Importance of Community Recycling Centers in rural municipalities: Case of Ree-gaun

The world being increasingly interconnected, people from diverse backgrounds embark on journeys to explore the untouched beauty of rural landscapes like Nepal. In these rural havens of the country, where the warmth of community often thrives, the lack of infrastructure for waste disposal becomes not just an environmental concern but a shared challenge that calls for a human touch in solutions. 

Ree-gaun, a small village in Ward-1 of Ganga Jamuna Rural Municipality, Dhading, Nepal with 115 households, is blessed with sight of Ganesh Himal and friendly locals. The primary activities in the village include basket knitting and agriculture. However, the village faces a waste management challenge as there is no established practice of waste segregation. Villagers often dump their waste in nearby cliffs, which have become informal landfill sites. Some also dispose of waste in river streams, while others resort to open burning. These practices are negatively impacting the environment and disrupting the village's natural beauty. 

In concern, Doko consulted on the Waste Management Project in Ree-gaun, Dhading with help of MAP/NAMASTE and NARAA (Nepal Association Ree Avenue). The project started with a waste assessment visit in order to understand sustainable, low cost and local level solutions for three Villages: Ree-gaun, Tajimrang and Tawal, out of 27 villages in the Ganga Jamuna municipality. Awareness workshops and clean up campaigns were conducted for generating interest of village residents and stakeholders towards waste management. The activities resulted in a decision to kick off a community recycling center beginning from Ree-gaun in January 2022. Finally, the community recycling center was successfully inaugurated on 3rd November  2022.  With the help of two operators, waste collection and waste sorting from 115 households of Ree-gaun was initiated. The operators have been equipped with the waste categories provided with the safety wears. 

During the eight months of operation, the number of improper disposal practices of burying and burning of waste has declined. The village has been popular among others in the rural municipality as “Namuna Gaun”, which means "example village". On questioning other village residents they are still found to be practicing illegal landfilling and burning the waste even after being aware about its consequences. 

In response to this, MAP/NAMASTE, a new community recycling center in Tawal village of Ganga Jamuna Rural Municipality which was inaugurated on November 3, 2023. Additionally, Impact hub Nepal is directly helping Ree-gaun in incubating useful plastic products from the waste plastics for its local problems. The idea is still in progress with developing the design and analyzing the sustainable market of the product.  

Ownership of the community towards waste management helps in sustainable impact generation featuring a healthy future. When more of such rural places in Nepal get provided with decentralized recycling bodies, it will definitely help in optimum resource recovery. Helping to generate decent job opportunities and changing the perspective of people towards waste.

Rejisha Maharjan,
Partnerships Associate