Irregular waste collection service irked customers

Asmita Bhusal , Project Coordinator, GUTHI

A baseline survey to understand the general waste management practices of Dallu Awas in ward no.15 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City and to explore the various challenges of solid waste management in the study area was conducted in August 2015 by GUTHI with support of the Waste Ventures. Household survey was conducted among the 429 houses in the study area and open ended interviews were conducted with the key persons in the municipality and private sector involved in waste management at Dallu Area. The study revealed that the, solid waste from 61% of the households is managed by private sector waste collection service, solid waste from 29% of the households is managed by the municipal collection service, solid waste from 10% of the households went unaccounted as they did not have a regular service provider. So, waste collection and management of the Dallu Awas area mostly relies upon the service provided by the private sector waste management services.

The study revealed that, 91.4% of the surveyed households were not satisfied with the current waste collection service; and the major reason cited was irregularity in waste collection service as 70.2% of surveyed households voted for this particular reason. When the prevailing dissatisfaction among the customers due to irregular waste collection service was discussed with the waste collection companies they had their own set of limiting factors hindering their service. The regular breakdowns with the waste collection vehicles, problem at the waste transfer station, regular opposition at the landfill site by the locals and the high turnover of the staffs in waste collection companies are among few reasons that end up in creating the irregularity with waste collection companies.  

During the survey, households were also asked to understand the people’s willingness to compost organic waste within their households and to understand different circumstances which may limit them from composting at households. 41.7% people are willing to compost at household level. But still 58.3% of households, majority are not interested in household composting. The reasons cited were, either they do not have enough time and space around their houses to compost or in some cases, they are worried about the bad odor produced while composting. So, to address this difficulties and limitation of household composting and to make proper use of the waste as a resource, a community composting initiative run through community collaboration would prove to be instrumental.

Survey conducted by Nisha Aryal, Bimala Gurung and enumerators.

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