2nd Community Recycling Center at Tawal in Gangajamun Rural Municipality

Rural places in most of the developing countries are deprived of proper waste management facilities. Common waste disposal practices involve unsustainable solutions like open burning and illegal landfills. Same case with the rural villages of Dhading district, as the modern liability is getting access to these remote places. The problems with non-biodegradable or recyclable waste like plastic and more recyclable materials are that they are discarded in illegal landfills and nearby water resources. To overcome the difficulties of waste management faced by the community residents, Doko Recyclers and NARAA (Nepal Association Ree Avenue) came across an affordable solution: building a Community Recycling Center (CRC) that is made by, made for, and operated by the community.

A Community Recycling Center (CRC) at Tawal village is the second waste infrastructure in the Ganga Jamuna Rural Municipality of Dhading, supported by MAP (Monaco Aide Presence). The Community Recycling Center is aimed at providing dry waste collection services to the 592 households residing in four villages: Tawal, Salleri, Dhuseni, and Kutal. The CRC is equipped with a dry waste collection space, segregation space, bailing space, and a temporary landfill. Two waste operators have been provided with the necessary protective gear and knowledge to collect and manage dry waste from the villages.

The village is five hours away from the Dhading bazaar, where the collected recyclable waste can be marketed. While the vehicle charges are high (Rs. 25,000) for a single route transporting goods from the CRC to Dhading bazaar. Hence, the only way to support the recycling activity is to reduce the size of recyclable waste and increase its volume. The villages have initiated sending their waste to CRC as of November 2023. That helped to successfully collect 500 kg of dry waste in 1.5 months of operation.

Before operationalizing the CRC, multiple awareness workshops were conducted with key stakeholders, including ward representatives, teachers, social mobilizers, and students. The workshop included an introduction to waste, its types, the importance of proper waste management, the 3R principles of waste management, the objective of CRC operationalization, and the role of the community in CRC. A group of students from Pasang Secondary School were trained as an eco-club for conducting upcoming environmental awareness in the villages on behalf of the CRC. The eco-club showed their active participation in a cleanup campaign conducted at different public chowks in Tawal village: Thulo Aagan and Tawal Goddam. 

Furthermore, operators employed in CRC were trained in their roles and responsibilities in waste management, which included weekly waste collection, recording the waste collected, and segregating them into different categories. To ensure a safe working environment, first-aid kits and training were also conducted.

Doko Recyclers has been remotely monitoring the operation of the CRC for six months, since November 2023. After the CRC is turned over to the ward after six months of operation, the Ganga Jamuna Rural Municipality ward representative has pledged to look to the CRC for its sustainable operation. Doko Recyclers is still en route to supply the CRC with electricity. This project, which calls for infrastructure from Kathmandu, is expected to be finished by the end of January.  On the other hand, these rural communities are slowly finding themselves attracted to using more single-use and non-recyclable plastic, which is hard to recycle. That still shows a requirement for community awareness regarding the 3R principle of waste management. Additionally, the operators and villagers are highly motivated to keep the environment clean and green. However, the community should be educated and encouraged to practice environmentally friendly measures for sustainable outcomes. The CRC in Tawal village is expected to create awareness about the importance of community recycling centers in more neighboring villages. The impact of the Tawal CRC determines more CRC constructs to manage and recycle the dry waste generated in more rural municipalities of developing countries like Nepal.

Rejisha Maharjan,
Partnership Associate