As someone who has actively worked with Doko Recyclers and campaigned for proper waste segregation, I believed I had a good grasp of the challenges facing Kathmandu's waste management. Yet, my recent experience at the Teku Transfer Station, working on a waste characterization study with Dr. Pathak and Pankaj Panjiyar of Doko Recyclers, was nothing short of a revelation, and frankly, a shock. It laid bare the stark, unsegregated reality of our waste problem.
From the moment I arrived, my
mind was racing. I saw a continuous stream of vehicles dumping massive piles of
waste. Scavengers were frantically trying to sort through it as quickly as
possible, while excavators loaded more waste onto vehicles bound for the
Banchare Danda landfill. My immediate thought was, "What the hell is
going on here?" followed by, "Why are people not segregating
waste at the source?". It's so much easier to segregate waste where
it's generated, to manage and handle it properly there.
During our training, we took a
vehicle's worth of waste – around 200-300 kg – to segregate for
characterization. What was supposed to be a vehicle carrying segregated waste,
indicated by its color and markings, was anything but. The waste, taken
directly from homes, was already mixed in plastic bags. This wasn't a
one-off; it’s a pervasive issue despite municipality workers continuously
advising communities to segregate their waste.
The task of segregation itself
was a stark reminder of the problem. It was "quite hard".
Recyclable items were completely "contaminated or mixed with organic or
hazardous or sanitary waste". Picture this: inside one plastic bag,
you'd find another, filled with a horrific mix of recyclable paper and plastic,
intertwined with organic waste, and even animal or human waste. The waste was
so contaminated and "quite smelly," making the job incredibly
difficult. The presence of numerous tiny waste items only added to the
challenge of separating recyclables from organic, non-recyclable, and other
waste types. This isn't unique to Teku; I've visited other transfer stations,
and the situation is precisely the same.
It became painfully clear to me
why effective recycling and waste management are so difficult at these transfer
stations. The sheer volume of incoming waste means it must be immediately
transferred to the landfill. In such a scenario, the "recovery of the
recyclable items and segregation of other types of waste is quite impossible at
the current situation".
This isn't due to a lack of
effort from the municipalities or a scarcity of awareness campaigns. I know
personally, and the source confirms, that various stakeholders—including
municipalities, the government, private organizations like Doko Recyclers, experts,
NGOs, and even individuals like myself—have been tirelessly working on
awareness and advocacy for proper waste segregation and management.
Municipalities have published notices and made every effort to inform
communities about segregating waste at home, even offering segregated
collection systems.
Yet, the ground reality is
"vastly different from what we have imagined". Previous projects,
implemented by municipalities with donor agencies, all failed because they "required
proper waste segregation at source and that was not done or happened".
As someone who meticulously
separates waste at home, I genuinely don't see any inherent challenges in doing
so. I believe the core of the problem lies elsewhere:
- It's our "practice that lacks".
- It's our "ignorance that leads to this
situation".
- And perhaps most significantly, it's our "blaming
to other mentality or saying that system does not work mentality"
that is hindering proper waste segregation at home and effective waste
management across Kathmandu Valley.
The fundamental first step for
proper waste management – "proper waste segregation at source"
– is simply "not being followed by anyone of us," despite all
the efforts and awareness. This personal observation reinforces a critical
truth: until we, as individuals and a community, embrace and consistently
practice source segregation, Kathmandu's struggle with waste will continue.
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