Managing Waste Sustainably

1What is sustainable waste management?

Sustainable waste management means handling waste so that people and nature stay healthy today and in the future. The key idea is the waste hierarchy, a ladder of choices from the best to the last:

The higher up the ladder, the better for the environment. Following the hierarchy saves materials and energy, cuts pollution, and even creates jobs.

2How to make compost

1. Dig a pit or build a box in a shady place.
2. Add layers of "green" waste (fresh peels, vegetable leaves, fresh grass) and "brown" waste (dry leaves, straw, maize stalks).
3. Sprinkle a little soil or manure between the layers.
4. Keep it damp, but not soaking wet.
5. Turn it with a spade every two weeks, so air gets in.
6. After two or three months it is ready: dark, crumbly, and smelling like earth.

Do not add plastic, glass, metal, or meat and bones (bury those, because they attract flies and rats).

3The problems with dumping and burning

• Landfills take up land, smell bad, attract flies and rats, and can leak dirty liquid into underground water. Rotting waste in them also gives off gases that warm the planet.
• Burning waste in the open fills the air with smoke. Burning plastic gives off poisonous gases. Never burn plastic.
• Dumping waste in drains and rivers blocks water channels, causes floods and spreads diseases.

4Rules and monitoring

Good waste management also needs rules, and people to check them (monitoring):

• In 2008, Rwanda banned non-biodegradable plastic bags.
• In 2019, a new law banned single-use plastic items, such as many plastic carrier bags and plastic straws.
• Travellers' bags are checked at the borders and the airport, and people who break the law can be fined.
• Local leaders, REMA and cleaning companies organise waste collection, and umuganda keeps streets and drains clean.

Thanks to these efforts, Kigali is often described as one of the cleanest cities in Africa.

5What you can do

• Sort waste at home and at school.
• Carry a reusable bag, and say no to single-use plastic.
• Compost peels and leaves.
• Repair things before replacing them.
• Take batteries, medicines and e-waste to the right places.
• Join umuganda and school clean-up clubs.

Try it yourself

1. Put these in order from best to last: recycle, dispose, reduce, reuse.
2. Uwase makes a pencil holder from an empty tin. Is this reusing or recycling?
3. Name two things you must NOT put in a compost pit.
4. In which year did Rwanda ban non-biodegradable plastic bags?
5. Why is burning plastic dangerous?

Answers

1. Reduce, reuse, recycle, dispose.
2. Reusing, because the tin is used again as it is, without being melted down.
3. Any two of: plastic, glass, metal, meat, bones.
4. 2008.
5. It gives off poisonous gases that pollute the air and harm people's health.