Analysis of Waste Management in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

This report investigates the critical issue of waste management in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a city grappling with rapid urbanization and its associated environmental challenges. The report begins with an introduction outlining the problem statement, research question, and objectives, which focus on improving waste management practices. A thorough literature review explores existing research on waste management, including the use of IoT, incineration, recycling, e-waste management, and food waste. The methodology section describes the research approach, including the collection of primary and secondary data. The findings reveal significant problems within Dhaka City Corporation's waste management system, such as low budgets, lack of technology, improper waste separation, and inadequate landfilling. The report concludes with a call for improved waste management practices, including the implementation of IoT devices and public awareness campaigns. The report emphasizes the need for proactive measures to address the increasing environmental problems caused by improper waste management, promoting a cleaner and more sustainable environment for the city.

Running head: WASTE MANAGEMENT IN DHAKA
Waste Management in Dhaka
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1WASTE MANAGEMENT IN DHAKA
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction:.........................................................................................................................2
1.1 Problem Statement:..........................................................................................................2
1.2 Research Question and Objective:...................................................................................3
2.0 Literature Review:................................................................................................................3
3.0 Case Study and Methods:.....................................................................................................6
4.0 Research Findings:...............................................................................................................6
5.0 Conclusion and Future Research:.........................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................9

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1.0 Introduction:
Waste management has become one of the biggest problem in the current situation for
the big metropolitan cities and in the developing countries the situation is worst (Rhyner et
al. 2017). In the developing counties this has become very much challenging due to the rapid
and imbalanced industrialization and urbanization. Also this has become a serious problem in
this type of counties due to the low budget of waste management. Improper type of waste
management leads to environmental pollution which is one of the biggest threat to the city
and the peoples living on it. Bangladesh is one of these developing countries which is
currently facing waste management regarding problem and the most affected city here is the
Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh.
In this report a research will be done on waste management procedures in Dhaka City.
Regarding this report, a literature review will be presented for demonstration of the current
available knowledge. Following the literature review, methodology for the research will be
discussed. In the further section of this research findings from the research and discussion
regarding it will be done.
1.1 Problem Statement:
In this current context the main problem which are existing within the system are the:
 Improper institutional arrangement.
 Improper separation at source.
 Uncontrollable generation of waste.
 Lack of awareness among the peoples of city.
 Shortage of lands for the disposal purposes.

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Thus in this current aspect it is very much important to address the above identified issues
for a perfect waste management within the city.
1.2 Research Question and Objective:
The main research question in this case, how Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) will be
able to manage its wastages perfectly so that it does not become the reason of environmental
pollution.
Here the main objective of this research is proposing an ultimate solution for the
Dhaka City Corporation so that the produced waste can be managed within the city perfectly.
2.0 Literature Review:
According to Al-Jabi and Diab (2017), waste management is an important concept for
both all the metropolitan cities as this is one of the biggest barriers for the cities to become a
smart city. As per the author the main two factor which are creating the challenge are
increment in the urban area and another challenge is rapid growth in population. Thus in this
case for proper management of the wastages IoT is one of the emerging solution. Regarding
the IoT the author has identified that an initial investment is required for setting up the whole
IoT system. By implementation of this IoT system for the waste management system a large
amount of effort and money can be saved for the future cases (Al-Jabi and Diab 2017). In the
case of the developing countries this system is also appropriate as peoples of it will be
encouraged to use this type of advanced system. This waste management system will also be
capable of managing the cities in most appropriate way.
As per the Kinnaman (2017), in the past two decades the collection of wastages and
the disposal industry has gone under a vast changes. Regarding this changes, the first changes
has done in the process of landfilling. In this case now landfilling has been shifted to local
town landfilling to regional landfilling. The second change has been made regarding

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incineration for management of the residential solid wastages. As per the author, financially
the incineration has become more successful in the cases where the lands are scarce. The
authors has also identified that the attention of the publics has been raised regarding the
recycle process of the wastages dramatically over the time. In this aspects of the waste
management of economists has developed several of models for helping the policy makers to
choose efficient mix policy levers in the context of waste recycling activities (Kinnaman
2017). Various types of data is also leveraged by the economists for estimating the factors
which will be contributing in waste management and waste recycling processes.
According to the author Shrivastava, Mishra and Katiyar (2015), waste management
system has become a major concern for the countries that are in the developing stage. The
main threats which occurs due to the improper type of waste management system are the
health hazards, environmental damages and economic cascade. Thus in this aspects the
proper waste management system is required for mitigation of this type of situations. For
properly dealing with this type of situations the author has proposed geographical information
system and some other technological tools including GPS, RFID that is important for creation
of decision support tool for proper management of wastages (Shrivastava, Mishra and Katiyar
2015). Depending on the GIS technology here the author has compared various of GIS
models for proper management of the wastages. With that in this case the author has provided
a reformed waste management option which will be capable of boosting the process of waste
collection, monitoring of waste collection and management of green environment.
As per the authors Zeng et al. (2017), wastages are not only created due to daily
household works or for some industrial operations. Wastages are also created due to the
electrical goods which need to be recycled and this type of wastages are known as the e-
wastages. Like the other type of wastages e-wastages has also become a global problem due
to its potential risk of pollution to the environment. Thus in this aspects proper type of

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recycling process is required for this e-wastages. As per the author this recycling process will
help the society in two ways. First of all this will address the shortage issue of mineral
resources for electronic devices and secondly it will reduce the environment related
pollutions. To solve the problems regarding e-wastage in a systematic way more attention
need to be transfer to microscopic scales from macroscopic scales (Zeng et al. 2017). The
process of e-waste management need to be improved as various of toxic substances are
related with the recycling process of e-wastages. Thus for solving this problem in a
systematic way the author has stated that a proper technical system is required.
According to the author Eriksson, Strid and Hansson (2015), with the normal solid
wastages, the food wastage problem is also a big issue in this aspect which is having social
and environmental implication. In most of the cases this food waste management system has
gained less priority in the waste management hierarchy. Here the author has compared
different effects of greenhouse gas emission regarding different types of food waste
management scenarios. Regarding the solution of food wastages the author has presented six
types of waste management scenarios which are the landfilling, compositing, incineration,
donations, anaerobic digestion and animal feeding. Also the author has also proposed the
procedures of separation at the source for the differentiating of the wet wastages and dry
wastages for a better waste management system (Eriksson, Strid and Hansson 2015). In this
case the author has identified that landfill with the food wastage is the worst option in this
case. Instead of landfill anaerobic digestion, donation and incineration is the best option for
food wastage management. Also, bread related wastages can be steamed reducing the
emission of greenhouse gases as bread related products are energy rich in nature.
According to Tozlu, Özahi and Abuşoğlu (2016), municipal solid waste treatments are
capable of producing landfill gas and this can be considered as one of the most active source
of greenhouse gases and in this case mainly the methane is emitted. Thus in this case a proper

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waste treatment system is required so that this produced landfill gas can be utilised for
various of power production purposes. For creating energy from the waste products there are
various types of processes are available but here the author has identified that the most
efficient procedures for creating energy from the wastages are incineration process and the
land filling process as through this processes comparatively high amount of landfill gas can
be produced (Tozlu, Özahi and Abuşoğlu 2016). The main advantage of this type of process
is that waste can be managed easily and with that power also can be produced from those
wastages.
3.0 Case Study and Methods:
In this case the research has been done by considering both of the secondary and the
primary data. For performing this research data has been collected regarding waste collection,
disposal and storage of the wastages and transportation procedures of these collected
wastages. For assessing the current waste management practices in Dhaka primary data is
collected from the end of various classes of peoples who are permanent resident of Dhaka
City. Primary data is collected from the source by through some selected questionnaires
survey. Apart from the questionnaires primary data is also collected by assessing the process
of waste collection and the dumping area of wastages. Also some primary data is collected
directly from the Dhaka City Corporation. The secondary type of data is mainly collected
from many of the study reports and research paper. The assessed studies were mainly
focusing on domestic waste management system under the jurisdiction of Dhaka City
Corporation. The secondary data is analysed and from this analysis understanding of the
problems has been developed.

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4.0 Research Findings:
From the current research is has been founded that Dhaka City Corporation of Dhaka
is having several of problem regarding the process of waste management system of them. The
main reasons that has been identified as problem in waste management procedures of Dhaka
City Corporation are the low budget of waste management and lack of technologies for the
waste management (Matter et al. 2015). These two problems are the biggest problem in the
waste management procedures of the Dhaka City. Apart from this the other reasons behind
improper waste managements are improper knowledge among residents about waste
management, no separation at the source and inadequate type of landfilling process. Thus, it
has been identified that these problems need to be mitigated for successful management of
wastages of Dhaka City. From, the literature review section it has been identified that there
are various of procedures for perfect management of the wastages for each type of wastages.
Dhaka City Corporation need to leverage different types of waste management procedures for
different kind of wastages. The procedure of solid waste management is completely different
from the e-waste management system. With that, the corporation need to take some proactive
approach for creating awareness among the citizens of it about the concept of separation of
waste at the source. Thorough this approach management of the wastages will be quite easy
for the Dhaka City Corporation.
5.0 Conclusion and Future Research:
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the current waste management
system in the Dhaka City is quite improper and need to be rectified for a better waste
management system. The Dhaka City Corporation failed to offer desired level of waste
management services following the newest trends of waste management system in the urban
developed countries. As this increased amount of wastages can create a huge environmental
problem the Dhaka City Corporation need to find some effective way of managing the

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wastages. From this research it has been found that implementation of the IoT devices is one
of the essential solution for management of the wastages. With that it is very much important
for the Dhaka City Corporation to create awareness among the residencies of it for proper
waste management procedures. Considering the factor that Bangladesh is a developing
country the waste management procedures of Dhaka City Corporation can leverage the
energy creating procedures from wastages that is generated. So that this energy can be
utilised for the development purpose of the city and the nation.
The issue of waste management has been neglected several times in past but
considering the present situation it cannot be neglected anymore. In future extensive
researches are required regarding this for finding appropriate ways for mitigating the current
problems in wastage management procedures. Integrated studies are actually enveloping
manifold aspects waste management which includes generation of wastages, reasons for
improper waste management procedures has got few focus in the previous studies. This
research gap has been created for the present researchers to perform researches regarding this
issue.

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References:
Al-Jabi, M. and Diab, M., 2017, December. IoT-enabled citizen attractive waste management
system. In 2017 2nd International Conference on the Applications of Information Technology
in Developing Renewable Energy Processes & Systems (IT-DREPS) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
Eriksson, M., Strid, I. and Hansson, P.A., 2015. Carbon footprint of food waste management
options in the waste hierarchy–a Swedish case study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 93,
pp.115-125.
Kinnaman, T.C., 2017. The economics of residential solid waste management. Routledge.
Matter, A., Ahsan, M., Marbach, M. and Zurbrügg, C., 2015. Impacts of policy and market
incentives for solid waste recycling in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Waste management, 39, pp.321-
328.
Rhyner, C.R., Schwartz, L.J., Wenger, R.B. and Kohrell, M.G., 2017. Waste management
and resource recovery. CRC Press.
Shrivastava, P., Mishra, S. and Katiyar, S.K., 2015, December. A Review of Solid Waste
Management Techniques using GIS and Other Technologies. In 2015 International
Conference on Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks (CICN) (pp. 1456-
1459). IEEE.
Tozlu, A., Özahi, E. and Abuşoğlu, A., 2016. Waste to energy technologies for municipal
solid waste management in Gaziantep. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 54,
pp.809-815.
Zeng, X., Yang, C., Chiang, J.F. and Li, J., 2017. Innovating e-waste management: From
macroscopic to microscopic scales. Science of the Total Environment, 575, pp.1-5.