Gender and Waste Nexus: Experiences from Bhutan, Mongolia and Nepal

This segment focuses on the formalwaste management level implemented by the private sector. GRID-Arendal will carry out semi-structured interviews with 2–3 waste management operators. The analysis of formal waste management requires the preparation and gathering of background information on public and private partnership agreements and the responsibilities of the private sector, as well as its biggest companies. GRID-Arendal will rely on the partner organizations to provide existing background resources and data sets, to the extent they are available.

This segment focuses on the informal waste management sector. GRID-Arendal will carry out field survey observations, and, if possible, 2–3 interviews with men and women who participate in the informal waste sector (in landfills, informal collection, informal recycling facilities). The analysis of informal waste management requires the preparation and gathering of background information on how the informal sector is organized in the focus country. The field teamwill rely heavily on the in-country partner to identify suitable activities, individuals and groups to observe and interview, using snowball-sampling and network-based sampling.

At the informal waste management level – interview script provided in Table 4.

Table 1. Semi-structured interview questions for householders

Background questions for this interviewwill include: • Number of persons currently and ‘usually’ in the household

• Age/sex distribution of people in the household • Jobs (paid and unpaid, type/sector/industry); • Is it usually or episodically a female-headed household? (i.e. is the husband away for significant amounts of time)

Leading questions

Reasoning for the questions

Waste generation

What kind of waste does your household generate? Do different members of your household produce different kinds/amounts of waste? Are there any different views of waste among your family members?

Awareness of waste components, including potential gender- differentiated views of waste itself. Perception about the amounts of waste generated. Awareness of hazardous waste (e-waste). Potential gender- differentiated purchasing practices (e.g. women may be more concerned with the wrapping/packaging of items being purchased, since they are usually responsible for managing household waste).

Do you think that you (and/or your household) generates small or big amounts of waste?

What is the single largest or most common component of your household waste (e.g. plastic, food waste, textile waste)? Is it different from person to person within the household? When you think of the community (not your own household), what is the largest component of waste? What do you think is the most difficult waste to handle effectively? Are you concerned about hazardous waste in your household or in your community? What kind of hazardous waste is it and why is it brought into the household/community?

In your household, who generates the most waste? Why does that person produce more waste than others?

Does your household do any formal or informal recycling? Who takes primary responsibility for managing the recycling?

Do you/your household make any money from recycling?

Gender and waste nexus

91