rarely happens. Many residents dump their waste on the ground near
the site at increasing distance from the bin as the amount of waste increases throughout
the day, loath to walk over any waste to get to the bin.
Waste recyclers further complicate the situation by going through the waste for
recyclables and scattering it further. Collection coverage of waste is inefficient and as a
result 35%-50% of waste remains uncollected in the urban areas of Bangladesh.
Uncollected waste accumulate on open lands, are piled along streets, fill drains and clog
sewers. Given country’s sub-tropical monsoon climate these uncollected wastes provide
ample habitat for flies, cockroaches, rats and other disease vectors. The stagnant water in
the clogged drains provides breeding ground for mosquitoes; during flooding the health
consequences become enormous.
Recently due to infrequent collection of waste from the communal bins some
communities took the initiative to start house-to-house collection of waste from their
neighborhoods in several small and large cities of Bangladesh. Under this initiative
people pay for house-to-house waste collection service.
Local communities. CBOs NGOs and micro-enterprises are initiating these house-
to-house waste collection schemes.
These initiatives are creating new employment opportunity for the urban poor.
This concept being simple and is becoming popular to the people of the city.
Problem of uncollected waste in urban areas is most prevalent in low-income
neighborhoods, where 20% to 50% of the urban dwellers live. Middle-income and high-
income neighborhoods tend to take matters into their own hands, hiring their own
neighborhoods waste collectors and covering the necessary costs.
Toxic and hazardous waste from different sources ends up in the communal bins.
There is no separate collection system for these wastes in the city causing health risk for
the city as a whole. Due to scarcity of land in large cities local authorities have been
resorting to the practice of dumping garbage at certain selected locations without any
consideration to the adverse effects of such dumping.
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Technology/Method Used to Manage Urban Solid Waste:
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Institutional arrangement for waste management:
Presently, the solid waste management system in Bangladesh in 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. The organizational structure of conservancy section
is shown in Figure-2. The number of staff for conservancy varies from city to town
depending upon the size of the city and the workload.
The main problems and drawbacks of solid waste management in the urban areas of
Bangladesh are as follows:
Absence of national policy to encourage recycling practice:
Lack of proper handing rules and standard:
Lack of proper institutional setup in the local bodies to manage solid waste
properly:
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Lack of finance, and inefficient tax collection:
Incomplete and inefficient waste collection practice:
Lack of access to municipal solid waste service by huge population:
Shortage of suitable lands for final disposal of solid waste:
Lack of public awareness about the health and environmental problems
associated with the solid wastes .and
Lack of partnership between the public sector, private sectors, community people
and NGOs and CBOs.
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 has prepared a master plan for the
solid waste management of Dhaka city. There are four priority programmes of solid
waste management system, including social, institutional and organizational
improvements as well as technical and engineering aspects.
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findings and recommendations of NEMAP, the government has taken up projects like
community based solid waste management.
Urban Management Policy Statement, 1998, prepared by the Government of
Bangladesh has clearly recommended the municipalities for privatization of services as
well as giving priority to facilities for slum dwellers including provision of water supply,
sanitation and solid waste disposal.
National Policy for Water Supply and Sanitation 1998 prepared by the Local
Government Division of the Ministry of Local Government Rural Development &
Cooperatives gives special emphasis on participation of private sector and NGOs in water
supply and sanitation in urban areas. Some solid waste and recycling related strategies
under this policy are given below:
• Local Government Bodies (City Corporations and municipalities) may transfer,
where feasible collection, removal and management of solid waste to the private sector.
• Measures to be taken to recycle the waste as much as possible and promote use
of organic waste materials for compost and biogas production.
• Private sector including NGO participation in sanitation is encouraged .
National Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Strategy 2004 prepared by
the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has identified waste sector as one of the
potential sectors for attracting CDM finance in the country. The waste sector options for
Bangladesh can be landfill gas recovery, composting. poultry waste, and human excreta
management using eco-sanitation and wastewater treatment.
Local Level Legal Framework:
There is no adequate legislation in the country to address the growing problems
of solid waste. In Bangladesh, solid waste management is entrusted with urban local
government bodies. The responsibility of removal and disposal of municipal solid waste
lies with the City Corporation and municipalities. The six city corporation Ordinances
and Pourashava Ordinance 1977 are the only local law that gives some idea about
disposal of municipal waste. These ordinances contain identical provisions relating to
solid waste management, Which are as follows:
The pourashava or city corporation shall be responsible for sanitation of the
municipality/city corporation area and for the control of environmental pollution .
For this purpose the city corporation or pourashava may cause such measures to
be taken as are required by the ordinances.
A pourashava or city corporation shall make adequate arrangements for removal
of removal of refuse from all public streets, public latrines, urinals, drains, and all
buildings and land vested in the pourashava of city corporation and for
collection and proper disposal of such waste.
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All refuse removed and collected by staff of pourashava/city corporation or under
their control and supervision and all refuse deposited in the bins and other
receptacles provided by the pourashava/city corporation shall be the property of
the pourashava/city corporation.
A pourashava/city corporation shall provide adequate public drains in the
municipality/city area and all such drains shall be constructed, maintained, kept
cleared, and emptied with due regard to health and convenience of the public.
Best Practices:
1. Decentralized Community Based Composting in Dhaka by Through Public-
Private-Community Partnerships
In an attempt to recover the value from organic portion of waste, a research based
organization, Waste Concern, initiated a community based decentralized composting
project in Dhaka city in 1995. The prime goal of this project was to explore technical and
commercial feasibility of labor-intensive aerobic decentralized composting technique and
to promote the principle of 3Rs (Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle,) in urban areas of
Bangladesh. Activities under the project included house-to-house waste collection,
composting of the collected waste in a decentralized manner, and marketing of compost
and recyclables. The innovative approach and success of Waste Concern encouraged the
Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) of the Government of Bangladesh to select
the Waste Concern as a sub-implementing agency for the project “Community Based
Urban Solid Waste Management in Dhaka” with support from UNDP. Launched in
September 1998, Waste Concern is implementing their community-based program of
waste management in 5 areas of Dhaka city through partnership development with
government agencies, private sector and community groups. In 1999, partnership
agreement was signed between public agencies (Public Works Department and Dhaka
City Corporation), private sector (Map Agro) and Waste Concern to implement the
project..
• PWD and DCC have given Waste Concern permission to use their land and have
provided other logistical support such as water and electricity connections to establish
community based composting plants.
A good market for compost exists in Bangladesh. Waste Concern helps the
communities sell their compost to a number of outlets such as fertilizer-marketing
companies and nurseries. Waste Concern has been selling its compost for $0.05- per kg.
Recently, Map Agro requested waste compost. Waste concern’s model relies on
community mobilization and capacity building to manage waste and ensure sustainability
of the project After a year of community mobilization and training, Waste concern hands
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over the project to the community but continues to monitor it for 3 years. The
community-based decentralized composting program, integrated with door-to-door
collection of solid waste, can yield appreciable savings for municipal authorities. Waste
concern’s model shows that only 15 of total waste has to be transported to the landfill site
by having decentralized community based composting plants.
The program has significantly cleaned up communities, created jobs for the
urban poor, reduced DCC’s waste management costs, and created business opportunities
for entrepreneurs. The project has become a model, which several city governments and
NGOs are trying to replicate.
In Bangladesh Shrimp waste consists mainly of shrimp heads and tail hulls. About 35%
by weight shrimp raw material is discarded as waste. Shrimp waste could be used as fish
or shrimp meal, poultry meal etc. In Bangladesh total shrimp waste estimated about
20000 MT. per year. Total waste processed by sun drying in open place about 5000 MT.
Therefore 25% waste has been processed however from the unprocessed 75%, a portion
has been dump into the river, after processing and a portion has been utilized for other
purpose such as:
Relevant problems: Rapid expansion of fish and shrimp culture industry has created
a serious environmental and hygiene problem:
Shrimp waste quickly becomes colonized by spoilage organisms and is rapidly
transformed into both nuisance and public health hazard;
A major threat of aquatic pollution, which causes water borne diseases.
Recommendations:
Allocate space for beheading of shrimp;
Processing plant could maintain the raw materials quality as possible as fresh for
the further process of waste;
Locally feasible and easy technology that might better than the traditional method
should be adopted.
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The agro processing industries in Bangladesh has evolved around domestically available
agricultural raw materials, such as fruits, spices, vegetables etc. The main agro-based
industry are fruit and vegetable processing, beverages. There is no statistics about how
much waste is generated from agro processing sectors .Agro processing industry produce
juice, jam, jelly, paste, potato chips etc. Waste generated from fruits and vegetables such
as, fruit skins and seeds, leaves are mostly used as cattle feed and the remaining portion
are dumped into municipal dustbins.
The total number of food and Beverage Industries in urban areas of Bangladesh is about
18500 .The generated wastes mainly used as animal feeds and some portion disposed off
into the municipal dustbins. In Bangladesh ‘Haque Brothers’ is one of the leading
manufacturing company, producing 60 different kinds of Biscuits along with chips,
chocolate, candy. The main raw materials required for the production of biscuits are
flour, sugar, butter/fat and flavor. The production processes are:
The scrap or waste from Dao making to baking is recycled in production. The
waste from Baking to packing is sent to underground waste tank through covered drain.
The packing waste sweeps by sweeper which ultimately collected by Dhaka Municipal
corporation Waste collector.
Minimization of Waste from Food Marketing and processing sectors :
Matter can neither be created nor destroyed. It gets changed from one form to
another. This theory can be applicable in the case of waste. Internationally recognized
waste management hierarchy preserves that the first priority should be given to waste
minimization.
Waste from food marketing is the largest portion of the waste in Bangladesh,
which necessitate proper management with more scientifically keeping an eye to the
environmental hazard.
Recycling, reusing, treatment and disposal in this order may follow for
minimization of wastes.
Reduce : Reducing is choosing to use thing with care to reduce the amount of waste
generated.
The food waste may be prevented by-
Improving food preparation procedure to reduce unnecessary discards;
Keeping an eye on inventory to avoid food waste due to spoilage or dehydration;
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Separating food waste for animal feed can help divert reusable food scraps from
landfills and provide a nutritious feed, usually at lower cost than traditional feed;
Modern specification: specification for less hazardous and less packaging;
Forecast production to reduce leftover;
Store left over in freezers(Giving priority to food safety);
Employee should be trained routinely to implement source reduction activities;
Design a management strategy to reduce waste, prioritize waste reduction options,
and then develop an implementation schedule.
Reuse : Reuse involves the repeated use of items or parts of items which still have
useable aspects.
Example:
Reusing sugar bags;
Bottles/pots made of glass can be reused until these are broken.
Recycle :Recycle means the use of waste itself as resources. The resources when sorted
out from the bulk of wastes and used for producing the same thing or other item are
termed as recycle.
Recyclable materials from food processing industries as follows: -
-Glass : Glass can be reprocessed into glass bottles.
-Plastic : Plastic Containers can be recycled for numerous product.
-Steel Cans :Steel food cans can be recycled by the steel industries.
-Aluminum cans : Aluminum is one of the easiest materials to be recycled.
-Paper : Paper is also a recyclable material.
Benefits of Recycle:
Composting is the natural process and recycling of organic material into a humus
rich soil known as compost. Composting is an easy and affordable method. Composting
can be used to recycle organic waste generated from food marketing and processing
sectors, food service providers, leftover food, napkins etc. Compost comes out through
natural process.
It is a biological decomposition of organic waste under controlled conditions.
Microorganisms Carryout this kind of biological decomposition. It then breaks down the
complex organic substances into carbon dioxide, water & residues.
Modern composting differs from that occurring - naturally only in the
intentional creation of conditions through the application of scientific knowledge and
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technology to promote rapid decomposition of organic material and to better control the
quality of the final product in an environmentally sensitive manner.
Composting meets dual purposes: to dispose of waste and to use the compost bio-
fertilizer which is also beneficial to agriculture and the environment.
Benefits of Compost :
• Avoids methane production and leach ate formation in landfills by diverting
organics from landfills into compost
Separating food waste for animal feed can help divert reusable food scraps from
landfills and provide a nutrias feed, usually at a lower than traditional feed.
Feeding food by products directly to livestock offers several advantages over composting
and land filling.
-By product may be fed to livestock in their original form.
-By product can be fed year round. Feeding is not limited by weather conditions.
What should be done to handle food waste efficiently and effectively in Bangladesh?
• Understanding the impact of food waste on environment and minimize it from the
handling, processing, transport and dispose;
• Effective planning for sustainable Waste management in the food marketing and
processing sector;
• Distribute information through the media;
• Innovations in food processing technology;
• Development of food processing equipment;
• Food packaging and leveling requirements;
• Create communication networks between hauler, generators and computers.
• Marketing by product as animal feed;
• Establish regulations on safety concern (feed definition, nutrient guarantees,
transportation, storage requirements, handling, feeding management).
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References:
Huda ,Nurul,K.M ,Municipal solid waste management.
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B1189.HTML
A guide to Collection of wastes from source, A publication of Local Govt. Engg.
Department, BD.
www.wasteconcern.org
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