July 09, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 23, 1428

Dr Atif Riaz, Dr Adnan Younis & Atiq Raza

RECYCLING is a widely recognised concept in solid waste management. It is the process of recovering and reusing waste products from household use, manufacturing, agriculture, and industries, thereby reducing the burden on environment.

Recycling can turn the wasted resources that end up on street corners into a valuable commodity to boost agricultural production and fertility of soil. It helps in providing new jobs, developing new skills and contributing to community projects and social cohesion.

Recycling can also reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and incineration. There are numerous reasons of recycling, including cost saving, extended landfill span, resource conservation, energy conservation, economic development, pollution prevention and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years environmental benefits of recycling have become a major component of waste management programme.

The horticulture industry is an intensive user of energy and materials, producing significant levels of waste as well. It exerts pressure on resources and the environment through water usage, fertilisers and pesticides. The use of recycled organic material in the horticulture industry has the potential to reduce its reliance on environmentally harmful inputs. The pressure on land and other natural resources increases sharply as populations and living standards grow. Integrated farming, which maximises food production, optimises land use and minimises environmental pollution, is a concept which has become an imperative for developing countries like Pakistan with limited natural resources but unlimited demands.

The two major inputs for agriculture and horticultural production are water and soil, whereas reclamation and reuse of a variety of treated wastewaters for production of food crops has been practised the world over for more than 50 years. In modern world reclaimed water is already being used in developed countries for irrigating a range of food and fodder crops.

In Pakistan many horticultural regions are well positioned to use recycled water as safe, secure and sustainable water source, helping to alleviate pressure on traditional surface and ground water sources. Recycled water can be used for just about anything, as long as it is treated to a level to make it fit for the purpose, from a health and environmental perspective.

On the other side modern agricultural techniques have depleted organic carbon levels in soil. Organic carbon in the soil enables soil biota to flourish, assisting the processes of nutrient flow, water and nutrient retention. Agronomists suggest that soils become markedly less stable when carbon level is reduced, contributing to soil erosion, salinity and high levels of sodium.

The problem of carbon depletion is worse in soils subject to intensive agriculture and horticulture. Tonnes of organic carbon could be made available for soil improvement in agriculture annually from recycled organic material. Returning this material to agricultural soils could significantly improve them and all these efforts to apply recycled organic material can result in water savings in excess of 25 per cent, reduce chemical and fertiliser inputs, reduce run-off and consequent soil erosion and waterway pollution, and increase plant vitality.At present there are only very few firms in Pakistan recycling wastes and producing manure and fertilisers, and it is need of the time to develop the waste recycling industry to meet the requirements of horticultural industry and agriculture. But before taking any step further it is necessary to identify issues affecting the industry and assist in improving industry cohesion and its capacity to deliver products to those areas where it can exert the most beneficial environmental influence. At the moment, there is a range of impediments restraining the industry from developing to the point where it is able to deal effectively with organic wastes at the national level. These impediments are:

•Poor market development and consumer awareness for recycled organic products, leading to low prices of products and minimal profit margins, discouraging market entry.

•Lack of industry cohesion leading to low rates of technology transfer.

•Lack of suitable and uniform products and process standards leading to consumer suspicion and lack of product definition.

•Poor training of processing staff resulting in environmentally undesirable processing practices and poor products.

•Inappropriate transportation of recycled organic material to those areas where it can do the most good.

•Lack of research funding to assist the industry to maximise recycling of waste organic material profitably.

•Development of national competency standards and accredited training programmes for the recycled organics industry, to ensure that training packages developed for the industry meet industry requirements.

Under this situation, the government should kick start this industry and pursue development agencies to establish certain organic waste management projects, including “a model for a small city”, to establish an organic waste recycling operation which will offer employment to indigenous people, and assist in the use of recovered and processed solid waste in horticulture and gardening particularly in the arid zone along with trialling of on farm composting of municipal and commercial organics as an environmentally and socially acceptable and sustainable resource recovery scheme for both suburban and rural communities.

It is the demand of the time to start research and developmental projects and schemes to use recycled water in urban environments and help coordinate reclamation and reuse of urban wastewater (recycled water) in horticulture. It will provide and facilitate the transfer of knowledge within the recycling waste industry, ensuring an environmentally sustainable recycling waste industry developed in Pakistan which will be accepted by all people here.