Eco-Communities in Bolivias Major Cities Matthias Nabholz, Benjamin Lang Swisscontact Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation Abstract

t The economic potential of recyclable waste materials is high in countries like Bolivia. Swisscontact and its partners implement well-structured collection systems at the community level, improve sales opportunities, organize collection campaigns and educate local communities about waste separation. The goal is to generate income, create employment and reduce the urgent problem of waste management in major cities. With the income from the sale of the recyclable materials, the so-called Eco-Communities pay the waste pickers and co-finance small projects to improve the environment and quality of life of their neighborhood. Based on a broad citizen participation, the project launches a fundamental system change that generates new jobs in the field of recycling, minimizes health risks by appropriately handling waste, reduces environmental pollution and contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases as well as to the recovery of raw materials. Keywords: Eco-Communities, Green Jobs, Urban Waste Management 1 Introduction

Bolivia generates approximately 3,530 tons of solid waste per day, 86% in urban areas. This daily amount of rubbish is a mayor challenge in the growing urban centers. Waste creates a host of hygienic and environmental hazards. The lack of professional treatment and final disposal are big challenges for local municipalities. The existing landfills have already reached their capacity limits. Suitable locations for new landfills are practically non-existent in urban surroundings. In fact, less than half of this huge amount of solid waste should not go to landfills in the first place. Sixty percent of the solid waste is organic material, which creates due to the anaerobic conditions in landfills methane (CH4), a strong greenhouse gas with a high global warming potential. The organic part of the waste would ideally be used to produce compost or energy through biogas. Twenty percent of Distribution of solid waste in Bolivia (2007) the solid waste consists of recyclable materials like plastic products, paper or carton, glass and metals. These materials could easily be segregated and directly sold to the local collecting and recycling industry. Ten percent of the solid waste is toxic and, therefore, hazardous for public health and the environment. With appropriate handling and separation, most parts of this dangerous kind of waste could be recycled and sold without any negative health or environmental impact. The economic potential of solid waste is enormous, particularly in countries such as Bolivia where families are struggling to survive because of low wages and a high level of

unemployment. Even with the price of raw materials dropping heavily as a consequence of the global economic crisis, an informal, barely organized sector of waste pickers is establishing itself in the cities: people who are searching the garbage and collecting all kinds of material to sell. One person has to work about ten hours to earn one dollar. Waste pickers are exposed to health risks and work in undignified conditions. Their families live in extreme poverty and social isolation. Waste pickers tend to lack any linkages to market players along the waste value chain. 2 Project description

The project goal is to establish and strengthen systems for solid waste collection, treatment, and recycling and environmental services through a systemic intervention in urban areas of Bolivia, especially in local communities. The project will leverage the existing economic potential of solid waste. It will alleviate poverty at an individual level by creating jobs, improving working conditions, contributing to regular and stable incomes above the minimum salary for people working in the waste collection sector and creating value added through an adequate treatment process for recyclable materials. Additionally, the project will contribute to a higher life quality at the community level, thanks to a cleaner and healthier environment, through the implementation of small ecological projects. The target groups are poorly educated poor people, mostly women and their children, who are working in the informal sector collecting recyclable materials (waste pickers), or employees of small collection centers as well as small environmental services businesses (green jobs) in the field of recycling, energy efficiency, reforestation, water or clean air. New recycling legislation and regulations, recently implemented at the national and municipal level, will support the entire process. The project will closely Waste pickers in the city of Cochabamba collaborate with local municipalities, in particular with the municipal entities for waste collection. Currently, many ideas exist to improve waste management at the public and private level. But very few actors are actually implementing effective projects. Swisscontact is one of them. Based on a broad citizen participation, the project launches a fundamental system change that generates jobs in the field of recycling, energy efficiency, reforestation, water and clean air, minimizes health risks with an adequate handling of recyclable materials, reduces environmental pollution and contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases as well as to the recovery of raw materials (conservation of natural resources). 3 Institutional set-up

To date, only an insignificant part of the recyclable materials is separated and collected, mainly by the Foundation for Recycling FUNDARE, which is financed by contributions from the private sector. FUNDAREs mission is to promote recycling through education, awareness building and concrete activities, in order to reduce environmental impact and generate dignified jobs. Active household participation is still scarce, due to a lack of citizens awareness in general and lack of well structured handling processes and incentives. As a

result, the recycling industry in Bolivia barely exists and consequently, there are no incentives for the system actors. The project will cooperate directly with the urban communities, which represent the lowest political unit of a municipality. In Bolivia, most communities are well organized, quite active and dynamic, and therefore seem to be able to promote new behaviors. Communities consist of about 200 to 15,000 citizens from diverse social backgrounds who receive money from the government to finance initiatives that address local needs. The so called Eco-Communities in coordination with the municipal authorities and in collaboration with local waste pickers will implement a well-structured collection system for different kinds of recyclable materials, find or create selling opportunities and organize collection campaigns in their area. With the income from the sale of the recyclable materials, the communities will pay the waste pickers and co-finance other environmental services in their neighborhood. Services depend on local needs and may include reforestation, improving the infrastructure for bike riders, and drinking water analysis. The project will also implement awareness-building campaigns, promote green jobs in the Eco-Communities and create and strengthen small businesses of adequate waste treatment. A first pilot study with ten Eco-Communities in Cochabamba (central Bolivia) has demonstrated that this kind of intervention meets with a lot of interest and leads to a higher impact in terms of outreach and cost effectiveness compared to selective activities of the foundations for recycling. 4 Intervention strategy

The project will intervene at four levels: Awareness building efforts include broad campaigns to sensitize and educate the project partners and especially all residents at an urban community level. In addition to local environmental institutions, an important partner in this process will be FUNDARE, which was created in a former project phase. Technical advisors who work for local authorities will support the process. The aim is to reach at least 160,000 households in 400 EcoCommunities in four years. Local collection systems for different kinds of recyclable materials will be set up in cooperation with the Eco-Communities. Based on a small-standardized analysis, the collection system will be established by involving waste pickers and a local collection center. The waste picker, equipped with professional working tools, will collect the recyclable material according to a scheduled route and bring it to the local collection center, which will be equipped and trained to handle the materials adequately. The collection center will pay the correspondent price directly to the Eco-Community. With the monthly earnings, the Eco-Community will first remunerate the waste picker(s); surplus money will be spent for other green jobs or environmental services inside the community due to local demand. In the planned 400 Eco-Communities one official job as waste picker per 1,000 citizens shall be created (about two jobs per Eco-Community), one small collection center per two Eco-Communities (200 collection centers) trained and supported, and the waste quantity entering to the landfill shall be reduced in a significant manner due to a collection rate for recyclable materials. By promoting green jobs and treatment centers for different kind of waste, the number of green jobs will increase in the field of energy efficiency, reforestation, water and clean air as

specialized offers for the Eco-Communities. On the other hand, the new treatment centres for different kind of waste production of compost, treatment of electronic waste will guarantee an adequate handling and generate added value to the recyclable material. Existing know-how from other parts in the world shall be brought to Bolivia and will facilitate, together with local Universities or consultancies, specific know-how for recycling processes in Bolivia. Four specialized centers for the handling of electronic waste and twelve centers producing compost will be established, four partners per green item strengthened and six studies facilitated, to innovate the recycling processes in Bolivia. The project will also co-finance simple but specific technologies, in order to generate added value to recyclable materials (e.g. pellets out of PET) in Bolivia. Institutional strengthening will fortify the projects institutional partners. A main task will be to accompany the consolidation of the existing Foundation for Recycling FUNDARE, which still needs some financial and advisory support to continue with its mission. Additionally, the project will support the authorities in developing and applying new regulations, norms and standards. 5 Budget and duration

CHF 2,000,000 (about $2 M) for four years (2009 2012)

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