People problems require people oriented solutions. Behaviour change matters in winning the waste management problem. Scholarly reasoning will tell you to invest in attitude-behaviour-approach to realis
e good waste management practices. I don’t want to get into theoretical abstracts. I will be as simple as possible because environmental problems are complex and solutions lost in jargon in most cases. I do not want to be caught into the technical jargon.
Our waste management approach should be
towards changing lifestyles at household, community and national level. Who will
pick the waste in homes where the Vice President does not come to clean up on a
good day of the month? What happens to the waste in compounds where such national
events do not include? A systematic approach is required when dealing with
complex environmental issues.
We can ask ourselves, does publicity
alone result into sustainable waste management in townships? What barriers
affect waste management? How do we build support for those barriers? Is it the
municipality alone to manage waste? Do we have appropriate facilities for waste
management? Where are the gaps in sustainable waste management? How do we fill
in those gaps?
Out of disappointment when I drove
through Mtendere one morning in 2012 and found heaps of waste bags blocking the
road, I went there to understand people’s reasoning. I did a research focused
on “problematisation of waste management in townships” – Mtendere Township was
my research area.
I learnt a lot from CBEs (community
based enterprises), households and Lusaka City Council (LCC). Each other raised
very critical issues that made waste management problematic. For example:
1) households were against the CBEs
collecting waste at a fee. They expected the council (LCC) to do so as the cost
was covered under land rates. They argued that they paid land rates and a fee
was waste collection was embedded in there in the past. When it was removed and
packaged as Polluter's Pay Principle (PPP) was not known to them. They were
very upset with the LCC.
2) Prioritisation of food versus paying
for waste. With hardships, a K50 - 70 payment for waste could be used for a
meal. Some households saw a small mealie meal packet, kapenta, tomato, cooking oil (small packet),
vegetable, salt, etc. that amount. The amount could see their children eat.
Poverty is having a huge toil on Polluter's Pay Principle (PPP) i.e. survival versus
paying for garbage.
3) Mindset of households is another problem
as some people do not think it is their role to pay for waste. People went at
length ranting how the LCC was allowing waste to be littered all over their
townships. In some cases, they mocked LCC staff when they go to pick waste bins
in these compounds. Most of them have no sense of responsibility in waste
collection. Their role is to generate the waste and let the LCC collect. Mindset
change in waste management create ownership in managing waste is very critical.
This cannot be done by monthly waste cleaning and informational campaigns. A comprehensive
behavioural change programme is required.
4) Lack of knowledge about changes in
law from paying for waste under land/property rates to Polluter's Pay
Principle. Most households think it is a duplication of payment because they
believe the amount included for waste collection to the land/property rates is
still there to those rates. Lack of knowledge also has to do with some people
not connecting their bad waste managementt and climate change/environmental
damage. They mainly realise when cholera/diarrhea disease breaks. But they have
a vague idea how waste/garbage contributes to diarrheal disease outbreaks.
A total change in approach is needed. Some
solutions could include:
1) Investing in waste facilities in
compounds. Some places have no place to put waste bins as there are structures
everywhere. The waste facilities should provide for separation of waste in
terms of paper, plastic, etc.
The waste facilities should be positioned in CBDs (Central Business Districts) for people to put waste in right places. Without appropriate facilities, where do we expect the people to drop their waste? Those that deliberately throw waste anyhow should be made pick it and put it where it should be by anyone of us and the municipality staff who work in these CBDs either collecting levies and other duties. We all have a responsibility to safeguarg the environment.
2) Inculcate mindset of paying for our
waste and mindset to put waste in designated facilities. We need to create
nexus in our communication of how bad waste practice leads to different
environmental impacts. People should be helped visualise and know how their
actions can minimise their footprint on their environment by practicing sustainable
lifestyles such as taking smart actions in waste management like eat, dispose
in the bin, pay for collection, reduce waste generation, and others.
3) Incentivise waste management. This could
be, for instance, recycling companies paying households that appropriately
separate waste to reuse/recycling. That waste becomes resource in the
production value chain of recycling companies. Some people may adopt
pro-environmental waste management practices to earn income out of their
practice. Whereas some people will do it for monetary gain, a sustainable
lifestyle maybe built in children who will see the practice as a good way of
living sustainably.
4) Creating smart/green centres in
townships where people can separate and deposit their waste for recycling
companies' use. People can be employed to weigh and record depositors of well
separated waste per week/month for possible monetary rewarding by recycling
companies for the resource they are providing for their production systems.
5) Councils establishing waste smart/green
centres on public private partnership basis with recycling companies who will
use the appropriately separated waste in their value chain. Can CDF be invested
in creating smart centres for waste management? How will the ideal smart/green
centres look like? We have planners who should do their job for the beauty of
our cities and the environment.
7) Providing incentives to recycling
companies. These could include tax exemptions, rebates and others to attract
more companies on recycling or implementing Extended Producer Responsibility
(EPR) of their packaging materials after use by customers. The companies under the
EPR can build deposit centres of their packages by customers for
reuse/recycling.
These companies have financial muscles
to buy houses in compounds compared to CBEs to ensure waste is separated and
placed in appropriate bins/waste deposit facilities. Imagine people
indiscriminately throwing waste finding appropriate waste facilities on open
spaces where they do it.....the facilities could be mobile of permanent.
I am suggesting that we become more systematic
in our waste management approaches. Our approaches could speaks to 1) building waste management
facilities for sorting/separating waste 2) mindset change on waste management
to create a sense of ownership of waste management by every household, 3)
investing in recycling skills and infrastructure 4) EPR enhancement and monitoring,
among others.
Municipalities need fully functioning waste management units with reliable waste trucks to collect waste from designated waste depository facilities. Each market has council staff collecting levies, they should also deal with waste mgt. Blaming vendors and periodic cleanups are not sustainable. What the Vice President or the President does going to clean on certain days is good for publicity but NOT for sustainable waste management. We need a comprehensive approach that brings many actors into play thru a collective responsibility mechanism. People should be mentored into taking it upon themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment