Solid Waste Management and Recycling

METHODOLOGICAL ANNEXE 285

• employment and income (including levels of employment and working condi-
  tions, income levels, regularity of income, mobility in the sector, both upward and
  downward; and


• health hazards (physical injuries in the past month among the different groups of
  workers and pickers), and


• how and why changes in the sourcing of waste materials occurred (including
  changes in import duties, import policies, changes in suppliers, and changing
  pricing policies).

There were several limits in the field study for both organic and inorganic waste. They
were:

• only important waste fractions that are recycled, were taken into account (paper,
  plastics, metal and glass);


• no account was taken of interest and depreciation levels in enterprises;


• in terms of health hazards, only physical injuries were considered, as establishing
  causal relationships between diseases and solid waste was impossible;


• fieldwork (January – April 1999) took place in the peak season of waste produc-
  tion in both locations; questions pertained to recycling levels at that time, with
  comparisons asked about the most recent past slack season.

The sampling design for the study on recycling of (in)organic waste materials was as
follows for both Hyderabad and Nairobi. Because basic overall information was
lacking concerning the geographic distribution of the actors and their activities,
methods used include

• purposive sampling according to the area of the city: by income levels for resi-
  dents, and


• by economic activities carried out, and


• snowballing methods within one category of actors

Table 2. Sampling design for field study on inorganic and organic waste recycling

Actor Nairobi Hyderabad

Foreseen Actual Foreseen Actual

Street picker
Dump pickers
Itinerant buyers
Dealers
Wholesalers
recycling units-
entrepreneurs
Workers

60

60

30

30

60

60

68

74

14

31

1

33

34

60

60

30

30

10

60

60

120

72

60

55

25

10

60

• The number of recycling enterprises in Nairobi in the different waste materials was smaller than
  expected; therefore, the number of workers was also reduced.