Assessing the Formal and Informal Waste Recycling Business Processes through a Stakeholders Lens in Pakistan

Abstract

With this study, we aim to assess integration possibilities of formal and informal waste management approaches in a low-income country context by using recycling as a tool towards sustainability. Using a holistic approach, this study examines both formal and informal aspects of recycling value chains through a stakeholder lens. Pakistan is far from being a circular economy, as evident from the dismal levels of municipal solid waste collection and recycling. This problem calls for the effective integration of formal and informal recycling business processes to fill the void. With this study, we seek to assess various aspects of formal and informal waste recycling in Pakistan through an inductive qualitative research design by examining the case of one of the most populous cities, Lahore, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Equal representation to various stakeholders is accorded, with 25 interviews each with managers of private companies, public companies, waste pickers and scrap dealers in the target area. The study highlights that recycling sector in Pakistan is completely informal and unregulated with no or little support available due to a lack of funds and systematic planning. The empirical evidence suggests that the formal sector lacks the capacity for proper waste disposal of total waste generated. The recycling aspects are left to informal sector stakeholders who improvise to extract value from MSW in an entrepreneurial manner. The formal sector holds a bias towards informal stakeholders due to the fact that their work also serves as a theft bargain and resale platform under the guise of waste collection and recycling. The study highlights the most and least sought after recyclables, identifies gray channel markets of spare parts, metal recycling and counterfeit products, and practices of adulteration in the target area. This study recommends as a policy input, to overcome bias towards the informal sector, the creation of a central recycling commission to overlook and regulate the affairs of hitherto unregulated and informal municipal solid waste and recycling value chains.

Consumer Willingness to Recycle The Wasted Batteries of Electric Vehicles in the Era of Circular Economy

“…Future research might also look into how the variables described in this article influence consumers' decisions to use official or informal recycling routes. Electric waste [93][94][95][96][97][98][99], home and municipal solid trash [89,98,100,101], and plastic garbage [102,103] have all been extensively explored. However, scant research has differentiated between official and informal recycling pathways for WBEVs [4,20,[104][105][106].…”

Waste as Resource for Pakistan: An Innovative Business Model of Regenerative Circular Economy to Integrate Municipal Solid Waste Management Sector

“…The implication is that the recycling business model has the potential from the perspective of the MSW management sector to be carried out across Pakistan. The country's projected population is 232 million in 2023, generating 99,776 metric tons of waste per day by taking a 0.43 kg/c/d average waste generation rate [68]. The component-wise quantity of household MSW generation per day is depicted in Figure 14a.…”

Conceptualising an ethno‐mimetic model for effective buildings' end‐of‐life waste management: A Nigerian exemplar

“…Scholars like Kala and Bolia (2022), Nawaz et al (2021) and Darbi et al (2018) opined that, there is a growing agreement among all interested parties and experts that, in order to enhance strategies for managing waste and resources in developing countries, the informal sector generally should not and indeed cannot be neglected. Additionally, it has been claimed that these unofficial systems may employ up to 0.5% of the population, achieve a recycling rate of 20%–30%, and save local governments 20% of their waste management budget because of their market‐driven nature (Velis et al, 2012).…”

“…However, the central and eastern European nations coexist with the two systems (Velis et al, 2012). The 'informal' participants in the system, work either as organised cooperatives or as lone actors offering door-to-door collection services and occasionally removing goods from public landfills, transfer stations, and trash bins (Kariuki et al, 2019;Medina, 2007Medina, , 2008Nawaz et al, 2021). These unofficial participants occasionally pay taxes, have the ability, and are occasionally registered with the government.…”