Sustainable solid waste management toward an inclusive society: Integration of the informal sector

Waste is a subjective notion. Some see waste as a risk to public health and the environment, some see it as a mere aesthetic inconvenience, and others see it as a source of income. In the informal recycling sector, there is no question that waste is perceived as a resource. In Bandung, Indonesia, at least one in every 1000 people works in the informal sector, which includes recycling activities by scavengers or waste pickers in the street, in temporary storage sites, and at dump sites. Scavenging is always associated with risk, unhygienic environments, criminal activities, homelessness, unemployment, poverty, and backwardness. These associations tend to perpetuate discrimination against the informal recycling and, in turn, lead to exclusionary policies regarding the informal recycling in solid waste management (SWM). This paper discusses the role of informal recycling in SWM in Bandung, Indonesia, by using the material flow method. This study estimates at least 303 metric tons of refuse are collected by the informal recycling out of a total of 2295 metric tons of garbage generated each day in the city. This study also uses a questionnaire to investigate how local municipal officers and politicians perceive the role of the informal recycling. This paper further shows that despite the positive aspects that the informal recycling brings to SWM in Bandung, there are also negative consequences. It highlights the dilemma faced by decision makers while trying to include the informal recycling in the SWM toward inclusive society. Improved efficiency in waste collection may lead to unemployment of scavengers and waste pickers who belong to the poor strata of society, whereas issues on inclusive society force municipalities to fight against social exclusion. The normative theory of social exclusion and the concept of capital forms were used to address the dilemmas faced by decision makers in this sector. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.