ISWA / RDN / EXPRA Workshop
“Challenges to separate collection systems for different waste
streams - barriers and opportunities”
Key performance indicators of the
informal waste sector
Roland Ramusch
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Department Water - Atmosphere - Environment
Institute of Waste Management
Contents
• Informal waste sector: definitions and
activities
• The need for data
• Key performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Modernisation of waste management
systems: inclusive or competing systems?
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Definition „informal“
- “Without formal assignment, not official”
60 % of global labour force work under precarious
conditions
Informally employed:
1.8 billion
Employees with©working
contracts:
ABF-BOKU
1.2 billion
Source: OECD, 2009
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Definition „informal waste sector“
“Individuals or enterprises who
are involved in private sector
recycling and waste management
activities
which
are
not
sponsored, financed, recognised,
supported,
organised
or
acknowledged by the formal solid
waste authorities, or which
operate in violation of or in
competition
with
formal
authorities.”
Itinerant
Waste
Buyers
Doorstep
(household)
waste pickers
Street waste
picking
On route /
truck waste
pickers
Scheinberg et al. (2010)
Typical elements of a waste management system in low- or
middle income countries (Zurbrügg, 2003)
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Waste
picking
from dumps or
landfills.
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Activities in the informal waste sector
Credit: Kessler
Credit: BAN
Credit: Reuters / China Photo
Credit: ABF-BOKU
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Credit: ABF-BOKU
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Activities
Credit: ABF-BOKU
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Informal sector (IS) of scientific
interest?
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The need for data
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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• IS activities are well known in low-income countries and
transition countries (e.g. also known in Central and Eastern
Europe);
• Where formal sector has neither resources nor capabilities of
providing waste services in sufficient quality, the IS closes
the gap;
• IS usually keeps no records on its activities, therefore it is
difficult to estimate its potential contribution to waste
collection, processing and recycling services;
• Research at BOKU aims at providing KPIs that are suitable
for estimating IS contribution.
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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• KPIs can be used within initial appraisals of waste
management systems for…
• …estimation of informal sector size and contribution
to providing waste services;
• KPIs may be used for planning new or monitoring
of existing WM-systems.
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IS - KPIs
• Data obtained from an extensive literature review
(more than 100 journal papers, reports, studies, books
and policy papers etc.) => KPIs were compiled.
• KPIs were derived related to:
 Reported size of IS in different regions of the
world;
 Collected amounts per day;
 Income related information;
 Job creation potential.
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Size of informal waste sector
1 % = 10 per 1,000 inhabitants
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Source: Linzner & Lange, 2013
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Size of informal waste sector
Source: Linzner & Lange, 2013
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1 % = 10 per 1,000 inhabitants
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Size of informal waste sector
Informal waste sector in urban areas worldwide:
• ranging from approx. 0.5 % to 2 % of the population;
• This equals 12.5 to 56 million people (equivalent to the
populations of Cambodia and Italy, respectively);
• In the three largest countries where informal activities can be
observed (China, India and Brazil) the total estimated number
of informal workers extends to approx. 6 to 12 million people.
Source: Linzner & Lange, 2013
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Performance of informal waste sector
6 – 7 km / d
9 – 40 kg / d
6 – 10 km / d
200 kg / d
10 – 15 km / d
500 kg / d
20 – 25 km / d
25 - 60 kg / d
2,000 – 3,000 kg / d
=> Mainly depending on material
characteristics, topography etc.
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Photo credits: Left/up: EMPA, http://ewasteguide.info. Left/mid: http://www.inclusivecities.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/waste-pickers-march-7e1331048637286.jpg.
http://oem.bmj.com/content/62/10/736/F3.large.jpg.
Right/up: http://longleggedfly.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/dsc_0177.jpg
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Performance of informal waste sector
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Recycling rates
Recycling rates in
EU-countries,
e.g.:
- e.g. UK: approx.
30% (2005)
- Austria: approx.
50% (2006)
Agarwal et al. (2005); Hetz et al.(2011); Sembiring & Nitivattananon (2010); Sengh et al. (2011); Wilson et al (2009); Scheinberg (2011).
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Livelihoods – job generation
Re-use: 470
Recycling based manufacturers: 20 - 162
Sorting: 10
Final disposal: 1
Source: Linzner
& Lange, 2013: based on ILSR (1997) and UN-Habitat (2010)09/10/2014
data; Davis (2013)
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Livelihoods – income
Source: Linzner & Lange (2013)
 1 to 15 USD / day: incomes are often calculated based on material
prices and therefore are not reflecting net incomes but revenues.
 Per kg prices of collected materials may increase by a factor of 3 up
the recycling hierarchy.
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KPIs - shortcomings
• KPIs are based on extensive literature research and
are only indicative values.
• Calculations based on KPIs are therefore rough
estimates.
• Informal waste sector realities vary from region to
region; therefore estimates based on KPIs have to be
cross-checked.
• On-the-ground research is indispensable in order to
obtain “real life” data and information.
• It is not possible to evaluate informal activities from
the distance!
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Modernisation of waste management
systems: inclusive or competing systems?
• Most of the programmes to improve / modernise waste
mgmt. and / or to enhance recycling suggest that service
coverage levels and service levels need to be improved by
large-scale investments.
• In low-income countries and partly in transition countries
informal systems are providing considerable collection and
recycling rates but…
• …the informal stakeholders have a “non-governmental”
perspective about waste and different values attached to it.
• Waste is seen as opportunity, a valuable material which
could be collected, separated, traded and recycled for an
income.
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Modernisation of waste management
systems: inclusive or competing systems?
• This view may be similar to that held by large global
waste companies about the waste in high-income
countries.
• Informal activities are large-scale in terms of number of
income opportunities they may create and the number
of customers they reach.
• Informal stakeholders make their own investments and
have their own systems of technology development
and innovation.
• This situation may create parallel worlds in waste
policies and practice.
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Modernisation of waste management
systems: inclusive or competing systems?
• Main question: Use the knowledge and experience of the
existing systems where IS plays a key role or strive for
modernisation, excluding this knowledge, and focus more
on large-scale technologies?
• Inclusivity in planning and implementing means that both
informal and official systems are equally important and
could exist side by side, rather than one needing to be a
sub-set of the other.
• Care needs to be taken on how to design the interfaces
between these two systems, especially when they interact.
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Modernisation of waste management
systems: inclusive or competing systems?
• Conventional waste-related data and use of planning methods
could push out the informal systems, as these data sets are
designed for conventional planning of waste systems, with the
ultimate conclusion of more investment.
• Inclusive planning activities should consider extended data
sets on informal activities, such as reliability of systems,
quantities captured over time, quality of materials collected,
achievable prices etc.
• In some cases, maybe it will be necessary to shut down some
existing informal systems to create space for modern systems
and vice versa. Such closures have to be handled carefully, with
safeguards put in place through rehabilitation and substitution of
livelihood programmes.
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Modernisation of waste management
systems: inclusive or competing systems?
• When both systems operate side by side, a
monitoring of both systems is required to ensure that
both are contributing to the same goals, although
possibly through different pathways and approaches.
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References
1. Informal sector – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Linzner R and Lange U (2013). Role and size of informal sector in waste management – a
review. Proceedings of the ICE - Waste and Resource Management Volume 166: 15.
Linzner R, Pertl A, Scherhaufer S, Schmied E, Obersteiner G (2013). Parallel worlds Informal work in waste management. Österreichische Wasser- und Abfallwirtschaft, 65,
ISSN 0945-358X.
Linzner R, Salhofer S, Ali M (2013). Informal sector activities in waste management - a
parallel world or worth integrating? In: Cossu R, He P, Kjeldsen P, Matsufuji Y, Reinhart D,
Stegmann, R (Eds.) Sardinia 2013 - Fourteenth International Waste Management and
Landfill Symposium (30. September - 4. October 2013, S. Margherita di Pula - Cagliari,
Sardinia, Italy). Executive Summaries - symposium proceedings, CISA Environmental
Sanitary Engineering Centre. ISBN 978-88-6265-028-1.
Linzner R, Obersteiner G, (2012). Die unsichtbare Hand – Informelle Arbeit in der
Abfallwirtschaft. Zeitschrift „politische ökologie“ Nr. 129 – 2012, Rohstoffquelle Abfall - Wie
aus Müll Produkte von morgen werden, pp. 71-78. Verlag oekom. (Invisible hands –
informal work in waste management). Siehe auch: www.politische-oekologie.de. Politische
Ökologie, 129, 71-78; ISSN 0933-5722.
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Content
2. Estimation of IS performance in urban China and
Beijing
Linzner R and Salhofer S (2014). Municipal solid waste recycling and the significance of
informal sector in urban China. Waste Management and Research September 2014 (32):
896-907, first published on August 8, 2014.
3. Case study Haidian (Beijing) – “Invisible hands”
Publication in preparation.
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roland.ramusch@boku.ac.at
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Department Water - Atmosphere - Environment
Institute of Waste Management
abf@boku.ac.at, www.wau.boku.ac.at/abf.html
Tel.: +43 (0)1 318 99 00, Fax: +43 (0)1 318 99 00 350
Muthgasse 107/3rd floor, A-1190 Vienna