In some parts of Africa, for example, the vendor cleans his or her stall at the end of the market day, putting the waste into a nearby receptacle and sweeping the dust and small debris into a pile in the walkway next to the stall. Municipal or contracted street sweepers then clean and wash the common areas of the market, empty all receptacles in the market, and place the collected wastes into receptacles located just outside the market. These receptacles are then emptied by the municipal or contracted collection service for transportation to the disposal site. Since street sweeping is a public function, even in residential areas, sound practice will always entail some involvement of the municipal authorities. However, there may be a need for more direct accountability than the municipal government can provide.
Some cities encourage or allow decentralized modes of payment.
This occurs particularly in places where residents believe that this is the only way to ensure service. For example, in some cities in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal a share of the salaries designated for municipal workers in an area is paid by the community directly to the sweepers, an arrangement which represents an institutionalization of earlier informal agreements. There are also cases where residents have financed construction of communal bins and street sweeping in their neighborhood. Often a disproportionate amount of funds is spent on meticulous sweeping of prestigious areas and commercial centers, while basic collection and street sweeping is neglected for the poorer ones. Sound practice involves an equitable commitment of resources, since the health of the city may depend as much or more on the cleanliness of poor areas as it does on the cleanliness of wealthy ones.