Successfully dealing with waste Jinni

Islamabad : When almost the whole country helplessly watches the piles of waste at every corner of small and big cities getting bigger and bigger every day, there are four slums in Islamabad successfully dealing with the waste Jinni, presenting a manageable solution to the rest of the country.

The process starts with door-to-door garbage collection by Environment Guards (e-Guards), followed by segregation of garbage and ends at Haryali Hub, a make-shift arrangement where green is turned into compost, plastic bags into tiles and the scrap is given to the garbage collectors for their extra income.

All this happen under a Tearfund and Pak Mission Society initiative Saaf Mahool implemented in H- 9 community, I-9 Community, G-7 Faisal Colony, and G-7 Allama Iqbal Colony. Before this initiative, the communities were surrounded by large waste piles and faced challenges such as open dumping, open burning, waste bone disease, and poor solid waste management.

"This initiative has been able to control almost 90 percent of open dumping and waste burning in the area through increased awareness, mobilization, and introducing income-generating streams to the targeted community,” said Saima Williams, thematic lead Climate action for Pak Mission Society.

To ensure the sustainability of Saaf Mahool, responsibility for solid waste management services was transferred to the targeted communities which gave the community authority and control over the operation, management, and maintenance services, ensuring the system's long-term viability. Contractors cover operational costs with three revenue streams, service fee collection, scrap selling and composting selling.

The Haryali Hub is also equipped with a “Solar Thermal Plastic Waste Recycling Plant”. The plant includes, a parabolic dish, control box, thermal plastic processing container, a cartridge for tile, temperature and light sensors, and electric assist temperature-controlled heaters. In this locally made plant, solar thermal energy is collected at the center point of parabolic dish that generates heat up to 2000 degrees Celsius. Heat is dropped to 400 degrees Celsius by the control box to recycle plastic into a plastic tile. One tile is made in 15 minutes and uses almost one kg of plastic bags.

Saima said that basic step to implement the similar initiative in any area is to create awareness among the general public and door-to-door collection and in time segregation of the waste. “Once the waste is dumped into a big container, it gets mixed up and could not be segregated for further recycling,” she said adding that in developed countries, this responsibility is fulfilled by the general public as they segregate the waste at home.

About compost, she said that once the green is separated from the rest of the garbage, it is dumped in especially designed big boxes where it turns into compost in 45 days. “From 5000 kg of green waste, we produce 1500 kg of high-quality organic compost which is sold at Rs30 per kg,” said Sumbal, Project Manager for Haryali Hub. “As environmentalists, we believe that waste is a resource which has a lot of potentials and if utilized properly, it can lead to different business streams,” she added.