What strategies could effectively integrate and regulate Nepal's informal waste management sector?

Nepal's informal waste management sector has a long-standing historical presence, operating for more than 50 years, with generations dedicating their lives to this work. Historically, waste management in Kathmandu involved communal manure pits and was often the responsibility of "untouchable" castes. This sector is indispensable, providing economic opportunities to many, especially low-educated or unskilled labor, and is crucial for collecting and recovering high recyclable materials from households, diverting significant waste from landfills, and promoting a circular economy. Without them, most recyclable items would likely end up in landfills. Despite their vital contributions, informal waste workers (IWWs) frequently lack legislative recognition, face harassment and humiliation, and often work in precarious conditions without formal employment rights, access to healthcare, or basic safety measures.

To effectively integrate and regulate Nepal's informal waste management sector, a multi-faceted approach involving strategic integration and supportive policies is recommended:

1. Formal Recognition and Legislative Inclusion:

• Formalize the informal sector's role: The informal sector should be formally integrated and assigned the specific responsibility to collect recyclable and non-hazardous waste. This formal recognition, coupled with support systems, is crucial for creating a more organized and sustainable waste management ecosystem.
• Grant legislative recognition: Despite their importance, waste pickers currently lack legislative recognition in Nepal's Solid Waste Management Act of 2011 and are not integrated into planning processes. Policies should be formulated to encourage local government to recognize the informal sector, leading to eventual integration.
• Extend rights and benefits: Government policies should extend rights and benefits to all waste pickers to help them escape the poverty cycle. This includes access to social protection schemes, health insurance, and occupational health and safety packages. Implementing occupational health and safety guidelines applicable to all workplaces is recommended to provide safety and a better working environment for waste workers.
• Reconsider the sector's contribution: It's necessary to re-consider the role and contribution of the informal waste sector to the formal recycling sector. Integrating the informal sector leads to increased recyclable recovery rates and reduced total waste-management costs.
• Address taxation concerns: Review tax concerns affecting informal waste workers and the possibility of plastic waste entrepreneurship. The current government approach of taxation without inclusion can be counterproductive.

2. Capacity Building and Training:

• Provide comprehensive training: It is imperative to provide comprehensive training to the informal sector on the proper management of hazardous waste. This addresses existing shortcomings and enhances their capabilities.
• Promote safe collection: Training vulnerable community members, including IWWs, for plastic waste collection is beneficial. Awareness campaigns should be targeted at IWWs to promote safe collection. NGOs like MdM-France have provided monthly training on sanitation and are working for the safety and health of informal waste pickers in landfills.
• Develop green entrepreneurship: Support the development of green entrepreneurs and non-profit enterprises for waste pickers, which can include skill development training.

3. Provision of Support Systems and Designated Workspaces:

• Designated work areas: The informal sector should be allowed to work within communities or in specifically designated places. While their processing locations are often in residential areas and may appear messy, they don't pose a threat if they handle only recyclable and non-hazardous waste.
• Improve working environment: Providing a better working environment for waste workers is recommended. Examples from Delhi and Nairobi show successful formalization by offering protective equipment and access to better working conditions.
• Spatial integration: For scrap centers, which often serve as living spaces for waste workers, reserving space through development plans for recycling facilities, storage, and processing activities can support the sector. This helps integrate both spatial and economic informality.
• Basic amenities: Providing access to waste, protective equipment, healthcare facilities, and educational materials for children of waste workers can improve their living and working conditions.

4. Promotion of Collaboration and Partnerships:

• Partnership benefits: Partnership with the informal recycling sector improves resource efficiency and contributes to poverty reduction and environmental improvements.
• Strengthen CSOs/Co-operatives: Strengthening existing Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of waste workers is a key activity. Organizing informal waste workers into cooperatives or associations is critical for their collective voice to be heard and to facilitate integration into formal waste management systems. Strong state support for waste picker organizations is needed to establish integrated solid waste management systems.
• Formal collaboration with private companies: Formal collaboration with active private waste management companies through formal agreements is recommended, as they cover a large part of the city's waste management needs.
• Community-driven programs: Community-driven programs are highly effective in promoting sustainable practices. Engaging communities through education, incentives, and collaborative efforts is crucial. This includes community-based composting programs.
• Public-private partnerships (PPPs): PPPs are highlighted as essential for driving scalable solutions for plastic waste management. The private sector's involvement is crucial. Partnerships between local governments, the private sector, and NGOs are essential to bridge resource gaps and create scalable solutions. However, these must be carefully designed to avoid displacing existing actors.

5. Financial and Policy Incentives:

• Incentivize recycling industry: Incentivizing the recycling industry with financial support for businesses and individuals contributing to material recovery is important. Government policy should promote waste recovery and recycling investments.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): Implementing policies that encourage Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), where manufacturers are accountable for the lifecycle of their products, is necessary.
• Green investments and sustainable banking: Promote green investments and sustainable banking practices.
• Local funding and policy review: Issuing municipal bonds for local funding and addressing gaps in current policies are suggested.
• Strengthen regulatory frameworks: Enforce strict regulations for waste segregation, recycling, and plastic consumption reduction, with penalties for non-compliance and incentives for sustainable practices.
• Support circular economy initiatives: Create policies that encourage the development of a circular economy, where products are designed for longevity, repair, and recycling.

6. Addressing Challenges and Heterogeneity:

• Problem-oriented approach: Instead of removing informal workers, the actual problem should be identified to eliminate the specific threat, rather than denying them space or removing them from municipal areas, which is not an actual solution.
• Waste minimization: Waste minimization techniques, such as reducing packaging and encouraging household recycling, can reduce the burden on the informal sector.
• Acknowledge heterogeneity: Acknowledge the heterogeneity of the informal waste sector (e.g., waste pickers, itinerant buyers, scrap dealers) and design integration approaches that consider their diverse interests and realities.
• Address social stigma: Address the social stigma associated with waste work and the caste dimension, which affects waste workers' social and economic exclusion. Promote positive attitudes towards waste work through awareness.
• Improve data and monitoring: The city lacks updated and reliable data on waste generation, composition, and collection. A solid waste management information system at the local level is recommended to maintain updated data for improved regulations and planning. Private companies should also maintain waste databases and maps for efficient routes and cost assessment.

By adopting these integrated strategies, Nepal can leverage the informal waste sector's significant contributions to waste management and economic development, moving towards a more formalized, safer, and sustainable system.