September 11, 2003

An NGO with the right initiative for promoting recycling of garbage and plastic bags and creating innovative water purification techniques. Shazman Shariff shows the tremendous success of this impressive enterprise

Stinking and sprawling heaps of municipal garbage that deface Karachi can hardly be anybody’s idea of attractive surroundings. But startling statistics revealed by an environmental organization are likely to change one’s notion. If recycled, seemingly worthless tons of garbage can fetch a handsome amount of money.

The realization that garbage has an immense economic significance, and recycling should be based on scientific methods has enabled the NGO Gul Bahao to introduce a system of proper waste management in the metropolis.

Before taking the initiative, Nargis Latif, the driving force behind Gul Bahao, conducted an exhaustive research which included interaction with the municipal authorities, with people working on waste management, and a study of material available on garbage recycling in Karachi.

Gul Bahao was formally launched as an NGO in 1994 with an aim to solve the garbage problem. Latif began by raising money from the neighbourhood for a systematic collection of garbage, but found that this was not a viable solution to a highly complex problem.

People continued to heedlessly throw garbage on the roads or in vacant plots. The main problem was the removal of garbage dumps, for which the municipal authorities hardly made any concerted efforts. Huge dumps foul looking and odious would be left at the mercy of scavengers who raked through the lot to salvage some sellable items, and the rest would be set on fire.

However, there were some breakthroughs which proved to be a valuable boost for the NGO. After an extensive probe, Latif hit upon the fact that groups of people had turned trash into a source of thriving business. She discovered that municipal authorities had rented out certain garbage collection points to groups of individuals/scavengers for Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 a month, and hence the dumps remained intact. She couldn’t help but wonder how much the scavengers were making out of this arrangement? This led her to figuring out the monetary value of the garbage.

Eager to streamline the working of Gul Bahao, she took up academic work and gathered statistics, which proved to be far more encouraging than she had expected. She learnt how garbage could be turned into a revenue generating source by making it a fuel for the recycling industry. Letting profitable items turn into unmanageable heaps of filth was actually a great loss being incurred on the recycling industries.

According to Gul Bahao’s findings every day 7000 tons of mixed garbage is generated in the city; 17 per cent of the total garbage is paper i.e., 1000 tons. Waste paper is sold at Rs 4000 per ton which makes 40 lakhs daily. Similarly, waste plastic accounts for about 7 per cent of the total garbage which comes to 7000 tons; the value of waste plastic is between Rs 6000 to Rs 16000 per ton. All in all paper, plastic, metal, and glass had the capacity of raising about a crore rupees in a single day.

What led Latif to undertake this enormous task? She highlights how the smoke from burning garbage disturbed her, there were many times she could not open the windows of her room to let in some fresh air. “I changed three apartments and faced the same problem everywhere,” said she.

The environmentalist (she holds a university degree in botany), inside her had long been stimulated to do something about this problem as it posed a threat to the environment and to humans. Moreover, her plans were fortified when she experienced a close encounter with death on two occasions. “Luckily I was saved but was gripped with an urge to do something in the service of God and for human beings.”

Although she missed the much needed moral support of her immediate family, her guiding angels were her own aspiration. The extensive information she had gleaned prior to taking the plunge was an added bonus. She practically embarked on the project with the assistance of two Afghan boys, known as challi mazdoors. Her maiden step was to set up a stall at a weekly bazaar where she spoke to people about separating garbage as well as discuss the significance of recycling garbage. All she wanted was for people to give her their dry domestic garbage in return for hard cash.

Thus ‘Safai Kamai Bank’ or garbage and gold bank, the main thrust behind Gul Bahao, evolved. It was aimed at providing cheap, but good, clean raw material to factories, and provide natural fertilizer for agriculture and horticulture by collecting and processing wet garbage.

It also devised new business and employment opportunities, and hoped to end the concept of garbage dumps. The slogan ‘garbage is gold’ (kachra sona hai) was used to instill a concept that waste has its worth and its management is possible and essential for the environment and recycling industries.

The organization coined the term “Essential Encashable Goods” as a way people could refer to the garbage when they came to sell. “I myself bought only segregated dry waste, and sold it to the main kabaria market. In order to spread awareness I targeted school children and regularly went to various elite schools to collect dry garbage from kids who brought it from their homes,” said Latif.

Aside from the paucity of funds needed to run the organization, Latif found it difficult to make people realize how important it was to segregate garbage. It is estimated that 1,000 tons of recyclable paper is thrown into garbage dumps everyday. Once it is mixed with wet garbage it loses its value. It also incurs a loss to the local paper manufacturers, who have to import waste paper to make up for the loss. Gul Bahao’s innovative ideas have brought the NGO its share of success. A few years ago, when the organization was at its peak, its staff comprised of 80 people and its estimated monthly turnover was Rs 3.5 lakhs.

“There have been some setbacks which affected our working. We are still operating but with a smaller staff,” said Latif. At the moment the only Safai Kamai Bank is situated at Gulshan-e-Iqbal near Sindbad, on a vacant plot it has taken on a monthly rent. It has been a short while since Gul Bahao shifted to this venue after its camp at Safari Park, which was operating successfully, but was removed by the authorities. It had enough space to recycle wet garbage like vegetable peels and foods etc., to make natural fertilizer instant compost, thandi meethi khad, for horticulture, one of the projects of Gul Bahao.

According to an estimate about 4000 tons of wet garbage is thrown into dumps every day. Considering the fact that in the West, fruits and vegetables grown from natural fertilizers or organic waste material fetch more price, Gul Bahao had taken up wet garbage recycling. However, due to a lack of space, it is currently not working on this project for a short while.

“We have come up with third world solutions to first world problems. Waste management and recycling should be done scientifically. It is the law of nature and important for the environment,” said Latif, emphasizing the need to add new items to a list of things which can be recycled. This was done earlier in the case of plastic bags, which started to pose a threat to the environment because nothing was considered about their recycling.

Gul Bahao had flayed the ban on plastic bags on the grounds that they were important to city life and served as a good substitute to paper bags. To tackle the entailing environmental hazards of polythene bags, Gul Bahao came up with an innovative idea of making wastic blocks.

Lots of neat but used shopping bags collected from shops and households were stuffed inside a case of aluminum sheet to make standardized blocks of 5 and 10 kilos. According to the NGO, these blocks are weather proof, termite proof, portable, and strong. They are a good alternate to building material which can be used to make makeshift rooms, sofas, partitions, floorings, etc. A more innovative purpose of the blocks was discovered when a swimming pool was made using the material.

At its camp, a team of a dozen workers strive from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to process the dry garbage to the designated spots. The camp’s in-charge Shahid said that people in surrounding areas do come forward with their garbage, but he believes that the camp had more success when it was situated at Clifton. “People there are more educated and familiar with waste management, and are more cooperative towards us than the people belonging to less educated areas,” he said. The camp was also successful when it was situated on Kashmir Road.

Gul Bahao also has a mobile van which goes to shops and offices collecting items shopkeepers do not need. “There was a time when shopkeepers used to throw cardboard boxes and other useless items on the street, but since we asked them to give it to us in exchange for money, they now bargain with us for better rates,” Shahid said.

He also said that they send their van to anyone who calls up and wants to dispose of garbage. On average about 2 tons of garbage is collected daily at the camp, which is promptly sent to its destination. The camp and van accept glass, paper, wood, metal items, plastic, and anything which can be recycled.

Although, the recent rains have ruined the set up at the camp, one could still see the room made of wastic blocks. It is used to hold meetings with guests. It has withstood the rains and has thus strengthened the NGO’s claims about its durability.

Making headway in different directions, Gul Bahao was widely recognized for its water purification technique which used the ultra violet rays of the sun passed through un-boiled water kept in transparent plastic bottles. Named Paaki Pani, it got the recognition of WHO, which in its report said the technique could save thousands of lives of those who fall prey to diseases on account of polluted water. Latif who said she was a patient of diarrheoa recovered fast when she started using water purified this way.

In its effort to introduce environment friendly ways of recycling, Gul Bahao presented the idea of using sewage water of residential areas and vegetable waste to grow orchards and plants in the city. It has proposed that just like pipe lines of oil and gas are laid down from one country to another, the same can be done using sewage lines which could transport agriculture water or sewage water to distant fields to prevent its mixing with the fresh water supply. If it is used to grow green belts or farms it will control pollution considerably. As there are few public toilets in the city, and most people relieve themselves in the open, the NGO also came up with a cheap but effective way of using huge card board boxes as cubicles for the sake of privacy.

As a pioneer of innovative ideas to revive and expand the recycling industry in the city, Latif has added yet another accomplishment to her list of many. Recently Gul Bahao has been approached by a government hospital with a proposal to manage its waste. Hospital waste management would be one more feather in the organization’s cap, as it would greatly help to control the hazards associated with the tons of waste generated by the hospitals.

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