Urban organic waste management in Karachi, Pakistan

Inadequate collection and disposal of waste poses a serious health risk to the population and is an obvious cause of environmental degradation in most cities of the developing world. Mixed municipal solid waste is dumped either indiscriminately in the neighbourhood or, if collected by a waste collection service, disposed of in uncontrolled dumpsites. The organic fraction of this waste, often contributing to more than 50% of the total waste amount, threatens the health of residents as the indiscriminate waste dumps attract rodents and other disease carrying vectors. Organic waste is also responsible for pollution of soil and water bodies through leachate, and in the process of uncontrolled anaerobic degradation it contributes to global warming by the production of methane. A possible step in mitigating these detrimental effects is enhancing resourcerecovering activities of the organic waste fraction. An obvious treatment and recovery option for organic waste is composting. However, before strategies can be developed on how to proceed, it is necessary to understand the existing organic waste management practices and try to assess current and potential markets for the converted organic waste.