Analysis of barriers to development in landfill communities using interpretive structural modeling
Introduction
With an increasing standard of living around the world in recent decades, the production of waste and its’ management have evolved in tandem with increases in consumption. Although formal waste management structures exist, many communities in developing regions have developed large informal sector processes for handling municipal solid waste, providing an “important survival strategy for poor populations through the developing world” (Medina, 2000). As defined and described by Ahmed and Ali (2004) and Wilson, Velis, & Cheeseman (2006), informal sector economic activities are typically transient, small scale (individuals or families), poorly capitalized, existing outside of law and/or regulations as well as “labor-intensive, low-technology, low-paid, unrecorded and unregulated work.” Informal sector waste management, performed by very poor individual waste pickers with few skills or other resources fits these definitions well (Samson, 2008, Ul Haq, Hiller, Nahol, Shams, & Smith, 2009).
The informal waste management sector can be categorized into three rough categories: waste buyers, waste pickers, and waste dealers; working in parallel with the informal sector are usually a formal waste collection and disposal system and a larger wholesale recycling industry (Rouse, 2006; Wilson et al., 2006). Fig. 1 depicts these components and their relationships. Note that some recycling activity often takes place directly between the formal waste management sector and the recycling industry. The people engaged in waste picking usually live in extreme poverty and are easily exploited. Scavenging occurs at roughly three different levels. First, waste buyers collect waste directly from the source. This often includes collecting waste from households either pre-sorted or for immediate sorting. Waste collected and sorted at this level is of the highest quality and hence has the highest value in the reclamation chain.
At the next level, waste pickers scavenge recyclable materials from waste bins, trucks, and from the streets. This waste is more contaminated and higher quality materials have most likely been extracted. As a result, materials scavenged at this level are of only intermediate value and presents health and safety hazards to the pickers. Note that recyclable materials can be reclaimed through the formal sector at this level as well. At the lowest levels, waste pickers scavenge recyclable materials at waste dump sites. At this level the waste is of the poorest quality and lowest value, containing mostly decomposing organics. This paper will focus on communities living at this level in the informal sector.
Conditions in scavenger communities located at waste disposal sites are appalling. As Rouse (2006) describes one such site, the community is made up of “mostly poor rural migrants who have gravitated towards urban areas seeking work. Their waste storing and recycling work, which involves burning waste, is now responsible for serious environmental degradation and poor waste management.” Since dump sites receive waste that has been heavily picked over by other scavengers, the landfill communities must sift through organic waste in an advanced state of decomposition to recover low value recyclables. To free these materials and minimize odors, the waste pickers burn the waste and sift through the smoldering ash. Already living in extreme conditions and poverty, the people must manage a network of payoffs and corruption, and they have few skills or resources from which to improve their situation (Rouse, 2006).
Considering the appalling living and working conditions at unregulated waste disposal sites and the waste’s resource potential, many international aid agencies have directed their attention on reducing poverty and improving living conditions for these landfill communities. Fahmi and Sutton (2006) analyze an intervention involving the Cairo’s Zabaleen community of waste pickers. Samson (2008) uses the case of study of landfill sites in South Africa to study the interaction between the scavenger community, local governments, waste management firms and the NGOs. These case analyses demonstrated that any organization endeavoring to improve conditions at landfill sites will face challenges and barriers including strong outside interests, extreme poverty, government opposition, and cultural differences.
To help define and understand these and other barriers a review of the literature was conducted to isolate specific barriers related to interventions into landfill communities. These barriers were then analyzed for a case study aid organization using Interpretive Structural Modeling to better understand their interactions and to provide an ordered, directional framework for the landfill-barrier system. The modeled results help visualize the case organization’s barrier system and identify the case’s most influential, resource intensive, and/or priority barriers.
Section snippets
ISM tool for understanding and managing barriers
Considering the variety and complexity of barriers and challenges facing aid organizations working with informal waste picking communities in landfills in underdeveloped regions, it would be extremely useful to identify tools to help understand and manage these barriers. One such tool, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), provides an ordered, directional framework for complex problems, and gives decision makers a realistic picture of their situation and the variables involved (Wang, Wang, &
The case study
While many case studies exist exploring barriers in Mexico (Miraftab, 1997), India (Kudva, 1996), and Indonesia (Walker, 1996) among others, ISM-based case studies from the aid organization perspective are limited. As a test case for the ISM process’ application to aid work associated with informal sector waste management, this paper analyzes the barriers facing a new US based and student-led, aspiring non-profit organization working to develop a more stable and efficient source of income for
Barriers to successful aid group intervention
The first step in the ISM methodology is to identify the key elements involved in the system being analyzed. This could include actions, objectives, barriers, challenges, etc. In this case, barriers to successful aid implementation in developing nations are being analyzed. A variety of barriers and limitations exist for organizations planning to bring development projects to underdeveloped areas. The aid organization studied in this case faces at least twelve barriers to its goals. These
Defining contextual relationships and reachability matrices
The next three steps in the ISM process involve the definition of relationships between barriers into a structural self-integration matrix (SSIM) and the development of reachability matrices. Defining pair-wise contextual relationships among the barriers provides the basis for the ISM analysis. In this case, the relationships were defined based on consensus that emerged from expert opinions and interviews, group discussions, and experience with the organization. For the purpose of providing an
MICMAC analysis, matrix partitioning, and diagram formation
The final steps of the ISM analysis involve a) an Impact Matrix Cross-Reference Multiplication Applied to a Classification (MICMAC) and b) the partitioning of the reachability matrix into distinct levels, forming of a visual representation of the barrier system.
MICMAC analysis was first formulated by Duperrin and Godet (1973) for analyzing the influence and dependence of model elements (the Table 2 reachability matrix) by plotting each element’s dependence versus its driving power as determined
Model results
The final results for the system influence diagram and the MICMAC analysis can be found in Fig. 3, Fig. 4 respectively. It should be noted that literature review on ISM strongly suggests that the influence model diagram depicted in Fig. 3 should not be viewed as a rigid flowchart type diagram (Lendaris, 1980, Malone, 1975). The diagram is not to be interpreted to mean that once the barrier at the base of the diagram is addressed then the aid organization can simply move on to the next barrier
Discussion and conclusions
The ISM model conclusions have important managerial implications for aid organizations involved with landfill communities and can serve as guide for developing and implementing intervention strategies. The model output diagram, paired with the MICMAC analysis barrier categorization, can assist aid agencies as they allocate limited resources within a complex barrier system. The ISM system diagram allows decision makers visualize the barriers they face through a systems approach, condensing a
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the assistance and contributions of our case aid organization and the students of the Spring 2010 Energy Planning Studio at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy at Rutgers University.
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