GOVERNMENT,MARKET AND COMMUNITY IN URBAN SOLID WASTE 269
sources. However, the amounts show that on a weekly basis several tons of the main
types of material (glass, metal, plastic) are recovered in both localities.
The studies show that waste recovery is linked not only to domestic or municipal
waste streams. Wastes from institutions and enterprises are also preferred sources,
because they provide higher quality unmixed waste. Therefore, efforts to increase
waste segregation at source in institutions and enterprises remains as important a
channel for resource recovery as increasing source separation by households. It also
suggests that attempts to limit private access to waste streams are misplaced in
promoting greater resource recovery.
Recycling and reuse of inorganic waste: system concerns
The major system concerns relate to the lack of coordination between waste recovery
and recycling efforts and the municipal SWM collection system. This should be of
growing concern, as in both cities, lack of space for disposal of waste is already a big
problem which local authorities are unable to solve. Efforts to increase the effective-
ness of collection only exacerbate the issue of disposal, whereas increasing the extent
of waste recovery and recycling can make a substantial contribution to reducing waste
flows.
There is a serious problem in promoting co-operation and partnerships between the
private sector and local government, as long as the regulatory framework for SWM
does not include goals for waste recovery and recycling. At the moment, the contesta-
tion remains that such trading and enterprise activities remain on the border of or on
the wrong side of the law concerning tax and employment regulations, making entre-
preneurs, traders, itinerant buyers and pickers very reluctant to become more formal-
ised than they are. Nevertheless, if waste recovery is to be increased, and the quality
of waste maintained and improved, the regulatory framework has to be changed to
provide additional incentives to both waste generators to segregate waste, and to waste
recycling enterprises to invest in expanding production and improving the quality of
products made. Finally, the issue of balancing open imports of raw materials with
promoting recovery of local waste materials as input needs to be put on the agenda in
such a way that the quality of production is not affected, and the extent of materials
recovered is maximised.
Another problem of coordination stems from the fact that waste recycling is not
limited to city boundaries: in Kenya it extends to the national level in plastics, and in
India it has sub-national regional links, as well as international linkages. This implies
that linking such systems to municipal SWM may not always be an easy combination,
as the trading and recycling companies may work at different scale levels than the
local municipality does.