Introducing Integrated Solid Waste Management Approach in
Kathmandu City
University of Tsukuba SINGH Rajeev kumar *University of Tsukuba YABAR Helmut
University of Tsukuba HIGANO Yoshiro
University of Tsukuba MIZUNOYA Takeshi

Introduction
Kathmandu is the capital and the largest metropolitan city of Nepal. It is densely populated with
1,100,000 people in an area of 50.67(2009) and accounts for 20% of the urban population. (9)It isthe urban core of the Kathmandu Valley which consists of two sister cities namely Patan (Lalitpur),5 kilometers to its southeast and Bhaktapur, 14 kilometers to its east. Kathmandu is the gateway toNepal Tourism and is the nerve center of the country’s economy. It has the most advanced
infrastructure among urban areas in Nepal and accounted for 3.8% of the GDP in 1995-96. Due torapid population growth and urbanization there is a huge problem of waste in the city now. The
migration of people from other parts of the country to the capital city for better education, healthand job opportunities is high resulting in a rapid increase in the population in the city. Moreover,with the increase in population there is an associated increase in solid waste in the city.
Current Waste Generation and Collection System in Kathmandu city
Waste composition
The waste in Kathmandu city comprises a large amount of organic waste. This is the same situationin most of the developing countries. Paper and plastic also accounts for a considerable amount ofwaste in Kathmandu city. The rest of the waste consists of glass, rubber, leather, metal, textile, andconstruction and demolition waste. The characterization of waste for 2005 and 2009 can be seen in
the following figures. From the graphs we can see that there is huge potential for material recovery
for paper and plastic.

9%
1%
1%

6%

1%

1%

9%
5%

3%
9%

2%
0%

2%

4%
3%

11%

Organic

71%

63%

OthersOrganic

Plastic

LeatherInert Material

Paper
Glass

Glass

Construction &Demolition wastes
TextileMetal
TextileRubberRubber & Lether

Paper

MetalsPlastic

Figure 12: Waste Characterization in Kathmandu city in 2005(left) and 2009(right)
Source: Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office (KMC); Solid Waste Management Section(SWMS)
Waste collection
There are three ways of collection of waste from households in Kathmandu Metropolitan city andthey are:Primary collection - refers to individual households placing raw solid waste into their personal
refuse bins.
Secondary collection- refers to collection of waste from the refuse bins or primary sites to thetransfer station or the final disposable site.
Direct collection- refers to collection of solid waste from households by collection vehicles of solid
waste management organizations to final disposable siteWaste collection by KMC
Most of the waste in the city is collected by KMC but now there are many private organizations
involved in the collection of waste along with KMC. The number of private organizations workingin this sector has increased rapidly and is estimated to increase more in coming years. The tablebelow shows increasing waste collection and participation in the management of waste in
Kathmandu Metropolitan city. The data is old but still shows the increasing trend. As the number ofprivate organizations increases, the collection ratio by this sector also increases. There are 18 privateorganizations working for the management of solid waste in Kathmandu city up to the date (14)and the participation rate of private organization must has increased.
Currently there are also many NGOs, CBOs like Women Environmental Preservation Committee(WEPCO) and youth clubs involved in the collection of waste. According to KMC, 17 % ofgenerated waste was collected by Non-Government solid waste Management Organizations(NGSWMOs)
Landfill
The only landfill Sisdol landfill is located in ward 4 –Sisdole of Okharpauwa Village Development
Committee (VDC) in the Nuwakot district. The landfill was built considering the existing need forfinal disposal and it was planned to develop the site immediately as part of the Pilot Project with thetechnical support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and to operate for a shortterm period of 3 years to bridge the time till the development of long- term sanitary landfill. TheSisdol landfill was meant to last 3 years but its use was extended and being used till now. Due tooverload and increasing waste the landfill has turned into a dump site and the proposed sanitary
landfill called Bancharedanda is still under construction.
Harmful gases
Landfills are considered a hazardous air pollutant source under the Urban Air Toxic Strategy. Sisdol
landfill site also emits various pollutant gases into the environment like benzene, carbon

tetrachloride, methyl ethyl ketone, perchloroethylene, toluene, vinyl chloride and xylene. These
harmful gases have a huge impact on the health of people living around the landfill site.
Microorganisms and fungi
The total bacterial load in the ambient air of the landfill site during the monsoon ranges from 3,299
to 2, 2268 cfu per cubic meter whereas in winter season it ranges from 1,959 to 13,196 cfu per cubic
meter .Similarly, the total load bacterial load in the air samples taken from the nearby households
range from 6,237 to 28,299 cfu per cubic meter in the monsoon season while the value range from
10,309 to 1,13,866 cfu per cubic meter. The total fungi load in the household’s ambient air is also
very highMethodology
The study proposes an alternative scenarios to improve the current situation based on LCA.LCA isan analytical tool for the systematic evaluation of the environmental aspects of a product or service
systemthroughallstages

ofits

life

cycle(http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Consumption/StandardsandLabels/MeasuringSustainability/LifeCycleAssessment/tabid/101348/Default.aspx).The International Organization forStandardization (ISO),a world-wide federation of national standards bodies, has specified thisframework

withintheseries

ISO14040

onLCA.( http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Consumption/StandardsandLabels/MeasuringSustainability/LifeCycleAssessment/tabid/101348/Default.aspx)
Structured interviews
The interview was conducted with different government personnel from KMC, Solid Waste
Management Technical Support Center, and staff from the NGO`s (Small Earth Nepal, website link;
WEPCO, website). Moreover, local people were randomly selected in the KMC and also at thelandfill area of Sisdol for interviews in order to know the actual situation of the Kathmandu`smunicipal solid waste.
Data collection via NGOs and online sources
The research includes visits to various private organizations in Kathmandu city for the collection ofdata and relevant facts and information related to the waste in the city. The research also includes
study of different online databases, online journals and websites for gathering the relatedinformation.
Data analysis
The collected data was analyzed using integrated waste management approach in the modeling andfurther Life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts.

Scenarios
The Scenario design is based on current situation where almost all of the waste is landfilled and thepresent landfill has reached its capacity. We introduce 4 scenarios among which the 1st scenario isthe baseline scenario , 2nd scenario has a bit managed landfill and 2 other alternative scenarios
introduced have the potential of organic waste recovery through composting and bio-gasification.
We also highlight the environment and economic benefit of formalizing the informal recyclers inthe scenarios. Finally, we suggest that introduction of new sanitary landfill could drastically reduce
the greenhouse gas emission through the scenarios.
Results analysis
For the evaluation of the environment we used four indicators GWP, BOD, final disposal of waste,recovery of material and energy recovery.

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