Moving from scavenging dangerous refuse heaps . . . to recycling trash into treasures. Urban waste disposal is an enormous problem – waste often piles up faster than cities can remove it. Changemakers.net celebrates a pair of social entrepreneurs in Bangladesh who are tackling the problem by creating a decentralized network of community-based composting plants.
(Beginning March 16 we will begin another series of 20 descriptions of systemic change involving the Vincentian Family.) Photgraphic essay
Urban planners A.H.Md. Maqsood Sinha and Iftekhar Enayetullah belong to the school of thought that “considers waste as an economic resource from which marketable products can be delivered.” They have developed composting plants, as well as barrel-type composting for slums and squatter settlements, that are financially viable, reduce the amount of waste, cut costs, and save on landfill area. Besides generating revenue and employment, they provide a source of environmentally friendly bio-fertilizer for the agricultural sector that can reduce the extensive use of harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Finally, but perhaps most important, communities are cleaner and healthier as a result.
See another photographic essay on this theme:Â “Rising from the Ash Heap – Trash Collectors Asserting Their Humanity “
Tags: Anti-poverty strategies, Featured
