Everyday, waste weighing several hundred tons is produced by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, most of which ends in Sisdol Sanitary Landfill. There is, by far, no formal recycling process conducted by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), who is responsible for handling waste produced by the metropolitan.

Since 2005, Kathmandu’s waste destination has been Sisdoll. The Solid Waste Management Technical Support Centre (SWMTSC) runs the site. SWMTSC is under the Ministry of Federal and Local Development (MoFALD), even though it operates independently. However, the lack of recycling activities puts an extreme stress on the landfill sites which are soon destined to exhaust.

“A lot of resources can be gathered from what we throw away considering it to be ‘waste’ material,” says Pankaj Panjiyar, Chief Operation Officer at Doko Recyclers.

Doko Recyclers is a leading social enterprise that helps people in managing and recycling dry waste. It also works on generating public awareness on how people can recycle a lot of what goes into the public trash cans and later landfills.

 Recycling is also an income opportunity. Doko Recyclers accepts a wide variety of used items at fixed prices, including wine bottles, old furniture, used copies, cardboard, paper cups and many more. “Nepal’s waste management problem has turned out to be a good entrepreneurship opportunity for us, but there is still a need to generate public awareness on the matter. Many people are not considering segregating their throw away items,” says Panjiyar.