Local bodies in Nepal pioneer waste processing mechanism, mint millions

By Binod Prasad Adhikari
Rupandehi [Nepal], July 26 : Waste management has been an enduring challenge for the Nepalese government. Now, two local bodies in the Himalayan country has come forward with a mechanism to process the garbage — both degradable and non-degradable — involving locals.
The Waling Municipality of Syangja and Tilottama Municipality of Rupandehi District have jointly pioneered the mechanism of managing the waste by turning it into fortune. Both the local bodies have been earning millions of rupees processing different kinds of waste produced on a daily basis.
Tara Devi Subedi from Waling Municipality, about 240 kilometers from capital Kathmandu, who runs a small hotel in a local administrative division that has a population of about 50,000 people.
Her hospitality business generates two buckets (about 10 litres) of garbage on a daily basis.
She said previosly, she would simply dump the waste in collection vehicles. However, over the last five years, she has embraced the new mechanism.
“Previously there was no such techniques for waste management. We use to throw the degradable and non-degradable waste into the collection vehicles. But now we are giving away the non-degradable waste, which is managed by the municipality using degradable waste as compost fertiliser. Things are different to what they used to be," Subedi told ANI as she brought segregated waste out from her hotel kitchen.
Once households and businesses like that of Subedi, in the administrative area, segregate and send non-degradable waste, it lands up at Waling Municipality Cleanliness Centre. Three trippers designated to collect the garbage as degradable and non-degradable take a round of the locality collecting the waste from business establishments as well as households.
Upon arrival at the site, the trippers unload the waste where four kinds of waste — plastic, glass, metallogenies and paper — are segregated and packed and sold to local factories that reuse or recycle it.
“On an average, we earn anything between 8 million and 10 million annually from this management centre by selling off different kinds of waste. Excluding the money used to play salaries to the management and staff, we save about 2 to 2.2 million rupees annually,” Krishna Khand, the mayor of Waling Municipality, told ANI.
The local body has categorised the waste into three sections to make it easier the locals to understand and make its management more effective. Out of the 8 to 10 tonnes of waste produced on a daily basis, it is classified as degradable, non-degradable and glasses.
The share of degradable waste amongst those produced on daily basis stands at about 90 percent, which is mostly managed by locals back at their homes. Only 10 per cent makes its way to the cleanliness centre.
Further, at the cleanliness site, the non-degradable waste, especially plastic, is classified onto two sub-categories — recyclable and non-recyclable. The prices of glass bottles, which comes under the non-degradable, is determined on the basis of their colour.  It’s same for the plastic as its price depends on its quality and color.
The least regarded amongst the plastic waste are Multi-layered Plastic (MLP) used in wrappers. However, it is used to make asphalt after shredding, 50 per cent of which is bio-degradable.
The local body has classified the plastic into three categories — PP1- Polypropylene, PP2 Polyethylene Terephthalate and High-Density Polyethylene locally understood as “Gudiya” or doll for being subjected to have hard layering. The municipality has been selling these plastics for 40, 45 and 60 Npr. per Kilograms to the companies which then recycle it to make different products.
Changing the notion of landfill or dumping site
When the municipality announced plans to set up the cleanliness centre and had leased a land for a government school on the riverside, the locals had protested against it. However, now, the former landfill or dumping site has turned into park as well as a picnic spot.
Two decades of planning and execution, which started more than a half-decade-back, has given rise to lush greenery around the cleanliness centre, which is also equipped with walkways, a grass bed and vegetational habitat. This has been made possible under the 'Participation of People' model whereby locals themselves make sure that classified waste isn't mixed up while being taken out of houses or business establishments.
“We have been putting the model of 'participation of people' into practice under the motto that we should clean our environment and should manage the wastes on our own- it is the duty of every citizen and it is the only belief that cleanliness can be seen only when the public participates. We made sure that every person participates in keeping the surrounding clean and pay for the charges that incur while maintaining the cleanliness drive we kicked off this project with this thought,” Dilip Pratap Khand, former mayor of the municipality also the member of the committee of the cleanliness center told ANI.
The cleanliness centre also runs a vermicompost plant (converting the biodegradable waste into organic manure utilizing the earthworms) using the facial waste in the vicinity of the cleanliness center.
Setting up the facility of processing the fecal wastes the municipality has appointed Waling Product Holding Multipurpose Cooperative which has been involved in sales as well as production of the vermicompost. Each Kilogram of these vermicompost costs Nrs. 25 which flies off the shelves of its exhibition center very quickly.
Every household inside the municipality has been mandated to have its own septic tank to make sure the fecal waste isn’t dumped in the river. The local authorities have been charging these households Nrs. 5000 per session of cleaning which being brought to the cleanliness center is separated into solid and liquid form. The solid waste is turned into vermicompost, the liquid is turned into drinkable water undergoing series of steps.
The municipality has been treating the hospital wastes through recycle. As per the official a total of 9 types of wastes has been produced from the hospital which has been dealt separately.
“In hospital we have been classifying the wastes into 9 classes and all of them are sterilized before they make their way out here (cleanliness center). None of the wastes from hospital goes out as waste, every waste is sold out including the syringe needle (after sterilization) which is used as metallurgy, the remaining part of the syringe which is a plastic is sold in quite a high price after sterilization. None of the waste are thrown out, it indeed is sold off,” Khand said.
Though the local municipality that lies in Gandaki Province has been segregating and selling off the wastes, it is due to procure the machineries to recycle the wastes on its own. Bidding to procure the machineries has been completed as the municipality plans to produce 24 different kinds of products from the waste it has been segregating in the present days.
Pioneering the waste management
About 105 Kilometers far from Waling Municipality in Gandaki Province, the Tilottama Municipality of Rupandehi District in Lumbini Province has practically been recycling some of its wastes and making an extra earning.
With the slogan of “Green Tilottama: Clean Tilottama” the municipality has set up its own waste processing and knowledge center established in the former dumping site. In operation since 2017 after its establishment in the year 2013, the waste processing center has directly given employment opportunity to about 50 people.
The Jana Sahabhagita Wash Swastha Sahakari translated as Public Participation Wash Health Cooperative has been operationalizing the waste management procedure in 11 wards out of the 17 that lies inside the municipality.
The cooperative mobilized a total of 9 tractors to collect all non-degradable wastes from the households and the industries. The Tilottama municipality has given the responsibility of managing the waste to the cooperative as a shareholder.
In the waste processing center the non-degradable wastes are separated, compress and packed to sale it off to the highest bidder while the degradable waste is turned into vermicompost.
“Non-degradable wastes are separated here at the processing center that passes through thermwell, pressure machine, shredder and the bricket machine. All these has been sold off in reasonable price to various industries that lies inside the Rupandehi District as well as other districts throughout the nation,” Khem Gautam, the president of Wash cooperative, told ANI.
The waste processing centre has been selling about 35 different items from plastic to metallurgies, glasses and other itinerates. Price for these items varies from Nrs. 2 to 500 per kilogram depending on the type and nature of the item.
“The slippers and shoes and the multi-layer plastic wrappers are sold upto Nrs. 6 per kilogram. The bottles (compressed) are sold for Nrs. 35 to 40, Clothes for Nrs. 2, Aluminums for Nrs. 150, Coppers and other kinds of metallurgies for Nrs. 500 per kilogram. The exceptional criteria set the price for the items and the plastics that can’t be recycled or reused are sold to brick clink’s for Nrs. 6 per kilogram,” Gautam briefed.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has been the key change-maker behind these models of managing solid wastes. The half-a-decade program entitled PGRP (Promoting Green Recovery Project) which already has come to an end has brought the change in managing the wastes which both the municipalities has aced.
The Tilottama Municipality formed in 2016 has a population of 1, 52, 000 with 35,000 households has been earning Nrs. 6,00,000 on monthly basis by selling off the waste materials. On average 20 tones of waste are produced on daily basis within the municipality.
“We have been working on to reduce the production of waste from the source. If there is low production of waste then the management of the waste will be much easier. High volume of waste creates problem in its management; therefore, we have been asking people not to excessively use plastics. We have banned the sales and distribution of tobacco items as it uses the multi-layer plastics. We have such plans for other plastics because we know the lesser use of plastic would be further able to manage the wastes,” Bal Krishna Khand, Mayor of Tilottama Municipality in Rupandehi district told ANI.
The municipality also has been making efforts to ensure every household takes the responsibility of segregating the wastes. Waste materials from household are collected only after degradable and non-degradable are separated, if anyone denies to follow it the house is penalized with the fine of Nrs. 500.
To ensure proper utilisation of degradable waste, the municipality through cooperative has distributed compost bins to the households where manures are produced, used as well as sold in the market. The production of manures also has reduced the dependency on the chemical fertilizers which at seasons becomes scarce.
“From the source — households or businesses — we should segregate waste. We cannot segregate it later in the dumping sites. In Kathmandu (capital) all the waste is kept at same place which only leaves the possibility other than dumping it in the landfill sites. For how long can the problem be solved by dumping all the wastes? It’s not practical. This would only create mountains of garbage, we must reuse. It is a source of high-income for us, we are ignoring the possibility of income from the wastes, we can convert the wastes into money. Every waste obviously can be reused,” said Khand.