MODES OF URBAN INORGANIC SOLID WASTE 119
Recovery, trade and recycling activities comprise the next step in the waste manage-
ment hierarchy, and involve a larger and variable chain of actors (see chapter I).
Maximising waste diversion toward recovery and recycling is the primary environ-
mental goal at this point in the waste management hierarchy. In developing countries,
however, the environmental perspective at this point is less well developed among
both local authorities and citizens (cf. Chaturvedi, 1998). Rather, these activities take
place primarily in a private market context. Therefore, assessing their economic value
is currently the only method we can use to predict to what extent recovery of waste
materials is likely to increase when the incentives are changed.
An important distinction in assessing the value of such waste flows is that made
between unmixed sources of waste, which retain a higher economic value, and mixed
waste, which presents a much less attractive source of raw materials for trade and recy-
cling enterprises. Therefore, some authors suggest that more emphasis should be put
on increasing source separation in order to maximise clean, homogenous waste mate-
rials, whereas mixed wastes should be phased out of an integrated system (Lardinois
and Furedy, 1999). This might enhance the size of both organic as well as inorganic
waste flows and their economic value, if other factors remain constant. It also has
implications for which actors remain involved, which will be discussed in the
following paragraphs.
Assessments of the size of municipal waste flows often implicitly limit the system
borders to the urban locality^10. However, trading and recycling commodity chains are
not necessarily closed local systems. Regional, national and international trade flows
of waste materials exist, in which large volumes and sales turnovers are generated
(Dhanalakshmi and Iyer, 1999; van Beukering and Duraiappah, 1996; van Beukering,
2001)^11. Van Beukering argues that international flows of waste materials can add to
the quality of waste material flows in developing countries, if ‘high-quality’ waste is
exported from industrialised countries (van Beukering, 2001). This obviously does not
apply to hazardous waste, for which developing countries may be less well equipped
to deal with the dangers they pose.
Locally, many entrepreneurs are less than willing to discuss their commercial activi-
ties, and the smaller enterprises often operate in a semi-illegal context (Baron and
- Many municipalities in developing countries only estimate the size of their waste generation. If the
volume is actually measured, it is usually done so at the dumpsite through a weighing bridge, which
means that the major part of the recyclable waste has been removed from the stream before. - In developed countries, a discussion has raged whether waste materials should be transported to devel-
oping countries (especially hazardous wastes). However, non-hazardous waste materials originating in
developed countries, such as paper, are often considered sources of superior raw materials by small
entrepreneurs in developing countries (Dhanalakshmi and Iyer, 1999; van Beukering and Duraiappah,
1998).