Pakistan Sustainability Network Creates Jobs Through Waste Management

Written by Kabir Arora / 27 April 2010 / Read Kabir Arora's latest blog entries.

The Pakistan Sustainability Network (PSN) has just kick started the “Clean Pakistan Campaign” with the help of Waste Busters in Green town Lahore. Green town is considered to be one of the most polluted areas in the locality, thanks to the trash.

The idea is to clean it up through empowering the community as well as promoting youth entrepreneurship and leadership. In this case, locals will be employed to run the program, collect trash and sell it to Waste Busters (a recycling company). This will provide jobs and empower the community to take responsibility for their trash.

Concept: What is the Clean Pakistan Campaign all about?

Clean Pakistan will be spearheaded by Ecopreneurs after getting trained in their respective areas. An Ecopreneur will be the person who would invest in the capital cost of the project i.e. purchasing of a Suzuki Pick Up and allied collection equipment such as hand carts etc. Total investment envisaged is approximately Rs. 3,00,000 – Rs. 5,00,000 depending upon the type of vehicle and number of equipments required.

Waste Busters shall assist and guarantee for the Ecopreneur to get this amount as loan from a Micro Finance Bank.

The Ecopreneur further will hire 10 Social Motivators from the same community and assign them 500 houses each. The Social Motivator shall go door to door in his/her assigned area and request the residents to join the Clean Pakistan campaign by signing up on a member ship form. The membership form shall be used to prepare a database of the community with number of residents living in each area. Each household will be requested to keep their garbage in a shopper and it will be collected daily from their door step by Sanitary Workers. Each Social Motivator will have 4 Sanitary Workers deputed with him from the City Government staff. The Social Motivators will have to convince each household to pay Rs. 40/Month as the service charges for collecting their waste daily. The Service Charges shall be collected by the Social Motivators at the end of each month so that the residents have confidence of getting the service they are paying for. The Social Motivators shall deposit the service charges collected with the Ecopreneur who has hired them.

Journey of waste collected: The waste collected daily will be transported to the Waste Busters recycling plant where it will be weighed using the weigh bridge and then sorted for recycling as compost and or RDF.

Some simple economics: The Waste Busters will pay Rs. 300/MT for the waste daily to the Ecopreneur for its transportation and collection costs. An average of 5kgs/house is generated daily. 5000 Houses would be generating 25 MT/day and 750 MT/Month. 

It’s a win-win situation for all Stake holders as there is Cash earned from Trash

Why win-win situation?

Service Charges Rs 40 * 5000 houses      = Rs. 2, 00,000

Waste Busters Rs. 300 * 750 MT/month   = Rs. 2, 25,000

Total Revenue Expected to be Earned per month    = Rs. 4, 25,000

Expenses:

Salary of Social Motivators 10,000 * 10     = Rs. 1, 00,000

Salary of Sanitary Staff    5,000 * 40     = Rs. 2, 00,000

Suzuki Pick Up Lease 20,000 * 1     = Rs.   20,000

Fuel, Oil, Maintenance 15,000 * 1     = Rs.   15,000

Publicity Material, Cable etc. 10,000 * 1     = Rs.   10,000

Misc. Overheads     5,000 * 1     = Rs.  5,000

Total Expenditure expected per month     = Rs. 350,000 

Net income of the Ecopreneur = Rs. 75,000

The Pakistan Sustainability Network is an emerging network of action-oriented people and groups who embrace and promote sustainability in all cross-sections of society. Their core belief is that all development areas – environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, healthcare, human rights, and economic opportunities – are different sides of a common pyramid and advocate highly interdisciplinary solutions.