MODES OF URBAN INORGANIC SOLID WASTE 125
and recycling, and an increasing competition among waste collectors for remaining
waste materials (Blore, 2000).
From a public health perspective, cleaner neighbourhoods are a crucial benefit. From
an environmental perspective, there can be negative impacts as the size of the waste
flow going for disposal is increased significantly, and currently disposal sites in most
cities in developing country are already filled to capacity. It is also negative in terms
of recovery and recycling of materials, if alternative ways to retain or improve current
levels of recovery are not taken^15. From a socio-economic perspective, more effective
collection without separation reduces employment in the recovery and recycling
sector, eliminating already scarce employment possibilities for vulnerable groups on
the labour market. It also has proved in practice to lead to conflicts between public
sector employees providing waste services, and private sector employees, who are
often paid far less, and have less employment security (Baud et al., 2001; Blore,
2000). This has also proved to be the case in Surabaya, where source separation led to
strikes by collection crews, who lost access to economically valuable materials
(Furedy, pers com.). If indeed there is increasing reliance on source separation by
households, it may necessitate major changes in cultural attitudes towards waste
handling, although this problem is found very unevenly across social classes and in
different countries.
This discussion suggests that privatisation efforts need a regulatory framework that
provides incentives for source separation by households, and allows or makes manda-
tory recovery of materials commercially. In India, until recently, local authorities had
only rules applying to SWM under the Health Departments, largely originating from
the British system, with no higher authority co-ordinating the overall legislative
framework. This is currently under revision, with state and Central Pollution Control
Boards being allotted new tasks in setting national standards for SWM. However, this
does not yet include incentives for separation and recovery of waste materials^16. In
Latin America, legislation generally does not clearly mandate one jurisdictional
authority to formulate and enforce legal requirements (Arroyo Moreno et al., 1997/
1999). A number of public sector organisations at different levels are involved, and
contest each other’s responsibilities.
Decentralisation processes
Recent decentralisation policies being carried out in many countries have promoted
the possibility to involve other actors in SWM. In Latin America, such policy changes
- More effective methods of collection now include containerisation, which closes off access to picking
materials by street pickers - A recent court case has led the Supreme Court to mandate separation and recovery; however, with no
provision for incentives.