Waste management to low-carbon emission

Solid waste contributes directly to greenhouse gas emissions through the generation of methane from the anaerobic decay of waste in landfills, and the emission of nitrous oxide from our solid waste combustion facilities. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, waste management and anaerobic compost production system will be setup in Mongla Port municipality, located on the strand of the Pasur River with the area of 19.43 km². Estimated population is about 1, 50,000 while the floating population is about 60,000. The location of the municipality is highly environmentally sensitive as the Sundarbans, the mangrove forest listed as UNESCO heritage site is mainly accessible by boat from the Mongla port. The solid waste including plastic, medical wastes from clinic and hospitals, kitchen garbage and e-waste from households, wastes from factories including EPZ, are usually dumped in the rivers and canals without having active waste management process. As a result, all trashes impact the Sundarban biodiversity and eventually contribute to marine pollution, most of which comes from land sources (Mongla port municipality) and is washed or blown into the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta. To control the pollution and damage to the environment, health of all organisms, and economic structures, the project plans to reduce the environmental vulnerability through biodegradable waste to anaerobic organic compost production for promoting organic agriculture and soil fertility improvement, plastic waste/polythene to reusable product through market/industry linkage, medical waste collection and destroy with the use of appropriate technology. Thus the waste will turn into resources which will contribute to the country’s economy as well.   

The solution offers to solve urban waste pollution which will directly benefit the local community securing from severe health hazard, converting waste into useful resources by organic compost production through waste collection, sorting for respective transformation and utilization of urban waste. As a result, soil and surface water will be protected. As an impact, it will contribute to the environment protection and biodiversity conservation.   

100 Metric ton capacity garbage recycling plant/factory per day will be set up in a remote place far from locality. Another plant will be setup for destroying 2 Metric ton capacity medical waste. Collection van, dumping place, waste a transport vehicle and another for medical waste transport will be ensured. Health protection equipment for the servicemen with necessary equipment will be provided. The solution will comprise the training and weekly health checkup for the Dalit community will be provided. Speedboat will be used for the plastic waste collection from the river and canals. To ensure the quality a laboratory will be setup by following the rules and regulation of the government.        

To overcome the problem, initiatives to be taken:

• By better managing waste material by transforming recyclable waste into resource
• By providing compost to the farmers which:

• Reduces use of inorganic fertilizer
• Reduces cost of cropping
• Maintains nutrition balance in soil

Step by step activities are:

• House to House Waste Collection, plastic waste collection from canals and river
• Staff deployment
• Each waste collectors serves 300 households approximately
• Recyclable materials are separated from the non-recyclable items after collection.
• The recyclable wastes are transferred to the secondary disposal site
• The waste is stacked in a convenient manner for easy loading and transportation to the compost site

Composting:

A team of 19 staff members who are responsible for separating, processing, quality control, final product and packaging.

• The composting plant has 2 composting sheds, 1 separation shed, and 3 store rooms
• These are semi pacca with proper drainage and aeration
• Necessary water tanks beside composting sheds have been established and the tanks are linked to each of the waste piles for collection of liquid extracts from deforming organic wastes
• These liquid extracts are used in maintaining moisture and to maximize the quality and quantity of compost with the technical support of WINROCK International s Farmer to Farmer project
• RUSTIC maintains close coordination with Municipality authority as well as garbage truck drivers for safe transportation and delivery of the garbage to the compost plant site. Any non-biodegradable items are disposed off to the final dumping yard and in no way leave it in any other place. 

Composting Process: Waste Collection ------ Dumping at RUSTIC Plant-------Separation---------- Phase-1-stockpiling of raw materials----------------- Phase-2-Maintaing moisture and temp control-----------Phase-3-Relocating the stockpile------------ Phase-4-Final relocation of the stockpile---------- Screening-------------------Packaging---------Storing.

Firstly, collection of waste from urban area non-biodegradable waste collection from canals and rivers will save the health hygiene of the urban population, people will get access to clean water and proper utilization of waste will produce organic compost and plastic waste will be removed, reuse and recycled through market/industry linkage. As a result, marine pollution by plastic waste will be decreased contributing to the better environment and biodiversity of Sundarbans mangrove forest.

The solution is designed to serve the urban population in the Mongla Port Municipality. In comparison with the huge and growing number of population for industrial and urban trade and commerce, the locality doesn’t have adequate urban management facilities. On top of that plastic and medical waste from clinic and hospital are also deteriorating the environment and ecology. This initiative is for the first time planned by involving the community directly with a systematic approach and management.

The undeserved community is currently suffering from the absence of a strong management system. RUSTIC, as voluntary not for profit organization took initiatives to produce organic compost by applying recycling techniques of house hold wastage usable for agricultural framing and assisting and motivating farmers to use this compost in their farming land. As a result, it’s creating a wastage and pollution free healthy environment in one side, on the other hand, decreasing the possibility of carbon emission. Meanwhile, RUSTIC have developed an organic composting plant namely RUSTIC-Composite Organic Fertilizer Industries Ltd. in Khulna.

The project’s solution will ensure inclusion of Dalit community for waste collection, sorting and organic compost production. Women participation will be equal for implementing the solution with an inclusive manner.  An initiative has already been taken to conduct survey and involve the community for waste management in the Mongla Port Municipality.

At present, the solution is ready to implement in the intervention are at Mongla Port Municipality to serve 1, 50,000 residents.

The solution is proven to solve the environmental problem. To implement the solution in the Mongla Port Municipality, the project needs to manage funds. MIT Solve has provided the scope to show the strength and capacity of the organization. With cooperation of Solve, the solution will be more capacitated with technological improvement. For this reason, as a voluntary development organization, we are looking for donors with the similar mission, vision, goal and objectives to address the Climate Adaptation & Low-Carbon Housing Challenge.  

We have designed the solution as a holistic approach to address the root cause of the problem combining waste management and the production system which will create the opportunity for organic agro market promotion, reuse and recycle of plastic waste. Besides, medical waste is planned to destroy by using appropriate technology. Marine pollution will be decreased through marine waste collection direct from rivers. This solution is innovative because it will activate a management system through enterprise development and financial mechanism.       

As the ground water in the intervention area is saline water most people drink freshwater from ponds. A large part of the municipality gets submerged during high tide as it is in the inter-tidal zone of Suburbans mangrove forest. As a result waste thrown/dumped in open places washed away to the Bay of Bengal. Open water bodies’ contamination will be reduced through community driven waste management solution. With collaboration of Municipal authority and civil society, a strong and active management system will contribute to good governance and economic sustainability. This solution will decrease social, economic and environmental risk and vulnerability. Waste will be collected systematically in a regular basis. Community people will be aware of the pollution. Regular production of organic compost will contribute to fertile the land.    

Aligned with the SDG Targets and indicators:

Target: Improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.  
Indicators:
•    Proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flows safely treated.
•    Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality

Target: Protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes.
Indicator: Change in the extent of water-related ecosystems over time.

Target: Ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.
Indicator: Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing.

Target: Reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.
Indicator: Annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (e.g. PM2.5 and PM10) in the Municipality (population weighted).

Target: Achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment
Indicator:
•    Multilateral environmental agreements on hazardous waste, and other chemicals that meet their commitments and obligations in transmitting information as required by each relevant agreement
•    Hazardous waste generated per capita; and proportion of hazardous waste treated, by type of treatment
Target: Substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
Indicator: National recycling rate, tons of material recycled

Target: prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution
Indicator: Index of coastal eutrophication; and plastic debris density.

Theory of Change
Activities
•    Environment, Health Education/Awareness
•    House to House Waste Collection, plastic waste collection from canals and river
•    Recyclable materials are separated from the non-recyclable items after collection.
•    The recyclable wastes are transferred to the secondary disposal site
•    The waste is stacked in a convenient manner for easy loading and transportation to the compost site
•    Setup compost plant

Outputs
•    Trained on Primary health education, disaster management, environment, gender parity and women leadership
•    Waste management system approach will reduce pollution  
•    Plastic waste will be reduced and ready for recycle and reuse
•    Marine pollution will be reduced by plastic waste management
•    Produce organic compost
Short term Outcomes
•    Increase health hygiene practice
•    Increased community participation    
•    Reduce the incident of Water borne disease  
•    Reducing waste will protect the environment
•    Save on costs or reduce expenses for disposal
•    Recycling and reusing the waste that is produced benefits the environment by lessening the need to extract resources and lowers the potential for contamination.
Long Term Outcomes
•    Improved overall health and hygiene status
•    Clean water and increase water use efficiency
•    Composting plant with Cost-effective, socially acceptable and environmentally sustainable for the long term  

The solution uses aerobic composting technology which is the core technology for decomposition of organic matter using microorganisms that require oxygen.  The microbes responsible for composting are naturally occurring and live in the moisture surrounding organic matter. Oxygen from the air diffuses in to the moisture and is taken up by the microbes. As aerobic digestion takes place the by-products are heat, water and carbon dioxide (CO2). While CO2 can be classified as a greenhouse gas it’s evolution from the composting process is not counted in emissions. Additionally, CO2 is only 1/20th as harmful to the environment as methane. 

It is our organization's core policy that we do not distinguish between people based on how they look or by what name they call the higher power. In fact we believe that by addressing the question we would be subjecting a certain part of the population within a social bracket with which we are not comfortable with. The solution has improved inclusion and equality including gender equality, diversity, inclusion or empowerment of disadvantaged community members through involving them.

Marketing and Distribution

The project is planned to produce organic compost with a business model will activate the financial sustainability accordingly. Besides, CBOs, Institutions, farmers, dealers, NGOs will be communicated to supply organic compost from RUSTIC Compost.

•The compost will be supplied to the farmers in south-west region of Bangladesh.

•RUSTIC also will make an agreement with dealers to supply RUSTIC- Compost plant.

As we know that waste incineration of 1 tonne of municipal waste (MSW) is associated with the release of about 0.7 to 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2)3. The waste without a management system can be a great threat to environment as the waste is usually incinerated.  The solution provides an aerobic system composting plant to utilize solid waste. At this, carbon emission will be reduced with this technology.  Besides, Plastic waste is more harmful to the environment. For this reason, Plastic will be collected and sorted for recycle, reuse and reduce purpose. There are growing demands of plastic waste for recycling industry. Many factories are emerged for its value to reuse and recycle. The solution will create market linkage with the industry.  This is how the technology will be effective for this solution. Apart from this, medical waste that produced in the Municipality will be collected and destroyed with proper technology use.