waste-management-convention-2017-keynote

8 / 9

Volume 7, Issue 4 (Suppl) Int J Waste Resour
ISSN: 2252-5211 IJWR, an open access journal Waste Management Convention 2017
September 11-12, 2017
Page 29
Notes:
conferenceseries.com
September 11- 12, 2017 Singapore
5th World Convention on
Recycling and Waste Management
Contribution of the waste pickers of Dhaka city in recycling and waste management
Waste pickers of Dhaka City collect wastes from households, streets, dustbins, dump sites and sell those to the recycling
chain. It is a self-employment opportunity for the urban poor. According to an estimate of Grambangla Unnayan
Committee there are 400,000 waste pickers in Bangladesh. Dhaka, a city of around 18 million people and 360 km2 area
generates more than 10,000 tons of solid waste every day. The rate of per capita solid waste generation is 0.56 kg. About 15%
of the total generated waste is being recycled by the waste pickers. Government sources mentioned that only in Dhaka city,
120,000 poor people are engaged in recycling and reusing wastes and from that business, the country earns approximately
US$ 0.2 billion per year. Waste pickers also work with more than 12,000 push vans for collecting kitchen and other inorganic
wastes from the household level. Waste pickers’ efforts help create thousands of jobs in recycling industry and reduce the use of
virgin resources. Bangladesh earns millions of dollars from exporting recycled plastic bottles. Using plastic and rubber wastes
now more than 1000 factories are in production and creating jobs and saving national import expenses. Recycling and reusing
of garment factories' wastes created hundreds of new shops, factories and about 150,000 new jobs. Waste pickers contribute
free labor for waste collection, recycling and mitigation of climate change effects, but their contribution is invisible in official
statistics and they are excluded from the national social security system.
Biography
A K M Maksud has completed his MSS degree in Sociology from the University of Dhaka and is a student of LLB from the University of London. He has worked as
Team Leader for more than 50 social research studies for Government, UN agencies and International NGOs. For the last 19 years, he has been working as the
Chief Executive of Grambangla Unnayan Committee (GUC), a nationally reputed NGO.
A K MMaksud
Grambangla Unnayan Committee, Bangladesh
A K M Maksud, Int J Waste Resour 2017, 7:4 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2252-5211-C1-007