4.1. Waste Generation and Composition
In 2015, the total amount of all waste registered at all three landfill sites was 969.1 thousand tonnes (
Figure 4 showing all the waste categories) arriving at NEDS, TsDDS and MDDS with the proportions 47%, 36.8% and 16.2%, respectively. MSW waste includes waste from household (apartment and
ger) and streets and public spaces that accounts for 53.9% of total waste registered at weighbridges. MSW generation of UB city is 1.12 kg per capita per day (408.82 kg per capita per year). This number should be considered as the minimum, since recyclables are extracted in the stages prior to disposal. More information about the recycling process is included in
Section 4.4 on resource management. The waste generation amount exceeds the threshold of 1kg per capita per day, making UB a “higher waste generating” city [
16].
Mongolia is considered a lower-middle-income country, however, according to JICA’s study [
31,
32], UB’s household waste composition had qualities of countries from all income levels (
Figure 5). For instance, UB has only about 33.7% organic fraction, which is similar to high-income countries. The amount of paper (7.7%) and metals (2.1%) were comparable to lower-income countries. The percentage of plastic (14%) waste was in the higher range compared to all other income countries’ waste composition. The percentage of bottles and glass (29%) was significantly higher than the rest. This could be explained by the amount of consumption of products that come in glass jars and bottles, however this should be further investigated for clarity. The percentage of recyclables including paper, plastic, metal, bottles and glass accounted for approximately half (52.8%) of the total waste amount. In this survey, ash from stoves in the
ger area was excluded. In the wintertime, the amount of ash in the
ger areas increases to an amount equal to the total waste generation from both apartment and
ger areas combined.
4.2. Public Health (Waste Collection)
Waste collection service is the primary requirement for eliminating the negative impact of waste on public health. According to the PSD, about 85% of the total waste generated is being captured by the SWM system. However, this needs to be further investigated based on detailed, reliable data and quality research. Nonetheless, based on field observations, there are open dumps that are not being cleared: the amount of illegally dumped waste registered at weighbridges accounts for only 1.2% of total incoming waste amount (see
Figure 4), which implies the amount of waste that is still not being captured by the SWM system could be significant and posing threat to the public health directly and through contamination of the surrounding environment.
In terms of residential waste, the waste collection method and frequency differ in both areas of ger and apartment. In apartment areas, households dispose their garbage in waste collection containers, whereas in ger areas the waste collection is primarily on a door-to-door basis. For this reason, there are more waste collection points/containers in apartment residential areas compared to ger district areas. There is medium incidence of accumulated waste around collection points/container (see score for 1C.1). In some of the central apartment areas where there are no waste collection containers, the waste is gathered in front of the apartments or along the road.
Waste collection frequency in apartment and
ger areas is 1–2 times a week and 1–2 times a month, respectively. Due to the characteristics of
ger areas (horizontally spread and poor infrastructure), waste collection is costlier and more labor and time intensive. Waste collection was about once a month in some of the
ger areas, which was changed to twice or more in recent years, especially since the launch of the “model
khoroo” project [
35]. The Asia Foundation’s “model
khoroo” project was directed to improving waste management in
ger areas. One of the outcomes of the project was to create a set waste collection schedule (as it was vague and not being followed) with a frequency of twice a month, which became the mandatory requirement for
TUKs. However, the renewed schedule system is still being adopted by districts and
khoroos, and needs more effort on its actual implementation. According to a public inspector of Sukhbaatar district, the difference between waste collection frequencies of 1 and 2 is very evident. Therefore, a minimum frequency of twice a month should be uniformly attained by all
ger districts’ waste collection services (as this could impact the open dumping) before considering other factors such as seasonal, economical and sanitary etc.
However, the situation in low-income districts especially in the marginal areas is still very critical with high incidence rates of accumulated waste, illegal dumps and open burning (hence the score for 1C.3). According to the PSD, 90–95% of households in UB receive waste collection service, excluding some marginal areas that are difficult to access due to steep and narrow roads. Those households dispose their garbage in their surrounding environment (i.e., drains and watercourses). However, this number should be subject to further investigation.
TUKs, the waste collection companies collect waste from households whether they have paid the waste service fees. Collection of waste service fee was previously collected by
TUK in the
ger areas, however this is no longer the case. Each
TUK makes contractual agreement directly with the districts, and is paid based on their performance (
Section 4.5 describes financial aspects and other governance features in more details). Waste collection and disposal is monitored by auditor NGOs and through documents including the driver’s record stamped by the dispatcher at the weighbridge, the
kheseg leader’s record and finally the
khoroo governor’s confirmation of the work performance.
TUKs are also obligated to invest 2% of the contract fees for training of their workers and educating citizens regarding waste related issues (see score for 1C.5). Thus far, the
TUKs have made brochures, pamphlets and educational comics and distributed to the households of their corresponding districts. This work could be more impactful, if further coordinated with municipal scale programs in a systematic way.
There are no waste transfer stations; waste is directly transported to the disposal sites. As for waste collection trucks, there are both open and contained types. Most of the vehicles require human labor, especially during winter for the handling of ash from the ger areas (see score for 1C.4). At the time of the fieldwork, there were 18 TUKs with 274 trucks (seven of which are private TUKs with 91 trucks), operating on the premises of six central districts. A certain number of the trucks have a GPS system installed for monitoring their location, and speed; with sensors installed for fuel expenditure. According to the field survey, due to financial difficulties, one of the biggest remaining challenges is upgrading the vehicles and the machinery.
In terms of the health and safety of collection workers and street cleaning staff, most of the TUKs provide annual health-checks, boots, gloves, overalls and high visibility vests. The work is labour intensive and working conditions are harsh especially in the winter (see score for 1C.6).
In recent years, the municipality of UB made an effort focused intensively on street cleaning in the city centre, main roads and popular places where people gather (see score for 1C.2). Ulaanbaatar Public Utility Agency (UBPUA) is in charge of the city’s public area cleaning (including dams, drainage and sewage sludge), operating a total of 25 trucks. According to the 2014 report by PSD, the salary for street cleaners at UBPUA was increased by 20% (average salary is 600–750 thousand tugriks (US $306–382)) and drivers by 11.13% (600 thousand tugriks (US $306)) and waste collectors by 19.7% (567 thousand tugriks (US $289)), while the total number of workers per job category was increased by 63% (total 604 street cleaners), 7.5% (288 drivers) and 4.3% (416 waste collectors) compared to the numbers of 2013 [US $1 = 1960 MNT (2015)].
The benchmark indicators for Public Health were scored based on the points discussed above and a summary of the evaluation for the benchmark indicators and their comprising variables is shown in
Table 1. The quantitative indicator scores are 92.5% (average of PSD’s reported number) for waste collection coverage (1.1) and 85% (1.2) for waste captured by the SWM system. Consequently, the score for the qualitative indicator (1C) is 50%.
4.3. Environmental Control (Waste Treatment and Disposal)
It was found that 100% of waste which is captured by the system is destined for treatment or disposal in the three controlled disposal sites. Out of the three sites, NEDS, is the most advanced landfill site, an engineered facility that was constructed by JICA, whereas the other two sites are controlled facilities (see score for 2E.2). It has adequate vehicular access to the site with paved roads and is better in terms of overall security. However, all the sites can be accessed easily. All the sites have weighbridges and keep records of all the incoming waste statistics, including incoming waste volumes, weights and categories. Other properties such as waste composition, waste moisture, density etc., have not been researched. Waste is unloaded under supervision of a site staff. There are waste pickers in each disposal site that collect recyclables for a living. They account for most of the fires set at the landfill sites, especially during winter for heating purposes (see score for 2E.1).
No Environmental Impact Assessment was done at these sites, except for NEDS and MDDS in the initial stages. Only NEDS has some type of leachate and landfill gas management. The sites are not operating to their full capacity in terms of environmental controls (see score for 2E.3). The aforementioned points are summarized in
Table 2.
UBPUA oversees the operations of each disposal site. There have been significant improvements made in terms of some technical aspects; however, the sites are not managed according to high standards. The frontline operational staff lack technical training. Moreover, due to financial difficulties, the broken vehicles and machineries at the sites are not upgraded, routinely maintained or repaired (see score for 2E.5).
Currently, there are no waste-to-energy facilities in UB. However, a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) facility was constructed with the assistance of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The site was not approved by the state inspection agency after its construction, and currently operates as a sorting facility of apartment area waste.
The staff is provided with boots, gloves, overalls, and high visibility vests. Some types of safe operating procedures are in place and enforced. However, there have been no health checks or inoculations for the workers at these disposal sites. No effort has been made to consider the conditions of workers who are operating heavy machinery or work directly on the landfill sites under hazardous working conditions (hence the variable 2E.6 was scored low).
The evaluation for the benchmark indicators and their comprising variables for Environmental Control are shown in
Table 3. The qualitative indicator (2E) received a score of 50%.
4.4. Resource Management
In order to give general understanding and visual representation of UB’s waste flow, an MFD was calculated and constructed (see
Figure 6). According to JICA studies [
24], recycling activities were identified at three stages, discharge, collection and disposal, and recycling rates were estimated. The provided estimates were applied on the 2015 weighbridge data (
Figure 4).
Calculation:
- ■
Recycling amount
at discharge (F5, F6 in
Figure 6): According to JICA’s waste generation study, 9% of generated waste from apartment (26.5 g/person/day out of 294 g/person/day—extrapolated averages of summer and winter seasons) and 9.3% from
ger areas (18 g/person/day out of 192 g/person/day, ash excluded) were extracted and sent to the recyclables’ market. (The ratio of ash to general waste from
ger area was 69% to 31%, respectively).
- ■
Recycling amount at collection (F12): 1.3% of apartment and commercial waste, and 2% of ger area waste (ash excluded) was extracted by waste collection workers and entered the recyclables’ stream.
- ■
Recycling amount at disposal (F13): 1.15% of incoming waste to the landfill was being extracted by waste pickers and went into the recyclables’ market (1.3% in winter and 1% in summer).
Consequently, the waste generation amount and recyclables’ stream were calculated based on the above information. The recyclables are processed and recycled domestically (F15) or exported to China (F16). Other waste (F11) includes: industrial waste, hospital waste, secondary raw materials and waste from summer houses.
Based on the constructed MFD, 45,632 tonnes of recyclables, accounting for 5.5% of MSW and commercial waste, are extracted from the waste stream through the informal recycling sector and should be considered as the minimum recycling rate due to using recycling estimates of 2010–2011 [
24]. According to unofficial sources, the recycling sector, namely the Mongolian National Recycling Association (MNRA), claims that the amount can go up to 30%. However, the data on informal recycling sector are quite rare and unreliable; there is no clear evidence for it. Therefore, more focus should be directed to researching recycling activities.
Recyclables are recovered at several points: by watchmen, apartment owners’ union workers, waste pickers and residents during discharge; MSW collection workers during the collection process; and by waste pickers during the disposal process and flow into recyclables’ market, which is mainly handled by the informal recycling sector.
Between 0 and 1% of recyclables are clean source-separated materials; all recycling is extracted from mixed wastes (see score for 3R.1). Currently, there are no widespread programs for waste separation at source. Citizens feel discouraged to separate waste due to mixed collection and the lack of recycling facilities. There is little or no separation of organic materials, except for the feeding of dogs with leftover food which is quite a common practice (see score for 3R.2). Ash is separated at source in winter in
ger areas due to its sheer volume compared to summer months, when it is not segregated [
36]. In winter, it is collected in metal drums or sacks, however, at the collection point, it is mixed with general waste.
Focus on waste reduction, reuse and recycling has been publicly discussed and reflected in the laws and bylaws especially during recent years. However, the implementation of these policies has been insufficient (see score for 3R.3). As pointed out in
Section 4.1, waste generation amount per capita per day is over the threshold of 1 kg, which means waste reduction issue must be of equal importance to resource recovery.
The main body that represents the informal recycling sector is the MNRA that protects the rights of its members and acts as a lobbyist for influencing the law enforcement. Among the main members, there are 200 kiosks (itinerant waste buyers (IWB)), and 12 recycling facilities. One of their main activities is focused on organizing the kiosks and regulating the system of separation, collection and transportation of recyclables. Through the kiosks that deal with waste pickers, MNRA had plans to obtain relevant information and to reach out to those waste pickers. Currently, in collaboration with PSD, MNRA is working on a project called “Eco Park” at the NEDS and TsDDS, where recycling facilities will be concentrated and where they plan to create job opportunities for waste pickers. The main hurdles are financial resources and access to capital. Integration of the informal sector with the formal SWM system is still very low on the priorities (see score for 3R.4).
There are few recycling facilities in UB. The issue of environmental protection is rarely highlighted or physically monitored other than in paperwork. There is low compliance regarding actual environmental protection in recycling. Only a select number of facilities take extra caution in the occupational health and safety of their workers, such as Altan Orshikhui, a company that recycles used oil to make fuel, and recycles car tires and plastics. However, the rest of the industry, including the IWBs, waste pickers and recycling facilities, has low compliance regarding the occupational health and safety of their workers (see scores for 3R.5 and 3R.6).
The evaluation for the benchmark indicators and their comprising variables for Environmental Control is shown in
Table 4. The aforementioned circumstances lead us to score the qualitative indicator (3R) at 25%. Data on the informal recycling sector are insufficient. Therefore, more attention should be given to this issue.
4.5. Governance
4.5.1. User Inclusivity
As described in
Section 4.2 for Public Health, the two types of residential areas are quite distinct in terms of receiving waste collection services. Marginal areas, especially in the
ger areas are facing more challenges due to the difficulty to access these services and the lack of a sufficient monitoring system (see score for 4U.1).
Authorities do have a legal obligation to consult with and involve citizens in decisions that directly affect them, especially in matters concerning landfill siting (see scores for 4U.2 and 4U.3). Feedback mechanism is in place, however the efficiency should be further investigated through public survey (see score for 4U.4).
At the district level, waste management departments are in charge of educational materials and awareness raising campaigns. TUKs are also in charge of creating awareness raising programs and educating the citizens of their corresponding districts. The municipality is in charge of initiating and monitoring educational programs and awareness raising activities. However, the interviews conducted with key personnel of the waste sector, including public inspectors and local government workers; reveal that citizens’ mentality and behaviour are the most difficult challenges. It also indicates that there is no systematic educational and awareness raising programs, which need to be developed based on thorough research (see score for 4U.5).
Developing countries are faced with massive rural to urban migration, in low levels of law enforcement, lack of adequate planning and promoting and measuring behavioural change [
8]. As a result, citizens’ attitude and behaviour patterns become one of the biggest challenges when dealing with waste management, taking into consideration that citizens are a crucial part of the system itself. This example has been observed in UB. However, in recent years there have been efforts to raise the consciousness of the community through introducing a new term for recyclables,
dakhivar, and placing waste bins that segregate recyclables and non. This kind of change could be researched through public questionnaire and improve further behaviour change initiatives (see score for 4U.6). The score for User Inclusivity (4U) is 54% (
Table 5).
4.5.2. Provider Inclusivity
The current system enables both public and private sectors to deliver stable SWM services. There are currently 10 local government owned enterprises (LGOE) and seven private waste collection companies operating in UB. All companies are treated fairly based on the procurement laws and procedures of the government in order to achieve a high degree of openness, transparency and accountability (see scores for 4P.1, 4P.2, 4P.4 and 4P.5).
MNRA is the main body that represents the informal sector including IWBs, private recycling facilities and waste pickers. However, waste pickers are not yet directly benefitting from their activities, although it is envisioned to allow for the inclusion of waste pickers. Currently, the purpose is solely on strengthening the structure of the association and organizing the kiosks. The informal sector is dominantly in charge of extracting recyclable materials in the waste stream from discharge to the disposal sites. Currently, there are no municipal recycling programs. However, the informal sector should be carefully factored into the equation when creating national and municipal recycling plans (see score for 4P.3). The score for Provider Inclusivity (4P) is 55% (
Table 6).
4.5.3. Financial Sustainability
The MSWM service, excluding the maintenance of disposal sites, is covered by the citizens’ waste service tax fee and additional government subsidy. Waste collection TUKs are in charge of collecting, transporting and disposing waste at disposal sites. They then get paid according to their implementation. The disposal site activities and finances are fully covered by the municipality.
The current budget covers most current operating costs, but insufficient for most of the maintenance costs. As mentioned in
Section 4.2 and
Section 4.3 , there are many aspects that need to be improved, from waste collection in the
ger areas to technical improvement of
TUKs and disposal sites (see scores for 5F.1, 5F.2 and 5F.5). Moreover, access to capital for investment remains to be one of the biggest challenges for UB’s SWM (see score for 5F.6).
Since January 2013, the waste service fee is collected in a form of tax and consolidated at the district taxation office. In 2014, the waste service fee payment rate in the apartment area was 81.2%, and in ger area was 57% (see score for 5F.3). While the total number of business entities and organizations in operation was 26,598, 17,132 were in contractual agreements with TUKs with a service fee payment rate of 90%. Currently, citizens in apartment areas are paying 2000 Mongolian tugriks (US
$1.02), and citizens in ger areas are paying 2500 tugriks (US
$1.27), which were set back in 2006 in the ordinance 182 by the municipality and have not changed since (see score for 5F.4). The price is higher in ger areas due to collection service requiring more resources in these areas as mentioned in
Section 4.2. However, there are more economically vulnerable citizens residing in the marginal areas of ger districts, and there is no exemption or subsidy for users who can least afford to pay, which should be subject to consideration. In terms of business entities and organizations, each district has their own set tariffs based on the size and type of businesses and organizations.
The waste service fee collection method differs in both
ger and apartment areas. In
ger areas, the waste service fee is paid together with the electricity bill since July 2011 by electric distribution company (formerly done by
TUKs) and 23% of the fee is taken as a transaction fee. With this new method of charging waste service fee with electricity bill, the waste fee collection rate increased from 28% in July 2011 to 57% in 2014. However, it must be noted that the transaction fee of 23% is deducted from the total amount. In
ger areas, inside a single
khashaa (fence), 2–3 households reside, of which only one household pays waste service fee. In such circumstances, waste service fee collectors gather money from these households, and 23% of the service fee is given as a reward. Plus, the transient population [
22] of the
ger areas are not considered in calculating the generation of waste, which remains an uncertainty.
In apartment areas, the service fee is paid together with the utility bills and 6% of the fee is taken as a transaction fee by UB Housing Public Services Company. The score for Financial Sustainability (5F) is 46% (
Table 7).
4.5.4. Sound Institutions, Proactive Policies: National Framework
The Mongolian Law on Waste Management (2012) addresses solid waste management requirements, based upon which the municipal “Regulation on funding of waste management and transportation operations and consolidation of waste management service fee” (2015) was enacted. However, the above law was insufficient to regulate the complex issues arising from various waste related aspects. In the beginning of 2017, the process of enactment of the new law formulation began after being once returned back to the Parliament in 2016 (see score for 6N.1).
There are several national plans and strategies towards green and sustainable development. Concepts of Mongolian Sustainable Development 2030 were approved by provision of State Great Khural on 19 February 2016. Green Development Policy was approved on 13 June 2014, which includes targets of decreasing the amount of waste going to landfill by 40% and increasing recycling rate up to 40% (see score for 6N.2). However, these goals should be realistic and actionable with a clear pathway to achieving them. Mostly, these goals are set based on insufficient research, data and information.
There are guidelines for local authorities implementing the laws and strategies; however, the current approaches to solving MSW related issues are not holistic enough. The baseline study for all the targets are insufficient, and oftentimes do not reflect the real picture, which in turn hinders the achievement of these goals and targets. The Ministry of Environment, Green Development and Tourism is the national institution responsible for making policies however they are not responsible for the implementation process and its coordination. The implementation of the regulations is undertaken by the municipal government (see scores for 6N.3, 6N.4 and 6N.5).
No effort has been made in implementing the extended producer responsibility (EPR) or Product Stewardship (PS). This issue has been discussed in some ways by introducing an added import tax on products that cannot be reused. However, this issue is no longer being discussed (see score for 6N.6). On the other hand, the informal sector through their involvement in the “Eco-Park” wants to create job opportunities for waste pickers as a form of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on these facts, the score for the qualitative indicator (6N) is 46% (
Table 8).
4.5.5. Sound Institutions, Proactive Policies: Local Institutional Policies
Within the municipality, the Public Service Department (PSD) at the Mayor’s Office is responsible for ensuring that SWM services are planned, delivered and funded. The municipality funds the SWM’s collection and transportation services through subsidies, and fully funds the disposal and disposal site’s maintenance.
In terms of institutional capacity, JICA’s project on “Strengthening the capacity for SWM” [
24] was one of the most significant contributions towards effective training, in both the classroom and the field. The PSD consists of the following members: head of the department; and officers responsible for landscaping, assets and signs in public areas, greenery, architectural and landscape drawings, advertisement and information facilities, waste, construction and industrial waste, waste recycling plants and waste collections points, and medical and hazardous waste, with four out of nine officers being directly in charge of waste related matters (see scores for 6L.1 and 6L.2).
The citywide SWM strategy and plans are improving but are not adequate enough. The national strategy is not clearly translated to regional (city, district, community) levels. In the six central districts of the municipality, both public and private sectors are present. The collection companies hold contractual agreements with the district governors. All the waste collection companies work closely with the PSD and attend meetings and seminars regarding waste service requirements. Since 2015, the auditor NGOs started monitoring the work implementation of waste collection companies in collaboration with citizen’s groups. There were three auditor NGOs for the six central districts. Each NGO consists of 2–3 staff members that conduct daily inspections. In terms of efficiency, 2–3 staffs cannot check all the areas. There could be more effective ways of monitoring, for instance leveraging the power of the public (see scores for 6L.3 and 6L.5).
In terms of availability and quality of data, there has been improvement especially since installing the weighbridges. However, there is an urgent need for more quality data and improving data collection and reporting methods (see score for 6L.4).
The municipal government works very closely with the districts and the districts are also well-connected. UB is a unique city within Mongolia, as it is the capital city that is home to more than one third of the country’s population. However, in recent years, the situation of SWM is becoming an increasing issue in other cities as well as in the rural areas. As a result, inter-regional and inter-municipal cooperation needs to be strengthened to enable capacity building and knowledge sharing. Currently, the flow of recyclables from rural areas also should be studied closely (see score for 6L.6). For the above reasons, the score for the qualitative indicator (6L) is 58% (
Table 9).