Survey of Waste Management Industry in Bangladesh

Survey of Waste Management Industry in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has a population of 167.9 million and it is in the process of rapid urbanization now. In 1995, 18.3% of  the total population lived in cities;it was 26% in 2010; and by 2030 the proportion is expected to rise to 31.1%. Since 1991, the daily generated waste amount in Bangladesh has been increasing year by year. The generated waste amount in urban areas nationwide increased from 6,493 tons in 1991 to 13,330 tons in 2005, and further increased to 23,688 tons in 2014.According to projections, Bangladesh will have 78.44 million urban populations by 2025 and will generate 47,000 tons of waste per day.
The increasing of generated waste amount has direct relations with the growth of urban population.
Bangladesh is a country with a large population but few lands, so looking for new landfill site has become more and more difficult for waste management authorities around the country. In 2014, 157.2 hectares of land is needed for waste disposal sites in Bangladesh per day; by 2025, the demand for land would increase to 311.91 hectares.
At present, Bangladesh has over 522 towns and cities,  in Bangladesh , which are core areas of economic development and population growth in the country. In larger cities, rapid population growth has led to harsh waste management issues. A report from UNFPA pointed out that Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is one of the worst living conditions cities in the world. One of the main reasons is that conventional waste management methods meet the needs of cities at all.
 
1、Waste is not classified, resulting in low recycling rates；
2、The non-recyclable packaging materials in the waste are accumulating；
3、Waste industry chain has too many links, there are 4~5 steps from the source to the final disposal of land usually；
4、The public lacks 3Rawareness of reduced use, reuse, and recycling；
5、Collection and disposal of waste is simple and rude；
6、Low rates of waste collection often cause water blockage problems；
7、Waste pollutes the environment, causing health hazards；
8、Demand for landfills is growing；
9、Waste management costs is rising constantly；
10、The release of Greenhouse gases.
Dhaka City, one of the oldest cities in South Asia, became the capital of East Bengal in 1905, then became the capital of East Pakistan after India and Pakistan were out of the control of the British;after Bangladesh was independent in 1971, Dhaka became the capital of the country, began faster and faster urban expansion. In 1991, Dhaka City had a population of 6.49 million, an increase to 9.67 million in 2001 and a figure of 14.54 million in 2011. According to the forecast, the city's population will increase to 25 million by 2025,
becoming a super city with the highest population all over the world .
In 2014, World Health Organization identified Dhaka as one of the most polluted cities in the world. In the city, the rate of municipal solid waste production is rising constantly, leading to a severe crisis of management. Major factors causing stress at waste management in Dhaka City include rapid industrial development, lack of funding, lack of trained professionals, without suitable technology and lack of public awareness of waste management. Currently, between 3,000 and 4,000 tons of garbage are generated in Dhaka City per day, in which 200 tons are medical waste from hospitals and clinics containing toxic chemicals, radioactive elements and pathogens. With the development of the city, the composition of the waste is also changing. The increase of all kinds of plastic products including polyethylene in the waste not only causes hazard to the environment, but also causes the blocking of the waterway.
There are 7,000 waste management workers in Dhaka city, the management authority has 224 trucks and 128 closed transportation vehicles and has a land area of 72 hectares on the outskirts of the city where only simple discards of waste are possible. The private sector involvement in waste management in Dhaka started in 1986 as a door-to-door collection service, while residents were very willing to pay a very low service charge to improve their living conditions while making it easier. At present, almost all communities in Dhaka have privately-sourced on-site refuse collection services, with the exception of slum areas. However, problems have arisen with non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and private enterprises in the transition to public authorities, resulting in neither the exchange of information nor the cooperation with each other between the private and public elements, even more, the public authorities have failed to record, let alone provide support and supervise them.
 
 
In Dhaka City, the generation of waste by weight is different between the dry season and the rainy season, during the rainy season, all types of degradable waste, including organic waste, contain more moisture and therefore, weigh is more than in the dry season. In addition, there is also a significant difference in the waste amount generated by people at different income levels: per capita waste generation of highest income population is almost twice as the lowest-income population.
According to estimates by the Dhaka municipal authorities, the whole city produces 3,500 tons of rubbish per day, of which 1,800 tons will be collected by the authorities and transported to the landfill.900 tons are land filled on landfills in various locations, including the backyard; 400 tons are dumped to curbside or other open spaces; 300 tons are recycled by pickers (mostly slum dwellers); 100 tons recycled on the spot by producers. In other words, nearly half of the waste in the entire city is not collected by municipalities and therefore can not be disposed of at landfills operated by the government. In the municipal expenditures, only 14-17% is spent on solid waste management, which equals to only 3.3 RMB per resident per year for waste treatment. Due to insufficient management budget, a large amount of wastes cannot be formally disposed.  Instead, discarded locally in the community, or entering waterways, lakes or reservoirs, or disposed of by informal means. Uncollected waste causes a number of environmental problems, including scattered litter, pungent smells, blocked sewers, contaminated water bodies and breeding mosquitoes. In a word, Dhaka waste collection and transportation status is not optimistic.
 
 
 
Dhaka city authorities expanded the Matuail landfill to a sanitary landfill, it also has a leachate collection and treatment system and a sewage treatment system to handle the leachate discharged from the landfill, also a gas discharge system is adopted..For the purpose of keeping work in line with modern standards, the landfills are also equipped with scales, car washing facilities, waste compression equipment, and monitoring equipment. At the same time, the municipality has also created the Amin Bazar landfill and closed the Berri Band landfill. Although the above achievements have been made in disposal, Dhaka still confronted with the problem of insufficient disposal capacity.
Of the waste generated in Dhaka city, 69-77% can be used for compost. Because municipal waste contains large quantities of organic components, it must be cleared on time, but it also means there is a high potential for recycling of organic waste. Residents can play a very important role in recycling, by separating recyclable materials (such as plastics and paper) from organic waste at the source. Through such source separation method to ensure the cleanness and quality of recycled materials, thus increase the recycling practitioners income. In Dhaka City, the daily total amount of recycled waste in the recycling industry is about 436 tons.