Converting Urban Waste into Resource: A Decentralized Approach
Country: Bangladesh
Organization: Waste Concern
2) Sector of activity: Water and Sanitation Working closely with a number of sectors solid waste management & recycling, env
 Waste dumped in a unsanitary way in Dhaka
3) Description of your products or services: Helping urban poor and low income people to take care of their own waste and create income opportunity from waste. Waste Concern is also helping poor farmers to get low cost, affordable organic fertilizer for sustainable agriculture.
Primary clients: Community people under the house-to-house waste collection schemes, Poor residents of slums and squatter settlements, private compost marketing companies, poor farmers (user of compost), local bodies responsible for managing waste and other development organizations.
Conventional approach followed by the local authorities is `end-of-the-solutionę where waste is collected from the communal bins, transported by open trucks and dumped in crude dumping sites in unsanitary way. Whereas, WC model of community-based approach instead of looking at waste as problem creates a value for waste which helps people consider it as a resource/ raw material.
Waste Concernęs labor intensive technology is socio- economically and climatically suitable for Bangladesh. Public, private and community partnership used under this model enabled each partner to have benefit. Instead of marketing compost by itself WC is marketing compost through experienced private fertilizer company with country-wide network. Private sector is markets two kinds of products, one is grinded raw compost and the other is enriched compost (blended and enriched with necessary nutrients based on soil and crop type). Enriched compost has become very popular as it is less costly compared to chemical fertilizer and can grow more crops.
Waste Concern for the first time globally approved its composting method from UNFCCC Meth Panel to harness foreign Direct Investment in Bangladesh using Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of Kyoto Protocol. Introduction of CDM in waste sector may have a significant positive impact in developing countries to solve the problem in a sustainable manner.
4) Description of the operational model: Under this practice, public agency makes land available free of charge for establishment of community based compost plants. Waste Concern organizes to collect, separate and turn solid waste into organic compost by involving urban poor in the composting plant located near the community. Community members pay a nominal fee for house-to-house waste collection service and oversee the activities in their neighborhoods, while private businesses with experience and network market the organic compost to the poor farmers of Bangladesh.
According to the agreement with WC, the Private Marketing company is purchasing all the raw compost produced in different community based composting units and marketing it in rural areas through their countrywide distribution network. Waste Concern is ensuring the quality of compost as required by Map Agro Industries. Map Agro installed a compost enrichment plant to further enrich the compost with nutrient as required by the farmers. This enrichment of compost is based on crop and soil type. The compost is packed in a 40-kg bag. This demonstrates the need for involvement of specialized fertilizer marketing companies to market the product and also of enrichment of compost with nutrient to make it attractive and cost effective to the poor farmers. As per the agreement, the private company is purchasing raw compost at Tk. 2500 (US $ 46.29) per ton. Today private sector is demanding 40000 tons of compost per year from WC, to cater this demand WC is establishing 700 tons/ day capacity compost plant using Clean Development Mechanism (CMD) to bring in investment in Bangladesh.
 Two girls work the Matuail landfill on the outskirts of Dhaka city
5) Description of the financial model: Waste Concernęs 3-5 ton per day capacity composting plants has two major sources of income: 1) sale of compost: 70% income comes from the sale of compost; 2) House-to-house waste collection fee: which is 30% of the income (clients fee). Cost recovery from this system can be within 2 years time period.
In case of Barrel Type composting system for the low income settlements Waste Concern provides specially designed barrels which coverts organic waste into compost within a 3-4 months time period. Normally payback period of these compost barrels is two years.
In partnership with World Wide Recycling bv (a Netherlands based private investor), Waste Concern has initiated a 700 tons/ day decentralized composting plant using Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under Kyoto Protocol. This decentralized large compost project will bring in foreign direct investment and will be able to create new jobs for poor and serve the demand of organic fertilizer to the thousands of poor farmers. For the sustainability of this Model, Waste Concern is planning to reinvest its profit from this joint venture to replicate and scale-up in other small and medium sized towns of Bangladesh.
Client fees represent this approximate percentage of operational budget: 30%
6) Key operational partnership: Waste Concernęs model is based on public-private and community partnership (PPCP) where all the partners are linked in a benefit loop.
Communities: communities responsible for monitoring of house-to-house waste collection system and contribution towards its cost. Appointment of staff for waste collection and composting is also undertaken by the communities. NGO (Waste Concern): mediate with the local authorities as well as private sector to provide land and logistical support for implementation of the program and marketing of the recyclables and compost. Waste Concern provides technical assistance for establishment of composting units, training to communities in management, marketing of compost, operation and maintenance of the services established. Public Sector: City Corporations, Municipalities and Public Works Department (PWD) are providing permission to use their land for establishment of composting.
Private Sector: purchasing all the compost produced from the community based composting units and marketing it through their country wide distribution network in rural areas.
Opportunities: High proportion of organic matter in waste, willingness to pay for the service by the communities and private sectors to market the compost and recyclables, abundance of labor, limited resources, availability of proven technology to compost organic waste and demand for the organic fertilizer has created an unique opportunity for replication and scaling-up of this model.
Challenges: Availability of land from the public authorities for composting plants inside the urban area. There is a lack of well-defined and clear policy to promote recycling and composting of waste. Marketing of compost has to be promoted by public sector in a organized way. Entrepreneurs interested to establish similar initiatives should have easy access to bank finance.
 A girl trash picker takes a break at the Matuail landfill
7) Current outreach:
We are at the Scaling Up stage. In 1995, Waste Concern started its activity related waste in Dhaka. Initially Waste Concern carried our experiment whether labor intensive aerobic composting is viable for Bangladesh. In 1998, after continued demonstration of the project, the government of Bangladesh started to accept this alternate solution to waste management. At present we are helping others to replicate our model all over the country. We are also harnessing Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to bring foreign investment to scale-up our model of composting initiative in larger capacity to cater the present demand of compost in Bangladesh.
How many clients have benefited from your product/service in total? Over the last year? At present there are 38 replications of this model in 20 cities. So far this model created 1270 new jobs and if the new 700 tons/ day capacity plant is included, there will be 9,00,000 beneficiaries (includes served community people under the composting plant, workers in the compost plants and poor farmers using compost).
What percentage of your clients is below the poverty line ($2 per day)? 70% 70% of our clients are below poverty line(includes served
community people under the composting plant, workers in
the compost plants and poor farmers using compost).
What is the order of magnitude of the potential demand for your products or services? Which
other low-income groups, countries or regions could benefit from it? Try to quantify (number
of clients, market size in currency):
House-to-house collection service of waste in urban areas, where people are paying for the service. In the bargain they are having a good quality of life in their communities and property value is increased. Created a new income opportunity for the urban poor specially women. Private sector is making profit by marking a environment friendly product and poor farmers are investing less and can grow more agricultural product using compost and enriched compost. At present farmers are using 4 million tons of chemical fertilizer in Bangladesh and there is a demand of 50,000 tons per year by only one single buyer of compost. Within a 2 year time period Waste Concern will be able to produce more than 50,000 tons of compost per year from its 700 tons per day capacity composting plant in Dhaka. If all the organic waste of urban areas of Bangladesh is converted into compost, only 21% of the demand can be met by compost fertilizer. At present there are 38 replications of this model in 20 cities. So far this model has created 1270 new jobs and able to serve 9,00,000 beneficiaries (includes served community people under the composting plant, workers in the compost plants and poor farmers using compost). At present Waste Concern is helping Vietnam and Sri Lanka to replicate the model.
 Composting a new source of job opportunity for the urban poor
8) Scale-up strategy:
How many low-income individuals do you plan to benefit in three years from now? How are you planning to scale up or replicate your solution? What are the major constraints to scale up?
More than 2 million individuals majority are from low- income group (starts from household, compost plant workers and poor farmer will use the compost) are planned to benefit within three years.
Investment is one of the major barriers, to cross this hardle; Waste Concern is jointly working with a Ducth investor to establish a 700 tons/ day capacity composting plant in Dhaka city. Waste Concern is harnessing CDM by selling carbon emission to help cash-strapped local governments to scale-up Waste Concernęs model in their towns and cities.
Which specific areas - and why - in your field would benefit most from investment by corporations, foundations, and other investors:
Initially Waste Concern need grant money to experiment and pilot its model in Bangladesh. Waste Concern has successfully tested and replicated its model of waste to compost project in Bangladesh and now for scaling-up it requires private investment or soft or long-term loan from private investors or financial institution or banks.
9) The organization: How does the initiative fit with your overall organization's strategic goals and priorities? How did the initiative start?
The major goal of our organization is to ęcovert waste into resourceę and this initiative is in line with all our initiatives. Our priority is to tackle the environment problem of our country with the principle of Public- Private and Community Partnership (PPCP). This goal is also in line with our National Water and Sanitation Policy and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).
About 50% of the urban population of Bangladesh is poor and half of this poor people live in slums and squatter settlements and have no access to municipal sanitation services. Urban areas generate 13,300 tons of solid waste every day and 40%-50% of this garbage is not collected by the cash-strapped local bodies and is left to rot in the heat and humidity of the city's open spaces. The resulting stench, rodents, and clogged drains pose serious health risk to residents of urban areas. A considerable amount of value lies in the organic portion of the solid waste, which constitute about 80% of the total generated waste and can be converted into compost which has economic value. In an attempt to recover the value from organic portion of waste, Waste Concern for the first time in Bangladesh community based decentralized aerobic composting and barrel type composting (for slums and squatter settlements) in Bangladesh since1995.
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10) On the mosaic diagram, which of these factors is the primary focus of your work?
- Factor: Poor understanding of the human and social capital
- Principle: Leverage the power of communities as both consumer
Contact Information:
Name: A. H. Md. Maqsood Sinha - Co-founder and Iftekhar Enayetullah - Co-founders
Organization: Waste Concern
Mailing address: Waste Concern, House: 21 (side b), Road: 7, Block: G, Banani Model Town, Dhaka 1213
Country: Bangladesh
Email: wastecon@dhaka.agni.com
Tel: 88-02-9884774 or 88-02-9873002 or 88-0173000043
Fax: 88-02-9884774 or 9884738
Website: www.wasteconcern.org
Organization's legal status: Non-Governement Research Based Organization
Number of Employees: 21
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