Organic waste management and recycling in developing countries

The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the importance of organic waste recycling in developing countries. Special attention is given to biogas production and composting and to stud their feasibility in those particular circumstances. The case study has been undertaken in Bangladesh with the support of different organizations to complete this part of work. Field study has been done mainly in the capital Dhaka and a northern city Rangpur as examples. So, the major outcome of this thesis is with respect to Bangladesh. In developing world major portion of municipal waste is organic like food waste and found unrecovered. Until now a large part of municipal waste remains without collection and the collected waste is dumped at uncontrolled areas, which causes serious impacts on urban infrastructure and human health. In Bangladesh biogasification is expanding by utilizing mainly cattle manure, but the municipal waste should also he recycled. In the rural area biogas is popular for cooking and sometimes to electricity production. Larger plants have been found absent, which should he constructed from the government side. Composting technique is applied in smaller scale units in the city of Dhaka and in some other cities, but is not yet widely introduced. Composting of organic waste is more favourable than land filling, and the compost and solid residue from biogasification can he utilized as fertilizer. Future organic waste handling options have been evaluated based on greenhouse gas emissions. The results show that largest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can he achieved with biogasification combined with electricity production or by using biogas as vehicle fuel. Vehicle fuel use of biogas has also been found viable for developing countries due to economical reasons and environmental friendliness