MODES OF URBAN INORGANIC SOLID WASTE 127
What these inventories show, is that CBOs operate mainly at the neighbourhood level,
whereas NGOs can undertake recovery activities over a wider area. They also indicate
that NGOs/CBOs are able to work with local authorities in developing new models of
SWM at the local level. In fact, this is seen as crucial in obtaining a long-term viable
system that can be replicated fairly rapidly, although it is difficult to interest munici-
palities initially (Lardinois and Furedy, 1999). However, they also indicate two basic
weaknesses in these new models of co-operation. First, CBO/NGOs depend heavily
on voluntary labour from their members, which has to be continued over a long period
of time, and which such organisations find very difficult to expand (Lee, 1998).
Secondly, where NGOs/CBOs have set up co-operatives for waste pickers to improve
their earnings, they have often found difficulties in being sufficiently business-like to
achieve better prices and contracts for the pickers involved (in India, e.g.)^17. In the
Philippines, access to credit and increasing the range of materials to be collected has
been carried out by an NGO (Lardinois and Furedy, 1999). Thirdly, those working
from a ‘cleaner neighbourhood’ perspective, have to depend on the co-operation of
households specifically for source separation of waste materials, which requires a
basic understanding and commitment to material recovery. Such initiatives may also
have unintended impacts on the access of existing waste pickers and traders to saleable
waste materials, because they usually ignore existing private sector initiatives in doing
so (Baron and Castricum, 1996).
A final issue is how existing levels of source separation can be made more effective.
Households have different reasons for carrying out source separation, related to
economics and concern with the environment (Furedy, 1992; Lardinois and Furedy,
1999). In developing countries, economic reasons tend to dominate among most
households, although the patterns of source separation differ according to income
levels^18. The type of materials to be separated also presents a problem: inorganic
materials are recovered more extensively than organic materials (see chapters 9-12).
This seems to be related to the lack of an effective collection system for organic mate-
rials: households use organic materials mainly for feeding animals or fertilising
gardens.
- Waste pickers themselves have also organised in ‘unions’ (in Latin America), which is a different
model. - Households are interested in some degree of source separation, according to their levels of income. In
high-income household, servants generally take care of separation of waste for selling themselves. In
middle-income households, housewives tend to be more involved in separation, and in low-income
households, waste will be both reused and the final residue discarded.