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Composting – a business for the urban poor?

As cities in developing countries continue to grow at a rapid rate, rubbish has become a severe problem. Municipal authorities struggle to dispose ever increasing quantities of urban solid waste. Previous top-down approaches have given little attention non-municipal initiated solutions. Recycling of organic waste is almost non-existent. Composting could at the same time contribute to the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and enhancing environmental sustainability.

The Water, Engineering and Development Centre at Loughborough University conducted a research project focusing on composting activities as a business for the urban poor. The research analysed existing and new management approaches to the recycling of solid waste, drawing on information from case studies in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Municipal authorities in developing countries often lack resources to collect and dispose of urban solid waste adequately, resulting in serious environmental and health consequences for their residents. The informal sector has filled the gap by recycling much of the inorganic waste such as plastic bags and glass bottles. However, organic waste, including domestic, human and animal waste, remains largely unmanaged. It constitutes more than half of total solid waste generated and requires costly removal.

Recently, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals have begun to take the lead in composting organic waste. However, current schemes are small-scale and operate under a number of constraints:

Many compost schemes focus too heavily on environmental or poverty alleviation objectives. Projects are not sustainable because they lack a proper business plan.
Composting is not a competitive commercial activity, as sales may be seasonal and do not generate a lot of profits. Markets for products are restricted to household gardeners, nurseries and organic farmers.
Small-scale producers face major legal barriers to markets, such as costly compost certificates. In some cases conventional fertiliser distributors obstruct market development.
Composting schemes lack support and legal backing by the municipality. Partnerships between local government and NGOs or the private sector is often poor.
Cultural barriers may inhibit involvement in composting which is regarded as degrading work. In Sri Lanka for instance, working with waste is considered unpleasant and embarrassing.
Home composting is problematic because of lack of space and overpowering smells.

The projects studied showed that sustainable compost schemes hold the potential to protect the environment by reducing significant quantities of organic waste. In addition, the urban poor could benefit through decent employment and extra income. The authors recommend several measures to improve the performance, sustainability and duplication of compost schemes:

Local authorities should be encouraged to accept and support compost schemes. Apart from land provision, they could also assist with training, community education, collecting un-recyclable waste and buy-back arrangements.
Partnership schemes should be established between the municipality, the private sector and NGOs. In one case studied, the municipality contributed land and infrastructure, the private sector provided the plant and machinery and NGOs were responsible for waste collection, sorting, recycling and marketing.
Community awareness of the potential economic and environmental benefits should to be raised. Residents need to be mobilised to co-operate in composting schemes.
Schemes need to have a proper business plan with adequate strategies, including market research to identify potential sources of demand.
Compost projects will require a reliable, primary solid waste collection system and factories should be located near the collection area, landfill site or near a market.
In limited urban spaces, less land-intensive techniques need to be developed. An example from land-poor Dhaka in Bangladesh was the testing of ‘effective micro-organism’ solutions, designed to speed up the process of composting, thus reducing land demand.

Source(s):
‘Promoting Compost as a Business for Urban Poor’, Final Report, Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), Loughborough University, by Mansoor Ali, November 2003
'Sustainable Composting: case studies and guidelines for developing countries' Engineering, Water, and Development Centre (WEDC), Loughborough University, by Mansoor Ali (ed), 2004

Funded by: DFID KaR 8063

id21 Research Highlight: 14 April 2005

Further Information:
Mansoor Ali
Programme Manager
WEDC
Loughborough University
Leicester
LE11 3TU
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1509 22 2392
Contact the contributor: s.m.ali@lboro.ac.uk

WEDC, University of Loughborough

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