City-Level Decoupling-Case Studies

CITY-LEVEL DECOUPLING: URBAN RESOURCE FLOWS AND THE GOVERNANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSITIONS

for economically productive activities. Based on estimates of per capita waste generation, peels contributed between 11 and 25 t of waste per day in the pilot neighbourhood. These peels can be recycled to recover nutrients that can be utilized for a number of productive activities by communities. Designed as a three-year ‘learning by doing' initiative, the involvement of the community was crucial to the research. This later proved to be even more important in driving innovation. With a high-density urban community characterized by a mix of predominantly poor social groups and haphazard expansion of neighbourhoods, the provision of waste collection services by the Kampala city council represents a challenge. As its population grows, higher aggregate consumption levels are resulting in increased quantities of biomass passing through the city as residential, commercial, industrial and institutional establishments make use of food and other natural products from its hinterlands. Despite longstanding micro-scale activities to re-use and recycle organic wastes, the value of the resulting waste streams has thus far not been seriously considered in the city’s approach to waste management. 90 The conventional Solid Waste Management (SWM) ‘model' designed around formalized city infrastructure and services has largely negated informal settlements, worsening living conditions and creating ecological challenges. This is because the SWM model is not designed to cater for wastes in neighbourhoods with limited or no supporting infrastructure. 91 The pilot neighbourhood was largely residential, so the main challenge was dealing with domestic organic wastes including peelings, banana leaves and food remains from its 15,000 households. Approaches to managing solid wastes varied from open space dumping, compost sites and indiscriminate dumping around the neighbourhood to paid services by private waste collection firms. Through a series of meetings with the community, it was established that some innovative households had started transforming their organic wastes into productive materials such as compost, energy briquettes and feed for livestock. Recycling peels was identified as a practical means of enhancing ecological resilience with social and economic co-benefits in the form of job creation, new revenue streams and improved social cohesion. Where conventional waste management systems aim to collect, transport and dispose of waste biomass, the innovative use of peels for livestock feed has helped to reduce indiscriminate dumping of waste in poor neighbourhoods. As part of a Sustainable Neighbourhood in Focus pilot project, organized collection and processing systems were set up to convert peels to feed. Households have started separating the peels from other domestic waste and either sell or donate them to a collecting group of KARAMADEG. The collected peels are then spread out on any available surface (including rooftops) to dry in the sun, after which they are milled for poultry feed sometimes mixed with maize bran. Since its inception in February 2008, collected peels have increased from 3 to 40 tons per month. The weight ratio of raw peelings to dry peels is 6:1, with a yield value of 151.51 kg of feed per ton of peelings. This attracts an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Shillings (approximately 6 to 8 US Dollars) per 100 kg bag. Combining dried peels with maize bran enriches its starch component by 25%, and reduces the cost of feeds by 36%. It is estimated that the separation of peels reduces neighbourhood waste volumes by over 40%, with clear economic savings for the municipal authority. Even if they are not dried, peels can be fed directly to livestock to create integrated waste-livestock-crop systems that circulate nutrients within the city when supported by urban agriculture. This innovation offers

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