Ambitions to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will rely on low carbon technology, which in turn depends upon the availability of rare elements such as cobalt and lithium. But with electrical and electronic goods being casually disposed of in landfills and dumpsites around the world, dwindling supplies of these vital materials may hinder our efforts to bring climate emissions under control.

What is e-waste?

E-waste is comprised of used electrical and electronic equipment that has circuitry or electrical components and a power or battery supply, and falls into six categories:

• Cooling and freezing equipment including refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners and heat pumps.
• Screens and monitors including televisions, laptops, notebooks and tablets.
• Lamps including fluorescent lamps and LED lamps.
• Large equipment such as washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, electric stoves, large printers and copiers, and solar panels.
• Small items such as vacuum cleaners, microwaves, toasters, electric kettles, electric shavers, scales, calculators, radio sets, cameras and electrical and electronic tools.
• Small IT and telecommunications equipment such as mobile phones, GPS systems, calculators, routers, personal computers, printers and telephones.

Each of these categories has a different lifetime (how long the product is expected to last before breaking or becoming technologically obsolete) and has different waste quantities, economic values, and environmental and health impacts if disposed of improperly. Likewise, people have different perceptions and attitudes towards e-waste and variable access to recycling services, meaning far too many of these items – and the vital rare elements they contain – are being thrown away.

A man sorting parts from old electronic gadgets. This photo was taken in a rural part of West Bengal, India, where a community of 30 people recovers tin, silicon, iron, aluminium, lead, copper, gold and a variety of plastics from e-waste. Photo: WasteAid / Avijit Ghosh.

Environmental and human risks of poor e-waste disposal

If we don’t get e-waste recycling sorted, disc drives, circuit boards, solar panels and electric vehicle batteries could all be affected by the lack of availability of rare metals.

Calls have been made to make e-waste recycling compulsory. The International Energy Agency recently calculated that demand for critical and rare minerals will grow by six times by 2040, with demand for lithium growing to 40 times today’s demand due to its use in batteries. If low-carbon technology becomes unaffordable because of a lack of vital materials, it is unlikely that climate targets will be met.

The continual mining of various metals and other resources required to make electrical and electronic goods not only depletes resources, but mining itself causes lasting environmental issues, habitat displacement for wildlife, and often involves poor and dangerous working conditions.

Furthermore, when disposed of improperly these materials also cause specific threats to the natural world and human health. A study in 2016 found that the backyard recycling of lead-acid car batteries is the number one source of pollution in the world’s poorer nations, leading to millions of years of healthy life being lost and profoundly affecting childhood development.

The impacts of poor e-waste management include:

Air pollution: Separating the valuable components from e-waste is not a simple task, since they are rarely designed for disassembly. For example, copper wires in computer equipment are often recovered by open burning that removes the plastic casing but leads to significant and harmful release of hydrocarbons. Meanwhile, the chemical stripping of gold-plated computer chips releases emissions of brominated dioxins and heavy metals.

Water pollution: Older televisions, video cameras and computer monitors containing cathode ray tubes which have a recycling value. These items are broken apart to recover the cathode ray tube, and the rest of the shell or casing is dumped. The shells contain lead and barium which can leach through the soil into groundwater, endangering wildlife and the communities who depend on the water source for drinking and bathing.

Soil pollution: Dumped e-waste leaches toxic particles of heavy metals into the soil, where they are absorbed by crops and enter the human food chain. Once in the human body, these heavy metals accumulate and have been implicated in a range of harmful diseases including Alzheimer’s, diabetes and several forms of cancer.

Information security: A lot of our personal data is saved on electronic equipment, meaning if the item is improperly disposed of it can pose a threat to personal and business security. Hard drives need to be erased properly to prevent sensitive information being exposed, such as credit card numbers, financial data and bank account records.

Human exploitation: While there are a many legitimate e-waste recycling organisations, the industry is also blighted by modern day slavery. The work to recover precious metals from used electronic and electrical equipment can be dangerous and workers are often underpaid and denied basic rights.

The secondhand electronics market is a vital way to keep resources in the loop. Photo: WasteAid / Surav Das in West Bengal.

Recycle your e-waste with WasteAid

For World Environment Day 2021, WasteAid is teaming up with musicMagpie in the UK, who are donating £1 for each piece of consumer tech customers trade in with them. In addition, sellers will have the option to donate the value offered by the recommerce platform to the charity.

The money raised during this campaign will contribute to WasteAid’s programmes and support the development of educational materials on how to tackle the issue of e-waste, and importantly how to recycle and repair unwanted technology.

If you are in the UK and like many people, have a drawer full of old phones and other small electrical items, now is the time for a spring clean. By recycling your e-waste with musicMagpie through the month of June 2021, you can support communities and policy makers in lower-income countries to help reduce pollution, protect human health and save vital resources for climate-friendly technology.

Written by Zoë Lenkiewicz

>>> Recycle my e-waste

Luther Hinga and Zoë Lenkiewicz discuss the impact of WasteAid’s programme in Cameroon and the potential to scale activities through cross-sectoral partnerships.

In the coastal city of Douala in Cameroon, WasteAid and partners are beginning to make a lasting impact on how waste is managed. With a population of 3.8 million and growing at 3.6% a year, Douala unsurprisingly also has a growing waste challenge. Rivers carry plastic waste from inland communities, and the city itself is generating significant quantities of plastic on a daily basis – the vast majority of which remains unmanaged.

Over two years, WasteAid will train 164 young unemployed people in the safe and sustainable collection and processing of waste plastics from the Bonaberi district of the city. Each has the opportunity to choose their preferred field of specialism: plastic collection, tile fabrication, waste related community behaviour change, or marketing and sales. On completion of their training, these interns will be offered long-term employment with WasteAid’s local business partner REDPLAST and help to expand plastic waste collections to other parts of the city and country.

While all waste materials cause a problem if left unmanaged, the increasing use of plastic poses a particular challenge. Unlike metals, used plastic packaging has little immediate value to waste pickers and so accumulates in the streets and rivers of the city, eventually reaching the Cameroon estuary and the Atlantic Ocean. The case for introducing plastic waste management here is compelling, not least due to the impacts of plastic waste on the local fisheries that some 40% of the population relies upon for a living.

The current alternative of open burning of waste is understood to be generating 5-10% of global anthropogenic carbon emissions. Addressing the waste challenge is one of the more cost-effective ways of approaching net zero, and offers a range of livelihood opportunities for the growing number of unemployed young people throughout the African continent and elsewhere.

This two-year project in Douala was made possible through the generous donations from WasteAid supporters to our UK Aid Match appeal in summer 2019. No one group or organisation can fix the waste problem alone, and it’s through partnerships that the most sustainable impact can be made.

WasteAid’s relationship with Bunzl plc is an excellent example of different sectors working together to accelerate progress. Following a year-long project in Indonesia, in 2021 Bunzl contributed further to WasteAid’s work in Cameroon with funding for a 12-month project to set up a PET recycling system. Here, WasteAid will work with its Doualan private sector partner REDPLAST to recruit and develop a new team focused on the dedicated collection of PET. This will be flaked and washed and sold into the PET value chain to make new products, closing the loop and further supporting Cameroon’s progress towards a circular economy.

Meanwhile, WasteAid’s Circular Economy Network funded by Huhtamaki and operating in South Africa, India and Vietnam, is highlighting some fantastic examples of grassroots entrepreneurs driving the recovery and valorisation of waste. At WasteAid, we firmly believe that positive action starts on the ground and works best when local people and organisations develop locally appropriate solutions to the growing waste problem. While a truly circular economy might be a long way off, the concept is gaining traction and attracting more partners who recognise the value in supporting waste management and recycling initiatives in major hubs where there is currently significant leakage of waste into the environment.

WasteAid has developed rigorous monitoring and evaluation methodologies and is constantly seeking new and innovative ways to demonstrate our approach and the positive impacts of sustainable resource management. This data will in turn be useful in convincing more politicians and policy makers to facilitate waste collection services in their areas, as well as attracting more institutional and corporate partners who are looking to make a measurable impact towards reducing climate emissions, preventing marine plastic pollution, and supporting sustainable livelihoods in some of the poorest parts of the world.

This story was first published in Circular Online, the magazine of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.

• A new EU-funded partnership project between INGO WasteAid, Kanifing Municipal Council and Women’s Initiative The Gambia.
• Food waste will be separated by market vendors and transferred to women’s gardens where the majority of crops are grown.
• Women gardeners will be trained to turn the organic material into useful products that reduce climate emissions and build climate resilience.
• New products will increase crop yield, reduce reliance on chemical fertilisers and provide income-generating opportunities.

WasteAid, the UK-based international NGO that shares waste management and recycling skills around the world, has been awarded €100,000 by the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus Initiative (GCCA+), funded by the European Union, to deliver a climate resilient coastal and marine zone project for The Gambia.

The 12-month project will see WasteAid work in partnership with Kanifing Municipal Council to set up food waste collection from markets and transport the material to women’s gardens. Here, WasteAid’s long-term local partner Women’s Initiative The Gambia, will train the women gardeners to make compost, biochar and charcoal briquettes.

Mayor Bensouda of Kanifing Municipal Council commented: “Creating new pathways for sustainable resource management will accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. By diverting biodegradable waste from Bakoteh dumpsite and using it to enhance agricultural practices, this project will contribute to a green economy and provide inclusive opportunities, particularly for women.”

Ceris Turner-Bailes, WasteAid CEO, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Kanifing Municipal Council to help recover organic waste and transform it into useful products. This project will contribute to a circular bioeconomy and support livelihoods for women micro-entrepreneurs the greater Banjul area. This exciting project builds on WasteAid’s previous work in The Gambia and will contribute to the country’s green recovery.”

Waste management has become a concern to communities living within the coastal zone. This is compounded by the increasing socio-economic and demographic pressure on the coastal area of the Gambia. As a result, improper waste disposal practices have become a threat to public and environmental health.

Improving waste management is a priority for Kanifing Municipal Council, and in 2019 it rolled out the country’s first household waste collection service. WasteAid undertook the first waste composition analysis in The Gambia in 2015 and since then has delivered projects funded by UK Aid and corporate donors, creating livelihood opportunities in vulnerable communities by recovering the value in waste.

This new project, led by WasteAid with funding from the European Union, will reduce pressure on the main city’s dumpsite by collecting food waste from markets and transferring it to women’s gardens, where community-based organisation and long-time partner of WasteAid, Women’s Initiative The Gambia, will train the gardeners to make compost, biochar and charcoal briquettes.

Angela McDermott, WasteAid Head of Programmes and Impact, added: “This project will raise awareness and understanding among market vendors, residents and women gardeners of the value in biodegradable waste. By making soil amendments and a sustainable cooking fuel, the women gardeners will benefit from improved livelihoods, while protecting climate-vulnerable soils, and reducing pressure on local forests for firewood.”

Composting food waste will return nutrients to the soil and improve water retention, and the production of biochar is an emerging as an impactful approach to carbon sequestration. Charcoal briquettes, made from woody waste including groundnut (peanut) and coconut shells, offer a low-smoke sustainable cooking fuel alternative to timber and charcoal sourced from the fragile Casamance forest.

The project will accelerate progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, by creating jobs in the green economy, preserving natural resources, recycling waste and enhancing public health.

Written by Zoë Lenkiewicz

ENDS

WasteAid is a leading international development organisation on a mission to tackle the global waste crisis. 2 billion people do not have their waste collected and 3 billion lack a decent disposal site, leading to the spread of disease and polluting the air, land, rivers and oceans.

WasteAid works with communities in low-income countries to address the root causes of climate change and marine plastic pollution.

WasteAid shares waste management knowledge and skills with governments and communities in low-income countries; trains people to become self-employed recycling entrepreneurs; and influences decision-makers and the donor community to increase investment in waste management.

Contact:

Rose Bradbury

Senior Fundraising & Communications Officer

WasteAid

media@wasteaid.org

PRESS RELEASE

• Thirty young unemployed people will secure long-term jobs in the green economy
• Collecting and recycling 8 tonnes of plastic waste will reduce health problems, climate change emissions and marine plastic pollution
• Partnership between Bunzl plc and WasteAid helping to fight poverty and deliver the Sustainable Development Goals

The specialist international distribution and services group, Bunzl plc is partnering with international NGO WasteAid to create jobs in the collection and recycling of plastic waste in Cameroon.

With Bunzl’s support, WasteAid’s partners will recruit and train 30 young entrepreneurs in the coastal city of Douala to recover value from plastic waste and create long-term employment opportunities in the green economy.

James Pitcher, Head of Sustainability at Bunzl plc said: “The lack of waste collection in Douala is a major cause of environmental concern, with plastic waste blocking drains and filling riverbeds close to the Atlantic coast. WasteAid has been working in Douala to engage young unemployed people in the collection and recycling of plastic waste since 2019, and we are delighted to be building on their positive impact through this 12-month partnership.”

Solid waste management has been identified as one of the major environmental concerns of the city of Douala, and about one third of economically active youth are unemployed. WasteAid will work with existing partner RED-PLAST and new trainees to collect and sort plastic waste from market areas and divert it from waterways and the ocean.

Angela McDermott, WasteAid’s Head of Programmes and Impact said: “The nascent recycling industry in Cameroon can provide dignified jobs and generate much-needed income, while cleaning the environment and preventing pollution. With Bunzl’s support, we are able to develop targeted interventions that provide long-term opportunities for vulnerable young people.”

Plastic waste will be collected from four markets in Douala: Sandaga (Douala I), Congo (Douala II), Maképé and Bépanda (both Douala V). Through partnership working with the local municipality, market managers, stallholders and surrounding businesses, the trainees will collect eight tonnes of plastics including PET, PP, PE and PVC by the end of 2021 and sell the plastics to a network of existing local re-processors, keeping it in the loop.

This initiative will provide a legacy of waste recycling knowledge, skills and employment as well as waste reduction and environmental gains.

The partnership between Bunzl plc and WasteAid builds on their recent joint initiative in Indonesia, helping marginalised communities to increase waste recycling from 10% to 90%.

WasteAid’s Chief Executive, Ceris Turner-Bailes said: “We are grateful to Bunzl plc for supporting another intervention that demonstrates the long-term benefits of sustainable waste management, particularly for communities that suffer from a poor environment and high levels of unemployment. Collecting and preparing plastic waste for recycling creates green jobs and reduces dependence on open dumping and burning, providing important health and economic benefits where they are most needed.”

The 12-month partnership will help deliver a number of the Sustainable Development Goals, including: Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), Industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), Climate action (SDG 13), Life below water (SDG 14) and Partnerships for the goals (SDG 17).

If you would like to support WasteAid trainees in combatting plastic pollution before it reaches the sea, please consider a one-off or regular donation.

Written by Zoë Lenkiewicz

ENDS

About WasteAid

• WasteAid is a leading international development organisation on a mission to tackle the global waste crisis. 2 billion people do not have their waste collected and 3 billion lack a decent disposal site, leading to the spread of disease and polluting the air, land, rivers and oceans.
• WasteAid works with communities in low-income countries to address the root causes of climate change and marine plastic pollution.
• WasteAid shares waste management knowledge and skills with governments and communities in low-income countries; trains people to become self-employed recycling entrepreneurs; and influences decision-makers and the donor community to increase investment in waste management.

About Bunzl plc

• Bunzl is a growing and successful Group with operations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
• Bunzl applies its resources and expertise to reduce or eliminate many of the hidden costs of in-house procurement and self-distribution. The benefits to customers are a lower cost of doing business and reduced working capital and carbon emissions.
• Bunzl’s operations span across more than 30 countries. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange FTSE100 Index in the Support Services Sector with its global headquarters in London, UK.

Contact:

Rose Bradbury, Senior Fundraising & Communications Officer, WasteAid

media@wasteaid.org

WasteAid‘s senior technical advisor and head of communications, Zoë Lenkiewicz, says waste and resource management (‘WaRM’) has an important role in building climate resilience in Africa, and with COP26 on the horizon WasteAid is aiming to put it on the agenda.

Most climate conversations focus on the trilogy of energy, transport and food. When waste is mentioned, it is usually referencing methane emissions from landfill sites and waste miles. However, the waste intersects with climate change and the key themes of COP26 in some crucial ways.

Waste is a complex challenge with poor data, but you don’t have to look far to see its obvious impacts. In lower-income countries across Africa (and elsewhere), a waste collection service is rare. Recycling industries exist but are often poorly connected and so fail to gain market penetration, and there are many competing priorities on the public purse.

People are generally unaware of the impacts of mismanaged solid waste, and so it remains low on people’s priorities compared to health, food security, clean water and education. It also means that when people burn waste they do so without understanding the risks. In particular, waste collectors dispose of waste without any protection – and are usually among the most vulnerable in society with underlying health risks.

Due to this informal nature of waste management, emissions are impossible to measure accurately. We can make informed guesses on the release of methane, black carbon and other greenhouse gases, but the varying compositions of waste and the various disposal conditions make the true impacts difficult to determine with accuracy (for example, the Global Waste Management Outlook (UNEP/ISWA, 2015) estimates that around 10-15% of global greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced through improved waste management).

Making changes further up the supply chain can bring significant additional climate benefits, through waste avoidance, eco-design, design for disassembly, repair and extended product lifetimes. When avoided emissions from the use of raw materials and waste recovery for other sectors are included, the contribution of waste management to total greenhouse gas mitigation could increase to 15-20% (UNEP/ISWA, 2015).

Africa is not a significant source of climate change emissions. According to the World Resources Institute, Africa’s per capita emissions of CO2 in the year 2000 were 0.8 tonnes compared to the global average of 3.9 tonnes per person.

However, urbanisation and waste generation continue to grow and economic development in countries such as Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt mean projected waste arisings are more akin to European levels.

Whether a country generates a little or a lot, African governments can implement waste and resource management policies to reduce urban pollution and its significant health costs, while creating jobs and reducing climate emissions.

Cleaning up for climate resilience

Africa is already experiencing temperature increases of 0.7% (and rising), and is the continent most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Droughts and floods are affecting food production, spreading water-borne diseases and malaria, and causing drastic biodiversity loss.

Many farmers across Africa rely solely on chemical fertilisers that degrade the soil and increase their vulnerability to a changing climate. Recycling of food waste through the production of compost and biochar helps preserve soils, improving water retention and soil microbiology. WasteAid’s recent feasibility study in Malawi concluded that good practice and national standards for compost production would give confidence to the market while protecting soils for future harvests.

Reducing dependence on forests for firewood is essential to global climate stability. The Congo Basin, the second largest tropical rainforest in the world, is being lost at a rate of 40,000 square kilometres a year (around 0.6% of the remaining forest cover on earth).

The threats posed by the continuous consumption of fossil fuels and timber, and the inefficient use and disposal of biomass, can again be reduced through better resource management. Charcoal briquettes made from woody waste such as coconut shell (see the WasteAid Toolkit for information) is one of the few proven, cost-effective, and available technologies that can decrease CO2, NOx and SO2 emissions.

In the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WasteAid has undertaken a needs assessment among informal waste workers. Here, plastic bottles and organic waste are causing the main challenges, with weak markets and a lack of enforcement making open dumping and burning the norm.

The Congo River snakes towards the Atlantic Ocean, and by the time it reaches the coast is full to the brim with plastic waste that nobody can afford to manage. Monsoon rains cannot flow like they used to, making flash floods and associated increases in malaria and cholera commonplace.

Meanwhile at the Cameroon Estuary, WasteAid’s UK Aid Match programme has now seen the recruitment of 112 apprentices who will be trained and offered long-term employment opportunities in the nascent plastics recycling sector.

Over the next 18 months, the team is expecting to recover more than 16 tonnes of plastic from its alternative fate of being burned or reaching the ocean, and thanks to a corporate partnership this positive impact is set to grow.

Collaborate for the climate

In lower-income countries, the social, economic and climate benefits of sustainable waste and resource management are sizeable, and to make the most of these through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will require the cooperation of the public, private and community sectors.

To support this type of cross-sector collaboration, WasteAid is running a multi-city circular economy network to identify opportunities for inclusive green growth, culminating in an innovation competition with prizes of up to 10,000 Euros of seed funding for the winners.

The network is encouraging collaboration and partnerships between producers, re-processors and grassroots innovators in Johannesburg, Ho Chi Minh and Guwahati through citywide and online activities (see circulareconomynetwork.co). WasteAid’s team is keen to expand this approach to other countries in the coming years.

An optimised circular economy in Africa will keep things local to reduce transport costs and emissions, and be designed according to the local context. Waste streams in lower-income countries have a higher proportion of wet waste, and a lower per capita generation. Technology is often prohibitively expensive, while unemployment rates among young and growing populations are high. The potential for waste management to bring about positive social, environmental and economic change is huge.

As governments in lower-income countries look to waste management as a pillar of climate resilience, it’s important that organisations like WasteAid are there to give impartial support and to offer solutions that prioritise the most vulnerable people. By working in partnership, we can help deliver waste and resource management systems that improve livelihoods and create a cleaner, cooler world for us all.

While planned programmes have been affected by the events of 2020, the importance of WasteAid’s corporate partnerships has grown. WasteAid is welcoming new partners to help grow its impact, and to help make a circular economy work for people everywhere.

This was first published in Circular.

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The island of Bali at the eastern fringe of Indonesia has long been considered a “paradise island”, but lately, locals have noticed its natural beauty eroding beneath an endless wave of plastic waste. Findings from The Bali Partnership show that just 48 per cent of waste from the Indonesian island is disposed of through recycling or landfill, while 33,000 tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the ocean each year.

In 2018, WasteAid forged a partnership with R.O.L.E. Foundation (River, Ocean, Land, and Ecology) to share skills and know-how in managing plastic waste safely. The Zero Waste to Oceans Community Environment & Skills Centre in Bali is close to the south-eastern beach of Nusa Dua, which is lined with hotels, spas and luxury resorts. Much of the waste generated from these hotels, along with mixed waste from residential and business zones, currently ends up smouldering in informal dumpsites or in drainage ditches making its way to the coast.

Crucially, R.O.L.E. Foundation is also home to Bali WISE, a programme for empowering marginalised women through skills education, as a means to develop sustainable communities in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, on the more remote northern coast of Bali, local environmental champions are working towards the development of an eco-village. Through daily beach litter picks and a basic waste sorting centre, they have managed to establish a rudimentary system to keep waste out of the ocean, but with little funding or specialist skills, progress is slow.

Kadek Ada Maja, project manager of the Bondalem Eco Village Community Group said, “Plastic waste is the biggest problem. A river runs between Tejakula and Bondalem villages, and it is full of plastic. Culturally it is difficult to educate other communities about their plastic waste, so the focus is on ocean plastic. Plastic waste was blocking the street. Local people were angry, thinking that a waste facility was not important. There is so much waste at the facility but without it the waste is everywhere. Education is the most important thing.”

Launching a partnership

In September 2019, when Bunzl plc. approached WasteAid to help prevent ocean plastic pollution, the partners in Bali were recommended based on their potential to make instant strides towards sustainable waste management, and to empower people in poverty to generate sustainable income from recycling activities.

With Bunzl’s support, local leaders in Nusa Dua and Bondalem have been able to improve the condition of their plastic collection and sorting infrastructure, and start preparing plastics for either export to Java for recycling, or to be converted into useful products for the local market.

Objective: Prevent plastic pollution through sustainable livelihoods in waste management and recycling

Project goals:

1. Develop value chains for waste materials through a sustainable livelihoods approach
2. Train disadvantaged communities in recycling and business development
3. Build sustainable waste management capacity in R.O.L.E. and Bondalem to enable low-cost waste collection, sorting, processing and safe disposal especially of plastic waste
4. Share experiences with other communities in Bali
5. Enable train-the-trainer capacity within partner communities.

Sense of urgency: In 2018, Mike O’Leary, Founder of R.O.L.E. Foundation took WasteAid to visit the dumpsite in Nusa Dua. Waste from major hotel chains, including Moët bottles and oasis from flower arrangements, is dumped and burned here, polluting the beautiful island of Bali for current and future generations.

The Bali partners have put together a programme with local hotels and resorts to involve their guests in zero waste activities, which will start when the borders open and tourism starts to recover. The training curriculum in English and Bahasa Indonesia is also complete, and will be rolled out to Bali WISE recruits post-COVID.

Bunzl’s donation was in place just as the Covid lockdown began, and it seemed that the projects would go on hold. However, the positive effect of the situation coinciding with Bunzl’s funding was that our project managers had funds available during a quiet time, which enabled them to give their teams an excellent grounding before they start work in earnest when tourism resumes.

For example, Bunzl’s support has significantly improved conditions for people handling waste, including roofing structures and sorting tables. A glass crusher and plastics shredder have been bought and the teams will soon be trialing the conversion of some low-grade flexible plastics into paving tiles and other useful products. In addition, Bunzl is also supplying PPE for the teams to enable them to carry out their work in the safest possible conditions. The equipment is being supplied to the teams’ specifications, including overalls, gloves, boots and facemasks.

In the meantime, in Bondalem the team has already begun with the sorting of waste materials including different types of plastic, and has been meeting with local councils and building relationships to make sure plans are aligned for when the population (and waste generation) increases again. They are keeping daily records of the amount of waste sorted and its composition, and are growing in confidence about the way to handle and manage waste materials to reduce what needs disposing to less than 10% total waste arisings.

“Our immediate priorities are to support the well-being of the local farmers and domestic waste management, so that our village is both clean and healthy,” explained Kadek Ada Maja.

“The first step in realising our priorities is the new waste treatment plant set on a 500-square-meter site provided by the Bondalem village administration. The plant, which currently employs five full-time local staff, promotes the awareness of socially responsible garbage management, and to inspire the villagers to be active participants in the project.

“The plant, a first of its kind on the north coast of Bali, involves three levels of local government, involving cooperation between the village to the subdistrict of Tejakula, and the regency administration of Buleleng. The treatment site features a covered workspace for garbage processing upon newly purchased tables. The garbage is washed and sorted into organic and recycled waste, and organic waste is processed into compost, which is packaged and locally sold. The non-organic waste, especially paper, plastic bottles and bags and glass items, are washed and prepared for recycling.”

Following the training session at Bondalem Eco Village in August, the team started to record waste processing data. In the first 23 days, they processed 14 tonnes of waste, of which about 12 tonnes was organic (85%). The amount of plastic bags (including laminated bags) separated was 700kg (5%) and hard plastics about the same (5%). The amount sent to landfill was 680kg (5%). Of the plastic bags, 210kg were laminated and the rest either clear or coloured plastic bags. Hard plastics were about 300kg each of PET and PP and 100kg of other plastics.

Project manager, Piet Van Zyl, said: “The most sustainable way to manage waste materials is through separation at source. Since we have found that the majority of the waste generated in Bondalem is organic, we can now set about persuading the village to collect this material separately, which will make the plastics much easier to manage.”

Different types of plastic difficult to identify and the team has found that packaging marked with a recycling code is much easier to sort. It is hoped that in the future, more plastics will be identified in this way to aid recovery and recycling. Well-sorted plastics have a much higher market value and this is an important step in establishing sustainable resource management initiatives.

The value of plastics separated by our team over the 23 days was R1.5mill or GBP 78 and the value of the compost from the organics about Rp6.6mill or GBP 345.

The team has decided that long-term, there will be value in persuading the village to separate organics from plastics at source. This will enable good quality compost to be produced (without plastic contaminants) and for the recyclable and residual plastic waste to be managed in the most appropriate and sustainable way.

Zoë Lenkiewicz, Head of Programmes and Engagement at WasteAid, said: “The donation from Bunzl has been transformational for two communities suffering from endless plastic pollution on the beautiful island of Bali. The infrastructure the teams have invested in will provide a long-term solution for the safe and sustainable management of plastics and organics, and the training and advocacy elements of the partnership mean the benefits will be shared beyond these two communities.

“We are grateful to Bunzl for the donation, and are proud of our partner organisations, R.O.L.E. and Bondalem Eco Hub, for the progress they have made despite the restrictions in place due to COVID. They have made admirable progress and have built up their confidence and local networks so that when tourism returns, they can make a considerable and lasting impact. Nobody wants to see plastic pollution, and by working together in partnerships such as this, we are making a visible and tangible positive impact to protect human health, biodiversity, and the local economy that depends on the natural beauty and biodiversity of the island.”

In supporting these committed Indonesian partners, Bunzl plc and WasteAid have demonstrated the power of partnerships in tackling one of the most pressing challenges of this generation. In order to achieve the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, cooperation across borders and sectors is vital and this case study shows that when people work together, we can turn the tide on plastic pollution.

Written by Zoë Lenkiewicz

Jakarta Post article: https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/08/12/north-bali-eco-hub-a-new-sustainable-community-project-with-a-grand-vision.html