Waste management in Bangladesh faces many challenges due to its large, rapidly growing population in a densely populated country.

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

is the ninth most populous and twelfth most densely populated country in the world. In particular, the projected urban population growth rate from 2010 to 2015 is 3%. With this population growth, there is an increasing problem of

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitorin ...

particularly in the larger cities. Currently, according to an UNFPA report, Dhaka is one of the most polluted cities in the world and one of the issues concerned is the management of municipal waste. As for solid waste like paper, carton, metal, plastics, Pet Bottles, e-waste, there was no initiatives to ensure environment friendly recycling. But from 2018 there is a local startup named BD Recycle (www.bdrecycle.com) working to digitalized and organize solid waste recycling. BD Recycle have a webapp and Android app to buy waste from corporates, households, and factories. BD Recycle collect waste, then sort waste and send to factory end recycler who ensure sustainable recycling.

Waste creation

Trash collection via Rickshaw in Banani Model Town 01

Current (2012) waste generation in Bangladesh is around 22.4 million

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...

per year or 150 kg/cap/year. There is an increasing rate of waste generation in Bangladesh and it is projected to reach 47, 064

per day by 2025. The rate of waste generation is expected to increase to 220 kg/cap/year in 2025. A significant percentage of the population has zero access to proper waste disposal services, which will in effect lead to the problem of waste mismanagement.Alamgir M. & Ahsan. A. (2007). Municipal Solid Waste and Recovery Potential: Bangladesh Perspective. Iran. J. Environ. Health. Sci. Eng., 2007, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp 67 – 76 The total waste collection rate in major cities of Bangladesh such as

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

is only 37%. When waste is not properly collected, it will be illegally disposed of and this will pose serious environmental and health hazards to the

Bangladeshis Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...

Negative impacts of poor waste management

One of the most adverse impacts of poor waste management, especially municipal waste, is the incidence and prevalence of diseases such as

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

and respiratory problems, as well as other illnesses through the contamination of ground water. Biomedical wastes pose great danger in Bangladesh too as a report estimated that 20% of the biomedical waste is "highly infectious" and is a hazard since it is often disposed of into the

sewage system Sewerage (or sewage system) is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff (stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, and scree ...

or drains. Such poor

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation syste ...

has serious consequences for the health of the residents and a report suggests that "most of the child mortality could be related with this problem". With regards to the living standards, solid waste leads to blockage in the drainage system which leads to flooding in the streets. Consequently,

mosquitoes Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small Diptera, flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish ...

and bad odour are among the negative impacts resulted. Landfills in most countries including in Bangladesh contribute to methane emissions which accelerates

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. The Matuail Sanitary Landfill releases methane emissions equivalent to 190,000 cars.

Current government efforts

There have been recent developments in Bangladesh to improve waste management, especially in urban cities. In Dhaka,

Dhaka City Corporation Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) was the former self-governing corporation that was entrusted with the task of administering the municipal affairs of Dhaka. The incorporated area was divided into several wards. Each ward has an elected ward commissio ...

with support from the

Japan International Corporation Agency The is a governmental agency that delivers the bulk of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the government of Japan. It is chartered with assisting economic and social growth in developing countries, and the promotion of international co ...

(JICA) has a master plan underway to better handle the solid waste management in Dhaka. For example, Social Business Enterprise Waste Concern, has sprung up to tackle the municipal waste accumulation problem through working with the households.

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

has also initiated

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

programs and waste control with the city corporations and municipalities. However, currently, there are still insufficient incentives to improve the standard of waste management across all relevant sectors, especially for industrial waste and medical waste.

References

{{Waste Environmental issues in Bangladesh