EDITORIAL

The problem of solid waste management has remained unsolved in Karachi because the policy makers and implementers have failed to recognise the crucial role of the recycling industry, most of which is in the informal sector, in the disposal of solid waste in Karachi. In 1991 the Urban Resource Centre started to look at the relationships between the various formal and informal actors involved in the solid waste management process in Karachi. Its research ultimately focused on the recycling industry because it emerged as a major player of this sector.
Karachi generates about 6600 tons of solid waste every day. 800 tons of this is removed at source by housewives and sold to about 15000 kabaris or waste pickers who pick up the waste from people's homes. This solid waste consists of glass, plastic, metal, and paper. In addition, the waste pickers collect from the kachra kundis , or rubbish bins ,and another 700 tons of solid waste from the streets and markets. This waste consists of paper, rags, plastic, metal objects, glass and bones. Contractors employ these waste pickers and there is an understanding between them and the concerned municipal staff that is of benefit to both of them.
Thus solid waste is not lifted from the kachra kundis and does not find its way to the landfill sites but to the yards of the waste dealers and the recycling factories. Staff operating the garbage pickup vans is paid up to Rs50 per van to deposit the waste at locations where informal developers are reclaiming land. About 350 tons of solid waste and building material debris per day is used for this purpose. Another 400 tons of organic waste is used in pottery kilns as fuel or is burnt to extract metal from it. The kiln owners and metal extractors pay the concerned staff for this waste as well. In some cases the kiln operators have located their kilns near the landfill sites. Waste from high-income localities, where waste pickers are not allowed to operate, contains considerable recyclable material. This is not taken by the van operators to the allotted sites but to scavengers' colonies where the inorganic waste is removed and sent to the recycling factories.
The local government staff receives payment for performing this service as well. The kabaris and the middlemen, who organise waste collection through pickers, sell it to the middle dealers estimated to be 800 in number. There are also 1000 main dealers who also perform secondary reprocessing through manual or mechanical means. These dealers further sell to the recycling industry. Thus apparently useless, low valued items that are disposed of as rubbish brings into play an informal economy. The roles that the various actors of this system play and what are the benefits that accrue to them from this economy needs to be studied. One thing is, however, clear, that the individuals involved in this 'industry' get no facility from the government although the livelihood of thousands is dependent on this 'industry'. The infrastructure of the KMC was established in 1947 when the area of the city was limited and the population was 500,000.
Now when the population of the city has increased to 120 million the concerned agency has not been reorganised to provide basic facilities to the citizens. An interdependence (financial and organisational) also exists between the various actors in the solid waste management of Karachi and the recycling industry. These actors are housewives, who sell to kabaris, itinerant waste buyers (kabaris), middle dealers who purchase from kabaris, main dealers, who also perform secondary reprocessing through manual or mechanical means, recycling industry, municipal sweepers, street pickers, dump pickers and municipal officers.
This de facto relationship is not recognised formally and its lack of recognition and regulation is a major source of corruption and malfunctioning of the system. Landfill sites in Karachi are difficult to operate due to the ad hoc expansion of the city, the bad communication network and the conflict between the reality to solid waste management and the existing formal system institutions and regulations.