WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Dr. Leah Oyake-OmbisChief Officer-

Environment and Forestry

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Presentation Outline

• Introduction• Aspects depicting declining SWM systems • Actors in space of SWM• Solid waste collection and disposal service

providers • Innovations in SWM • Kenyan case of innovations• Innovations fostering interactions• Findings and conclusions

25/03/2015

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Introduction• Contemporary Solid Waste Management (SWM)

systems of major urban centres in developing countries are a manifestation of the relict structures left behind from colonial times.

• The main goals of these systems were to protect people’s health and public places. As such they encompassed 3 basic elements: collection, transportation and disposal.

• The responsibility of local authorities is primarily to organize and provide for the collection, transportation and disposal of all types of solid waste generated within their jurisdiction.

• However, over the past couple of decades, the performance of these local authorities have systematically been declining, resulting in a number of non-state actors becoming involved. 25-03-2015

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Aspects depicting declining SWM in developing African cities-1990s onwards• With increased population growth and changing lifestyles, the

capacities of city authorities to provide satisfactory waste collection and disposal services started to decline;

• The cities’ capacities to effectively co-ordinate the collection, transportation and disposal of solid waste was falling short of residents’ expectations;

• Inadequate budgets resulting in scarcity of resources has been the main obstacle to achieving satisfactory SWM services;

• The frameworks under which the service provision and delivery takes place is problematic as it is highly fragmented and activities are poorly co-ordinated;

• Furthermore, increased consumption of packaging materials, especially the plastics, started to complicate solid waste collection and disposal;

• Most African mega-cities largely operate crude dump sites resulting in serious environmental and public health challenges.

25-03-2015

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Actors in space of SWM (fig. 1)

25-03-2015

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Solid waste collection and disposal service providers in major cities of Kenya

Solid waste collector City of residence Total(N= 1206)

Nairobi(N = 408)

Nakuru(N= 253)

Kisumu(N = 262)

Mombasa(N = 283)

City authorities 21.1% 10.3% 8.3% 12.0% 13.0%

CBO 23.2% 21.3% 52.7% 40.3% 34.4%

Private Firms 33.1% 31.6% 18.7% 15.2% 24.6%

Self-disposal 22.6% 36.7% 20.3% 32.5% 28.0%

Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100. 0%

25-03-2015

Source: Oyake- Ombis L., 2012

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Innovations in SWM that portends closing the loop between production and consumption

• Trading in waste materials has been practiced both by waste pickers and small scale traders, generally referred to as informal actors for several decades;

• Poverty and unemployment especially among the youth has driven CBOs into waste recovery activities;

• Use of waste materials in production of new products has also been practiced for several decades;

• Other strategies like material substitution especially on the use of packaging materials have been employed to reduce the flow of certain waste streams to SWM systems;

• However, the extent to which these activities which I may refer to as environmental innovations can contribute to the overall waste management system in the cities is not known, nor do we know the sorts of collaboration that would be required between SWM system and any production system.

25-03-205

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Kenyan case of these innovations

Using strategic niche management that posits that regime changes may be initiated by innovations within niches and it has shown historical cases in the western cities where that has indeed been the case, we picked the following as our cases and these are our findings (Refer to fig. 1):• Exporters of semi-processed plastic waste• Recycling industries• Home grown industries• Yard shop operators• CBOs-SACCOs• CBOs

25-03-2015

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Innovations fostering Interaction (fig. 2)

25-03-2015

Plastic production socio-technical system

Integrated regime as a result of system interaction

Solid waste management socio-technical system

Technological Niches

Socio-technical Regime

Landscape developments

Yard shops Conventional recycling

Bio-plastics

Homegrown industries

CBOs and CBO SACCOs

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Findings• With respect to plastic waste management in urban

Kenya, most of the six niche innovations on plastic waste contribute only marginally to building a more integrated regime for dealing with plastic waste. There are two exceptions to this.

o The yard shops seems to be successful in bringing the two separate regimes together (see fig. 2). Yard shop owners have successfully forged economic relations and function as an intermediary between actors on both sides: waste pickers on the one hand and plastic producers on the other.

o The home grown industries which contributes to integration of the two regimes by creating a new economic and material flow for mixed plastic waste and producing new plastic materials for a new market.25-03-2015

Environment and Forestry Sub-sector

Conclusions• Having assessed the 6 niche innovations, the study

concluded that they show a meager ability to foster integration between SWM and plastic production system.

• A number of innovations still need to take place in order to stimulate the building of an integrated regime:-o City authorities to develop a framework of engagement with

informal waste management actors within their jurisdictions.o Government to develop policies that take cognizance of

differentiated plastic recycling trajectories. o City waste management strategies should include waste

separation at source to ensure less contaminated waste for actors within the recycling chain.

25-03-2015

12