Daily Times

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is a critical administrative, environmental, technical, and social issue in developing economies due to limited technical and financial resources. Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world, with a population of 241 million as reported in the 7th census, with a share of 61.18% in rural and 38.82% in urban areas. The waste generation rate varies from 0.33 to 0.5 kg per capita per day in rural and urban areas, respectively, and is reported at the higher side at 0.55 to 0.65 kg per capita per day in Pakistan’s metropolitan and provincial capitals. The MSW generation in the country is calculated at 95,435 tons per day or 34.8 million tons per annum.

The MSW collection efficiency is reported to be less than 75% in all urban areas of the country except for Lahore, where it is at 84%. Most local municipalities consider the handling of MSW as a liability rather than a resource and focus more on manual sweeping and waste collection. No single sanitary landfill site exists in the country, and all collected waste is openly dumped without considering its recovery and treatment, which is responsible for degrading the local ecosystem and the environment. The informal recycling rate is reported at 9.8% for plastic, paper, glass, Tetrapak, nylon, and textiles from the MSW.

The country’s waste sector has gained particular focus during the last decade by policymakers. Efforts paid to establish waste management companies at the district and division level in Punjab, formulate the Sindh Waste Management Board, water and sanitation services companies in KPK, and outsource primary and secondary waste collection services in most of the urban areas of the country with the addition of new fleet by donor agencies. However, there is an urgent need to strengthen the waste recovery, treatment and disposal aspects of the waste handling chain. This is crucial to reduce the negative impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as the share of the waste sector is reported to be at 3.4% in the global emissions. Modelled methane (CH4) generation (inception year to 2024) from Lahore and twin cities disposal facilities are calculated at 35,593 and 13,212 metric tons, respectively.

The open disposal facilities in metropolitan cities of Pakistan are highlighted as global hotspots from the perspective of GHG emissions, and the share of Lahore’s Lakhodair dumpsite contributes 13% in city-level emissions and 10% in the country’s total waste-related emissions (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn9683). Waste diversion from landfill sites is the best strategy to reduce emissions by recovering the recyclables and converting the organic waste into compost and biogas. The waste sector can potentially use it as a renewable energy resource to “pay back to nature” by improving the soil texture and fertility by applying organic compost in the agriculture sector. It can also help meet the energy and fuel demand of the industrial sector. On average, organic waste, paper, plastic and metal are found at 43%, 5.7%, 5.6% and 1%, respectively. However, the combustible proportion of the waste is found at 26% on average, with a high calorific value. The Gross Calorific Value (GCV) of the MSW is found at 2,500 to 3,200 Kcal per kg, and the waste sector can support the local cement industry to meet its fuel demand in the form of Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) as a coal substitute. The quality of RDF can be improved by establishing material recovery facilities (MRF), and this intervention is proposed at the city and municipality level to recover the high calorific value waste from the main waste stream.

Pakistan is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, and the waste sector can help meet the targets of nationally determined contributors (NDCs) to reduce GHG emissions. In the future, the export of products from the agriculture and industrial sectors to European countries will be gauged by the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to prevent carbon leakage. MSW sector in the form of organic compost, biogas, biofuel, and RDF will help improve Pakistan’s share of exports and positively impact the local economy. Furthermore, coal imports will be banned beyond 2030 under the NDCs of Pakistan, and the waste sector in the form of RDF will support the cement industries in meeting fuel needs.

Rehabilitating old disposal sites with cost-effective phytoremediation and phytocapping techniques will help reduce GHG emissions by 45 to 50% with the remediation of landfill leachate against multi-metal contamination. Installation of landfill gas (LFG) collection infrastructure at disposal facilities of metropolitan cities for flaring will also support emission reduction to meet the targets as defined in NDCs. These interventions have significant opportunities for international climate finance funding to invest in infrastructure development with additional economic benefits from carbon offset and credits. The waste recovery facilities are already installed in Lahore, Quetta, Islamabad, Sahiwal, and Multan. However, these facilities need to be operationalized to reduce the municipality’s waste disposal cost with the recovery of recyclables, RDF, and compost manufacturing to strengthen the local recycling, cement and agriculture industries. This intervention will also support meeting the emissions reduction targets and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), i.e., sustainable cities (SDG-11), responsible consumption & production (SDG-12), and climate change(SDG-13).

The writer is a Senior Specialist in Solid Waste Management at the Urban Unit, Lahore, with a PhD in Environmental Science from GCU Lahore.