SOME things we throw away too quickly — food scraps, used plastic bottles, election promises. Others, like the waste problem in our cities, we’ve simply stopped seeing. Garbage piles have become part of the backdrop of urban life in Bangladesh. But here’s the truth we’ve overlooked for too long: most of that trash isn’t useless. We just treat it that way.
In the heart of Dhaka or on the outskirts of Tangail, waste is managed not by strategy, but by habit — and that habit is to dump it, burn it, or let it rot. There’s no real system, no coordination. Just garbage trucks dropping mixed waste in lowlands or near homes, hoping the next rain will take care of it. The numbers keep growing: Dhaka alone generates over 6,500 tonnes of waste each day. In seven years, that’s expected to rise to more than 8,000.
We like to talk about smart cities and digital Bangladesh, but we still haven’t figured out how to handle what we leave behind. Oddly enough, some of the hardest work is being done by those we rarely acknowledge, the ‘tokais’, the informal waste collectors. They pull recyclables from our trash with bare hands, without protective gear, often without even shoes. They sell what they can: bottles, glass, scrap. It’s their livelihood, and it’s also the closest thing we have to a functioning recycling system. But these workers operate entirely outside the law and policy. No safety, no recognition, no support.
Meanwhile, the authorities are stuck in a loop. When asked about waste management, municipalities blame limited budgets, not enough land for landfills, or uncooperative residents. That’s partly true, but it also avoids the bigger issue. We don’t treat waste as part of a larger system that includes health, the environment and even the economy.
Take organic waste. In many Bangladeshi cities, around 70 per cent of the waste is biodegradable. That could easily be turned into compost, reducing the need for expensive chemical fertilisers and even helping local farmers increase yields. But it’s hard to compost something that’s been mixed with batteries, polythene, and broken glass. A few small composting projects exist, mostly run by NGOs or international donors, but they rarely last beyond the funding period. It’s not because composting doesn’t work, it’s because no one’s connecting the dots between waste and agriculture, between pollution and food security.
Even when we look abroad, we seem to miss the point. Officials like to cite Germany’s success with their deposit return system — 98 per cent of beverage containers are returned and recycled — but we forget what made that work: strict enforcement, clear policy and strong public buy-in. Without those things, even the best idea on paper won’t survive in practice.
Back home, there’s no real incentive to separate waste. People toss everything into one bin, if they use a bin at all. Garbage is garbage. The notion that waste can have value — that it can be part of a circular economy — is still unfamiliar to most. And let’s be honest, the state hasn’t done much to change that mindset.
But there are ways forward. None of them are magic fixes, but each one chips away at the chaos. Start with mandatory waste segregation at source. It sounds complicated, it isn’t. Two bins instead of one. Organic in one, everything else in the other. Make it standard in schools and government offices first. People will follow if leadership leads.
Train and recognise the informal waste workers. Bring them into the system. Give them gloves, ID cards, a support network. The goal shouldn’t be to erase the informal system but to elevate it. They’re doing work the city isn’t.
Waste management is tied to climate, public health, job creation and food systems. It’s not about sweeping roads during city beautification drives. It’s about building a city that knows what to do with what it no longer needs. The youth in this country are already taking initiative. From campus clean-up drives to plastic bans in hostels, small acts of resistance are growing. But these need to be more than symbolic gestures. They need backing from policymakers, media and city planners.
At a time when Bangladesh is talking about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, improving waste management should be central. It directly supports SDG 11 on sustainable cities, SDG 12 on responsible consumption, and even SDG 13 on climate action. But slogans won’t sort our garbage. Systems will.
Nusrat Amin Turna studies environmental science and resource management at the Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University.
