There are two schools of thought in waste management.
1. Arrive at a community and tell them how to manage their waste. Procure infrastructure and train people to run machinery. Follow a blueprint or a checklist. When it’s completed, hand everything over (great photo opportunity!) and move on to the next community.
OR
2. Listen to the community about their culture, their priorities and concerns. Co-design a waste management system that is affordable and easy to manage. Avoid unnecessary machinery and make sure all equipment is available locally. Take time, be supportive, help problem solve, build resilience and confidence.
We’ve witnessed both these approaches.
I understand why some corporate donors and international consultants like top-down.
😃 “It’s scalable.”
😃 “We’ve had enough small pilot projects, let’s do something BIG.”
But when a community doesn’t own its waste management system, when it’s been brought in by outsiders to fit an imaginary formula, the risks of failure are much bigger.
“Let’s do something big” introduces a huge risk to the community.
And when it goes wrong?
When spare machinery parts are stuck in customs for months, the leaking roof is causing electric shocks from the conveyor belts, the tricycles have broken down and there is a yard full of broken wheelie bins… then what?
The “top down” folk are long gone.
The community is left with a white elephant facility they can’t afford to run.
Local families have fallen out.
Trust is lost.
Back to square one (or -5).
I do understand why people want top-down to work.
Why they are fed up with small projects and want to do something big.
But the truth is, waste management is a local service, run by local people.
They need to own it.
To overcome the challenges and keep the momentum.
To recognise a job well done.
And be proud of what they’ve achieved.
No outsider can do that. It has to come from within.
Tired of supporting small projects?
Then support a replicable bottom-up approach.
Support community ownership.
Fund people solving their own problems.
It’s actually cheaper. It lasts longer.
And it’s more respectful, damnit.