Business models for circular sanitation: lessons from India

Providing safe sanitation in the developing world is still a major hurdle to achieving Sustainable Development Goal number six, with 61% of the global population lacking safely managed sanitation services. Circular economy in the context of sanitation focuses on the whole sanitation chain which includes the provision of toilets, the collection of waste, treatment and transformation into sanitation-derived products including fertiliser, fuel and clean water. As well as potentially reducing the cost of toilet provision, a circular economy approach also has the potential to enable positive environmental and health impacts, unlike other systems where waste may be discharged untreated into the environment. The implementation of a system level transformation is not simple, considering operator capacity, lack of funding, slowly growing acceptance by local communities, and a policy landscape which can be inconsistent in its support for the circular economy. As India invests in long-term infrastructure to improve citizens’ quality of life (e.g., Swachh Bharat Mission), it could incorporate circular economy principles into the design of infrastructure, creating effective urban nutrient and material cycles, enhancing economic development and welfare. This represents a significant opportunity for government and businesses in India to develop circular sanitation infrastructure to recover and valorise biological nutrients. After collecting information from five case studies across India, covering different treatment technologies, waste-derived products, markets and contexts; this research identifies the main barriers and enablers for circular sanitation business models to succeed. Whilst there were many different institutional and technological arrangements, common issues of managing and enforcing incoming waste and competing with chemical fertilisers were found

Business models for circular sanitation: lessons from India

Providing safe sanitation in the developing world is still a major hurdle to achieving Sustainable Development Goal number six, with 61% of the global population lacking safely managed sanitation services. Circular economy in the context of sanitation focuses on the whole sanitation chain which includes the provision of toilets, the collection of waste, treatment and transformation into sanitation-derived products including fertiliser, fuel and clean water. As well as potentially reducing the cost of toilet provision, a circular economy approach also has the potential to enable positive environmental and health impacts, unlike other systems where waste may be discharged untreated into the environment. The implementation of a system level transformation is not simple, considering operator capacity, lack of funding, slowly growing acceptance by local communities, and a policy landscape which can be inconsistent in its support for the circular economy. As India invests in long-term infrastructure to improve citizens’ quality of life (e.g., Swachh Bharat Mission), it could incorporate circular economy principles into the design of infrastructure, creating effective urban nutrient and material cycles, enhancing economic development and welfare. This represents a significant opportunity for government and businesses in India to develop circular sanitation infrastructure to recover and valorise biological nutrients. After collecting information from five case studies across India, covering different treatment technologies, waste-derived products, markets and contexts; this research identifies the main barriers and enablers for circular sanitation business models to succeed. Whilst there were many different institutional and technological arrangements, common issues of managing and enforcing incoming waste and competing with chemical fertilisers were found

Evaluating the circular economy for sanitation: Findings from a multi-case approach

Addressing the lack of sanitation globally is a major global challenge with 700 million people still practicing open defecation. Circular Economy (CE) in the context of sanitation focuses on the whole sanitation chain which includes the provision of toilets, the collection of waste, treatment and transformation into sanitation-derived products including fertiliser, fuel and clean water. After a qualitative study from five case studies across India, covering different treatment technologies, waste-derived products, markets and contexts; this research identifies the main barriers and enablers for circular sanitation business models to succeed. A framework assessing the technical and social system changes required to enable circular sanitation models was derived from the case studies. Some of these changes can be achieved with increased enforcement, policies and subsidies for fertilisers, and integration of sanitation with other waste streams to increase its viability. Major changes such as the cultural norms around re-use, demographic shifts and soil depletion would be outside the scope of a single project, policy or planning initiative. The move to CE sanitation may still be desirable from a policy perspective but we argue that shifting to CE models should not be seen as a panacea that can solve the global sanitation crisis. Delivering the public good of safe sanitation services for all, whether circular or not, will continue to be a difficult task

Understanding rural-urban transitions in the Global South through Peri-Urban Turbulence

Much previous research has problematised the use of a binary urban-rural distinction to describe human settlement patterns in and around cities. Peri-urban zones, on the edge of urban settlements, are significant both in sheer magnitude of human population and in terms of being home to vulnerable populations with high rates of poverty. This paper presents a framework that conceptualises rural25 urban transition through the prism of shifts in natural, engineered and institutional infrastructure, in order to explain the processes of rapid change and the dip in service provision often found in peri-urban areas in the Global South. We draw on examples related to the provision of water and sanitation to illustrate the theory and discuss its implications for future research on the peri-urban. A research agenda is set out that emphasises the importance of studying early warning signs of service dips using systems theory concepts such as flickering and critical slowing down. Through such approaches, research can better predict and explain what we call peri-urban turbulence and inform the development of mitigation strategies to reduce the vulnerabilities that peri-urban residents too often face during periods of rural-urban transition

The circular economy for sanitation: a study of five cases in India

This record includes an extended abstract and MP4 presentation. Presented at the 42nd WEDC International Conference