An estimated 70% of plastic waste in Nepal typically ends up in landfills, riverbanks, forests, or open land. Out of this plastic waste, Informal Waste Workers (IWWs) primarily collect high-grade (high value) recyclable plastics. This means a majority of low-grade and low-value plastics are openly dumped along river banks, open dump sites and landfills, and on the streets. These plastics take hundreds of years to decompose and produce Green House Gases (GHGs) when mixed with organic waste.
PLEASE Project’s Innovation Grantee Doko Recyclers has established a Plastic Recovery Facility (PRF) with 17 employees that can process up to 49 tons of plastic daily to curb plastic pollution. This project aims to create partnerships with waste management companies, local municipalities, and industries to properly manage plastic waste. One such partnership is with Nepal Fulbari Waste 3R Pollution Control Service, a private waste management company, which services the Bhaktapur municipality with a population of approximately 450,000.
A total of 302 IWWs, including 30 from Nepal Fulbari, were trained on capacity building, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and Protection Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) to bolster livelihood and build recycling capacity. 58% of the training participants were women.
Anita Rai, 25, a waste worker at Nepal Fulbari, has been separating Low Value Plastics (LVPs) and Multilayer Plastics (MLPs) since her training with Doko Recyclers. She says. “We learned that we can also start segregating LVPs and MLPs after our training with Doko. While the workload has increased, we also receive additional income from LVP and MLP plastics.”
With LVPs and MLPs also being segregated, there is an opportunity to drastically reduce waste that goes to the semi-aerobic landfill at Sisdole. According to Subas Karki, a manager at Nepal Fulbari, the company currently employs 30 waste sorters and 15 administrative staff. It collects upwards of 5 tons of waste per day, out of which 1500 to 1600 kgs is LVPs and 200 to 300 kgs is MLPs. Waste sorters are paid according to the amount of waste they segregate. The rate for 1 kilogram of segregated waste is NPR 3. Waste workers can earn around NPR 6000 to 20,000 per month, depending on how much waste they can separate and place in sacks.
To encourage segregation of waste at source, Doko Recyclers has also trained 62 people from three housing communities (Comfort Housing, Rose Village, Money Plant Namuna Basti) to reduce contamination of plastics and increase the recycling rate of its PRF. So far, it has collected 3 tons of recyclable waste from these communities. Sujana Bhandari of Rose Village says, “The training went well and we started separating our inorganic and organic waste.”
In one month, Doko Recyclers has been able to purchase 45 tons of MLPs and LVPs from Nepal Fulbari. The collected plastic waste is first shredded at the PRF and then sent to waste entrepreneurs Klenit, Paramendu, and Biocomp. Klenit and Paramendu create a range of recycled plastic products while Biocomp’s production facility creates Plastic Composite Boards, a project which is also funded by the PLEASE project. With a closed-loop recycling structure, Doko aims to incorporate LVPs and MLPs into the recycling chain and create new products in the future. With continued efforts towards segregation of waste at source, partnerships with municipal waste companies, and capacity building of informal waste workers, Doko Recyclers aims to efficiently process plastic waste in its PRF and ensure a robust recycling system in Nepal.