Sustaining voluntary recycling programmes in a country transitioning to an integrated solid waste management system

Many developing countries are transitioning to integrated solid waste management systems that will likely have a recycling component for making them sustainable. There are several approaches to recycling, one being waste separation at the household level. Such an approach relies critically on the willingness of households to engage in source-separation. Many studies on recycling have been based on self-reported information on the willingness of households to participate in recycling programmes, should they be established; only few studies have been able to test what these intentions are by actual measurements of participation. The type of measurement for gauging success should be able to compare achievements against alternative approaches. This study is of particular interest to transitioning countries because it reports on a recycling programme in a small community that, even though voluntary in nature, has so far been sustained for almost three years. Available data on the amount of recycled beverage containers retrieved over a six-month period was analysed to assess the performance of the programme. A survey of households was performed among the community to understand the factors that may be contributing to such longevity. It was found that a major driver is the internal motivation of most of the community households for caring and preserving the environment. This is a necessary but not sufficient requirement, for it is doubtful whether the programme could have been sustained without an effective education programme and a system to make the process of retrieval easy. The education programme importantly linked recycling as a solution to an environmental problem plaguing the community. Moreover, the improvement in the environmental quality once the programme started was positive feedback to their recycling efforts. However, the ease at which recycled items could have been deposited was found to be the most essential factor. Inasmuch as the quantity of retrievals was a measure of the continued interest in recycling, a reliable estimate of the achieved fraction of beverage waste retrieval rates could not have been obtained with the most recent national waste characterization information. The reasons for this are explained.