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2.3 Recycling- & MSW systems
Much and more has been discussed in the literature about Municipal Solid Waste Management, or MSWM. More specifically, recycling has been discussed widely, from a vast number of perspectives too. Many of these involve the consumer end of recycling;
mostly how to use policy tools to motivate consumers to recycle or which attitudes and motivations support consumer recycling. This is less relevant here, however, as this thesis does not focus on the consumer aspects of recycling so much as the organizations behind recycling.
A study by Baud et al. (2001) observed different MSWM systems in developing countries and partnerships; specifically, in Chennai (India), Manila (Philippines) and Lima (Peru).
They firstly use a classification by an earlier study of the involved actors, which are the public sector, the private sector, the small-scale informal private sector and local communities and their representatives (Community Based Organizations, CBOs). (by Baud and Schenk 1994; as cited in Baud et al. 2001) They evaluate the partnerships between different groups of actors in terms of sustainable development, socio-economic equality and public health; they derive their criteria from different literature sources.
Table 1 Goals of MSWM for sustainability - Source: Baud et al. (2001)
Ecological sustainability 1. Minimal household waste production
2. Maximization of material re-use and recycling 3. Controlled disposal of remaining waste
Socio- economic legitimacy 4. Good co-ordination within the SWM sector
5. Financially viability for both consumers and local governments 6. Provision of employment with a living wage and job security
Public health
7. Attention to health and safety aspects
8. Greater effectiveness in terms of a healthy and clean urban environment
9. Legitimacy in the eyes of consumers and actors
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Figure a - Informal recycling hierarchy - Source: Wilson et al..
[2006)
Several of their results may be relevant to this study. They found that local authorities strongly prefer controllability and accountability, and thus are more likely to cooperate with large-scale enterprises. Informal, small-scale actors are in the cases studied most often integrated into the MSWM systems by NGOs and CBOs, resulting in benefits on all three of the identified relevant types of goals. They thus plead for a more inclusive approach to also incorporate relationships with smaller, informal actors, so that local authorities may aim to work also with these parties.
Wilson et al. (2006), too, plead for an integration of the informal waste sector into developing countries’ MSWM systems, while diving deeper into the informal sector.
Their study initiates by defining the informal sector as “characterized by small-scale, labour-intensive, largely unregulated and unregistered, low-technology manufacturing or provision of services.” (Wilson et al. 2006). They too identify an unwillingness of the formal sector to cooperate with the informal sector; they even go further by stating that the formal, mostly public sector often regards the informal sector as impossible to cooperate with and unhygienic.
They identify a number of different types of informal recycling: a) itinerant waste collectors, who collect from households; b) street waste picking, who recover materials from the streets and bins;
c) municipal waste collectors, who recover materials from collection/transportation vehicles and d) scavengers who recover
recyclables from dumps. The more organized any of these are, the authors assert, the better-protected from exploitation they usually are. The different ‘layers’ or actors of the informal sector recycling chain identified are depicted in Figure a.
Subsequently, they adapt a list of activities from several sources from the literature that occur in a recycling sector in general, not only in the informal sector. These activities are
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Table 2 Ways of adding value. - Source: Wilson et al. (2006)
Extracting and adding value
processes
Explanation and comments
Collection Identification and picking of items or collecting mixed waste allows the sector to acquire the waste and turn it into a resource. Most primary materials recovered from refuse, such as paper, plastics, rags, metal, glass, and food leftovers, constitute a commodity as they all have a market price
Sorting Main process that increases the value of the waste recovered. The deeper the sorting differentiation, the higher the value of waste. For instance, if plastic is grouped into one major category, its value is lower than when it is further separated into sub-categories of hard and soft, then HDPE, PET, LDPE, etc. Sorting according to color, size, shape and potential use or re-use of the materials so as to meet the end-users quality specifications.
Accumulation of volume
Additional volume adds value: larger volumes command higher per-unit prices. The greater the quantity, the better bargaining power the trader has. For small quantities, transactions costs, such as checking quality, arranging transport and paying the seller, reduce the profit margin. Industrial feed stocks are massive in volume. It follows that storage space is required
Pre-processing For instance: washing, changing in shape-cutting, granulating, compacting, baling Small
manufacturing craftsmanship
Creation of micro-enterprises that use the special skills of informal recyclers to transform recyclates into articles traded directly to the community and being affordable by the poor Market
intelligence
Proximity to markets where informal recyclers and traders conduct business allows for the flow of information which allows decisions to be made on accurate market prices, competitors, trading partners, etc
Trading In informal or formal markets. Links to the secondary materials network are crucial.
Traders should be financially capable to add and conserve value of recyclates. Difference between buying and selling should also provide buffer against risk
The authors explore the socio-economic aspects of incorporating an informal recycling sector. In the first, the authors point out a mutually beneficial relationship between
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informal recycling systems and developing societies: they clean up waste, while providing jobs for vulnerable groups and capitalizing on a low-income, labor-intensive environment. The authors point out that where Western countries have abolished their informal sectors, they have subsequently struggled to achieve recycling rates of when their informal sectors were in place.
The authors point out public policy has largely been negative towards the informal sector.
This is either by repressing, neglecting, or colluding. However, they also point out, at the time of writing their article, there was already a turnaround occurring in which informal sectors received increased legitimacy and cooperative stances. Nevertheless, stances towards the informal sector are, even in those countries where legitimacy is somewhat increased, negative in majority.
Both Wilson et al. (2006) and Baud et al. (2001) analyze recycling in developing countries. That would on first sight be a step away from the topic of study in this thesis.
However, upon closer observation, it becomes clear that they provide invaluable input to this thesis, for three reasons. Firstly, they form a small body of literature that explicitly considers NGOs and the informal sector as a possible part of a recycling system and thus are related to the topic considered here. Secondly, they argue for systems similar to that in Taiwan, in which the informal sector is cooperating with the formal sector, rather than following the Western example of eradicating the informal sector completely. That makes a study such as the one proposed here key: Taiwan’s system and the integration of Tzu Chi as an NGO could provide highly valuable lessons to countries that are currently developing their MSWM systems. Thirdly and finally, related to the previous argument, Taiwan’s general economy developed more rapidly and recently than most Western developed economies, which are more widely considered as examples in MSWM literature; yet, this places Taiwan as a whole closer to economies that are developing today, as economy and waste processing seem to be linked from earlier studies by Okumura et al. (2014) and Vujić et al. (2015).
Two publications that are also highly related to the topic of this thesis were written regarding religious organizations in the recycling sector. These include Mohamad et al.
(2012a) and Mohamad et al. (2012b); both publications focus on Malaysia, a country
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where less than 1% falls under the label of agnosticism or atheism. These studies are related to the one in this thesis due to the religious values of the Tzu Chi Foundation;
moreover, they (however implicitly) focus on incentives, too.
The main question asked by Mohamad et al. (2012a) regards which motivations can increase effective community participation to recycling, which they underline is crucial in terms of 1) sorting at the community level and 2) recovery of high quality recyclables.
The authors, as the previous paragraph suggests, focus on answering this question looking at successful recycling programs by religious communities, suggesting harnessing the values of the religions of Malaysia’s largely religious society. ‘Successful’
here is defined as the organization having established long-lasting operations after a number of stages outlined in Table 3. It becomes quite clear that Tzu Chi in Taiwan has already long reached the status of successful following this definition:
Table 3 Successfulness of recycling programs. - Source: Mohamed et al. (2012a)
1. Knowledge: Member of religious community knows about recycling and gains understanding about it.
Hig h er lev el of ad o p tio n
2. Persuasion: Members of religious community actively seek for more information about recycling, and forms favorable attitude towards it.
3. Decision to adopt: Members of religious community consider adopting recycling activities after consciously weighing its advantages/disadvantages.
4. Implementation: Members of religious community have experimented with recycling activities either in a short-term or ad-hoc manner.
5. Confirmation: Members of the religious community conduct the recycling activity in a more continuous manner and try to improve the activities overtime.
The theoretical lens they apply is a framework named the “Technological Transitions Framework”, developed by Geels (2002). The framework explains sustainable
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development as something that is initiated locally in- and between ‘niches’. This subsequently spreads through a ‘network of regimes’, a larger collection of ‘niches’. As this then becomes regular in the regime, it jumps over to other regimes, finally impacting the larger landscape.
Specifically interesting in the study by Mohamed et al (2012a) is the role that the Tzu Chi Foundation plays. In Malaysia, they run one of the most successful recycling programs in the country (Mohamed et al. 2012a; Mohamed et al. 2012b). The volunteers in Malaysia operate largely on their own, but cooperate with local municipalities in Malaysia and receive support from the liaison office in Taipei and trainings from other Tzu Chi branches, the authors of Mohamed (2012a) point out.
Mohamed et al. (2012b) provides extensive insights in the common success factors of the studied religious recycling programs. Firstly, they point out, all of the programs studied are highly systematic in collecting, segregating and subsequently selling the recyclables.
Secondly, the religious groupings all execute their recycling in the long-term, with eye for improvement. This, however, was already suggested in their criterion for the organization to be ‘successful’, and selected for both studies, as discussed above. A further point of critique is that neither seem to explain why religious groups in this case would perform better than others.
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3 Methodology
This chapter will further dig out the main aim and research methods that will be used for the proposed thesis. The research will look at the NGO in the recycling sector will be looked at in terms of the incentives that surround it. A secondary aim is to learn more about the theory surrounding institutions and incentives, and the dynamics between incentives; the expectation is that specifically, motivation crowding effects will be observed. These are likely to play between monetary incentives, and the incentives as a result of the NGO’s ideals- as a result, monetary incentives may undermine or come to overrule intrinsic motivations at the organizational level. If these, however, are not found, it would be interesting to see how both incentives coexist and synergize to align actors.
Clear from the beginning was that recycling done by the Tzu Chi Foundation, and its interaction with the rest of the institutions in the recycling system, would be used to answer the above question. This makes Tzu Chi in the Taiwanese recycling sector a case study; the literature analyzed in the previous chapter has made clear that there is not yet any research done related to this question. Tzu Chi’s large-scale presence along the recycling chain seems an oddity for NGOs. Whereas the Tzu Chi Foundation is by no means the only recycling-related NGO, or even the only NGO engaging in recycling activities, the scale of their operations is- as far as the author is aware- unique, and may provide beautiful learning opportunities.
This chapter will therefore start by building a framework for further analysis, based on the literature. Secondly, case data will be considered in terms of types, collection methods and analysis. Thirdly, this chapter will discuss what contributions this thesis will aim to make to the existing literature. Finally, a last brief subchapter will discuss early insights and a brief collection of expected results.