This paper investigates the waste management system of Pakistan while lifting a question on awareness, importance and the practices of waste management with a debate that whether or not the perceived awareness and importance of waste management has really turned up into the waste management practice in Pakistan. The findings confirms that there is no significant perceived awareness and sense for managing wastes (importance) in the various municipalities of all of the provinces of Pakistan and therefore, they do not generate the healthy waste management practices in almost every municipality and at times the practices are pathetic.Waste Management System, Waste Fractions, Sense for managing wastes, Municipality

Hasan, Syed Akif

Osman, Ms. Amber

Subhani, Muhammad Imtiaz

English

Research Papers in Economics

Published in 
European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences 
Issue 39, pp. 152 - 156, (2011)
 
Waste Management in the Various Municipalities of Various 
Socio-Economic Conditions  
(An Empirical Evidence from Pakistan) 
 
 
Muhammad Imtiaz Subhani 
Iqra University Research Centre-IURC, Iqra University, Defence View 
Shaheed-e-Millat Road (Ext.), Karachi-75500, Pakistan 
Tel: +92(21) 111 264 264 (Ext. 2010); Fax: +92(21) 5894806 
E-mail: drsubhani@yahoo.co.uk 
 
Syed Akif Hasan 
Iqra University, Defence View, Shaheed-e-Millat Road (Ext.) 
Karachi-75500, Pakistan 
Tel: +92(21) 111 264 264 (Ext.1509); Fax: +92(21) 5894806 
E-mail: drakifhasan@gmail.com 
 
Muhammad Ayaz 
University of Karachi, University Road, Karachi, Pakistan 
Tel: +92(21) 99261300 (Ext.2259); Fax: +92(21) 99261340 
E-mail: mayaz@yahoo.com 
 
Amber Osman 
Iqra University Research Centre-IURC, Iqra University, Defence View 
Shaheed-e-Millat Road (Ext.), Karachi-75500, Pakistan 
Tel: +92(21) 111 264 264 (Ext. 2010); Fax: +92(21) 5894806 
E-mail: amber.osman@yahoo.com 
 
 
Abstract 
This paper investigates the waste management system of Pakistan while lifting a question 
on  awareness,  importance  and  the  practices  of  waste  management  with  a  debate  that 
whether or not the perceived awareness and importance of waste management has really 
turned up into the waste management practice in Pakistan. The findings confirms that there 
is no significant perceived awareness and sense for managing wastes (importance) in the 
various  municipalities  of  all  of  the  provinces  of  Pakistan  and  therefore,  they  do  not 
generate the healthy waste management practices in almost every municipality and at times 
the practices are pathetic. 
 
 
Keywords:  Waste  Management  System,  Waste  Fractions,  Sense  for  managing  wastes, 
Municipality. 
 
1.  Introduction 
Growing urbanization and variations in the epitome of life have resulted the increasing number and 
varieties of wastes and wastes fractions in an exponential trend, which has taken an angle of threat for already  degraded  surroundings.  However,  in  current  years,  waste  to  energy  expertise  have  been 
developed to boot out clean energy via the combustion of municipal solid waste in specially designed 
power  vegetation  equipped  with  the  most  contemporary  pollution  control  equipment  to  avoid 
emissions,  which  are  being  deployed  and  functional in  developed  and  rising  nations.  Unlike,  it  is 
different  for  developing  and  poor  developing  nations  to  have  such  effective  waste  management 
practices. In developing countries similar to Pakistan, institutions stimulate with the responsibility to 
create decisions on waste management, but the implementation phase is lacking and which tunes the 
occasions of disasters (Bruce, 2004). 
Pakistan's effort to raise the living principles of its citizens has always turned up into the fiasco 
due  to  unfaithfulness  of  its  care  takers  along  with  the  incorrect  and  non  sincere  decisions  for  its 
nations,  for  instance;  the  economic  development  has  always  given  an  importance  over  ecological 
issues. Therefore, this territory despite of having the bestowed beauty is being suffered by the various 
ecological degradations (Burn, 2003). It is an ironical truth that the country like Pakistan has approved 
legislation to protect its surroundings which is now only in the history (Carter & Ellram, 1998). 
It is also quite evident that Pakistan is in major turmoil and suppression of ethnic wars and 
political instability that societal issues such as waste management are being ignored. Improvement was 
observed to a slight level but then the attention in such developing countries deviates due to other 
aggressive socio-economic issues. This paper is an attempt to measure the amount and various types of 
waste fractions in the major municipalities of Pakistan which are attributed with the different socio-
economic conditions. 
 
 
2.  Literature Review 
With better awareness in today’s era, the nations and countries cannot ignore ecological issues, which 
includes  the  cleanness  of  municipalities  and  stronger  community  mandates  for  environmental 
accountability. 
There  are  organizations  for  nursing  the  health  of  the  nation  in  respect  to  natural 
contamination/pollution/noise pollution and toxic wastes. They are governmental organization/sectors 
allocated especially to design and monitor the expenses caused for handling the different kinds of 
pollutions and toxic wastes and to give a cleaner and greener place to live (Baumol, 1997). 
Being  specific  to  the  investigation  of  Pakistan,  it  has  made  little  effort  to  raise  the  living 
standards of its citizens but economic development has taken preference over ecological issues since its 
birth.  Lack  of  awareness  for  proper  control  over  wastes  and  utilization  of  hazardous  chemicals, 
automobile emissions, and industrial action has contributed to a figure of environmental and health 
risks and especially in the case of water pollution. The country suffers through a lack of potable water 
owing to industrial waste. In the cities, widespread employ of low-quality petroleum, combined with a 
theatrical  expansion  in  the  figure  of  vehicles  on  Pakistani  infrastructure  has  led  to  important  air 
pollution problems. As urbanization continues and the inhabitants are growing rapidly, Pakistan does 
want to prosper but does not cater the right ways to encounter major socio-economic issues such as 
waste control (Khan & Anwar, 2003). 
The  utilization  of  hazardous  chemicals  and  industrial  action  has  contributed  to  a  figure  of 
environmental and health hazards. The industrial wastes are volumes of the gaseous, liquid or hard 
wastes produced by developed and other industrial processes. These emissions are merely partially 
controlled  by  pollution  manage  methods.  Industrial  waste  is  discharged  into  the  surroundings  in 
substantial quantities. The matter of consequence is to what level and to what degree is this trash 
damaging to health and environment (Gupta, 1995). A great deal of the country suffers as of a lack of 
potable water owing to industrial waste and undeveloped flow off that contaminates drinking irrigate 
supplies. Poverty and far above the ground population growth have aggravated, to an extent it has 
caused ecological dilemmas and problems (Ghaffar, Kazi & Salman, 2000). 
Moreover, from viewpoint of a day-to-day routine, people throw away many things ranging 
from ordinary trash to old packaged items, cleaning resources and various junks, big quantities of pesticides and fertilizers are also on leach in the environment (Walton & Melnyk, 1998). It is obvious 
that the commodities i.e. food, drinks, clothing, medicines, furnishings, computers, cleaning resources, 
publications etc are in diverse forms of packaging. The main purposes of these packagings are to 
defend the contents from germs/viruses/dirt (Sarkis, 1995), hence, most of them are not destructive to 
the environment in conditions of toxicity, but their after use bulk cause and create the solid waste and 
hence the environmental degradations (Hanna & Newman, 1995). 
Other significant sources of pollution are transport and the pharmaceutical waste, (Johnson & 
Wang, 1998) are the causes of acute poison. Plastics can reason the blockage of drainage and hence 
water natural diseases (Batool & Ch, 2009). 
In the waste management handling, recycling has made a key role. All over the world recycling 
has  usually  occurred  because  it  has  been  efficient and  economical.  Since  1970s  and  onwards,  the 
perception of recycling in contemporary rich societies has been present even more, something that is 
articulated  by  existing  or  proposed  hard  waste  legislation.  In  Sweden,  1994  the  producer  blame 
ordinance, which has governed the compilation and recycling of packaging resources, newsprint, cars 
and tires. Furthermore, environmental legislators in numerous European countries require so as to a 
bulky part of the waste paper flow should be recycled moderately than deposited in landfills. 
The good handling of waste management has few aspects: political, communal, environmental, 
financial  and  technical.  These  factors  include  the  ease  of  use  of  technical,  financial,  and  human 
resources.  Being  specific  to  the  developing  countries  like  Pakistan,  proper  and  appropriate 
methods/techniques are not being imposed to achieve proper waste management. However, working 
from  ground  level,  there  are  ordinary  needs  that  have  to  be  addressed  by  all  nations  for  desired 
outcome in managing wastes and attainting a balanced improvement mark. As natural environment 
around  us  has  also  become  dynamic,  it  is  necessary  to  predict  and  to  recognize  the  problems  in 
managing the wastes for prompt action. Sometimes, forecasting the natural atmosphere and quantity of 
waste  that  may  arise  is  difficult.  A  managerial  mechanism  is  required  to  make  sure  the  regular 
contribution for managing the wastes (Fleischmann & Van, 1997). 
There are number of schemes internationally, which relies on the atmosphere revitalizations, 
water cleansing and food production capabilities of higher vegetation to rejuvenate person wastes and 
replenish the existence support materials (Murphy, 1995) but the issues relating to mounting solid 
wastes are fast acquiring
 gigantic size in the rising countries of Asia. The majority
 of the countries, still 
continue to primarily focus on achieving high economic enlargement and pay scant attention to
 waste 
management. For Pakistan sort of state, where waste management is not dealt with seriousness and is 
negligible mostly are due to numerous reasons and lack of awareness and concern in this domain by 
the policy makers. 
 
 
3.  Research Methodology 
3.1. Description of Data and Econometrical Technique 
To investigate the awareness, importance and the practices of waste management, the morphological 
analysis was performed for the major municipalities with the diverse socio-economic condition. For 
interrogating  the  presence  of  various  kinds  of  wastes  along  with  their  awareness  and  sense  for 
managing them and their impact upon the waste management practices, the morphological analysis was 
performed  by  measuring  the  14  different  waste  fraction  which  were  categorized  into  6  different 
categories which include Organic Wastes (Garden waste, Other biodegradable waste); Paper Wastes 
(Paper, cardboard, waxed card board and aluminum card board); Glass waste (Glasses); Metal wastes 
(metallic cans and other metallic packaging); Plastic wastes (plastic bags, plastic packaging wastes, 
and hard plastics); and Pharmaceutical/ medical wastes (used bandages, other medical wastes). To 
shower the lights on the socio economic situations of various municipalities of Pakistan the literacy 
rates and municipalities budget to GDP ratios are taken as the proxies. The seven different municipalities which include Municipalities ok Karachi (KMC), Hyderabad 
(HMC), Lahore (LMC), Multan (MMC), Peshawar (PMC) and Quetta (QMC) have been interrogated 
in connections with all above outlined variables. 
For measuring evidence of wastes presence in all outlined municipalities the data for masses of 
each outlined wastes measured in metric tons was collected for each municipality for the period of 
2005.6 to 2011.6. The raw data was then converted into relative scores in percentage for each waste 
considered in this paper. 
 
 
4.  Findings and Results 
The main focus of this paper is to interrogate the presence of diverse nature of wastes, awareness for 
wastes  management,  sense  to  manage  wastes  and  practices  of  wastes  management  at  the  various 
municipalities of Pakistan which are attributed with different level of socio economic conditions. Table 
1 lifts an irony on the preference for ecological issues by the Govt. of Pakistan. Surprisingly no lift has 
been given to cleanness at any outlined municipalities during the period of 2005.6 to 2011.6 as shown 
by the negligible budget allocated for various municipalities. 
The findings further revealed that municipality of Peshawar evidently confirms the presence of 
wastes at most while the awareness for waste management and its managing sense along with the waste 
management practices also found substantially low for this municipality. 
Results also confirmed that the municipalities of Karachi and Lahore are evidently having less 
wastes presence as they are effectively managed due to the more awareness for waste management and 
better sense to manage wastes as confirmed by the empirical results in table 2. 
 
Table 1:  Socio-Economic Conditions at outlined Municipalities 
 
Major 
Municipalities 
Socio-Economic Conditions at outlined Municipalities 
Literacy Rates in %  
(2005.6-2011.6) 
Municipality budget to GDP Ratio in  
% 2005.6-2011.6) 
KMC  77%  0.06% 
HMC  46%  0.03% 
LMC  75%  0.07% 
MMC  45%  0.04% 
PMC  52%  0.05% 
QMC  39%  0.01% 
 
Table 2:  Evidence of Wastes Presence and Waste Management at outlined Municipalities 
 
Major 
Municipalities 
Evidence of Wastes Presence 
(Relative Scores in Percentage) 
Awareness 
for waste 
Management 
Sense to 
Manage 
Wastes 
Practices of 
Wastes 
Management 
OW  PPW  GW  MTW  PLW  MDW  TW       
KMC  0.005  0.02  0.007  0.04  0.04  0.02  0.132  0.31  0.31  0.33 
HMC  0.010  0.04  0.006  0.05  0.04  0.03  0.176  0.19  0.11  0.10 
LMC  0.015  0.02  0.005  0.02  0.03  0.02  0.110  0.31  0.33  0.34 
MMC  0.04  0.03  0.004  0.03  0.05  0.03  0.184  0.13  0.16  0.15 
PMC  0.03  0.05  0.009  0.02  0.07  0.04  0.219  0.04  0.02  0.04 
QMC  0.02  0.04  0.009  0.02  0.06  0.03  0.179  0.04  0.05  0.04 
OVER ALL  0.12  0.20  0.04  0.18  0.29  0.17  1.000  1.00  1.00  1.00 
 
 
5.  Conclusion and Discussion 
This  study  has  concluded  the  very  interesting  story  on  the  structure  and  conditions  of  various 
municipalities of Pakistan. It is found that the municipalities with the better socio economic conditions 
are cleaner than those with poor socio economic conditions. While, for the cleaner municipalities the awareness for wastes management, sense to manage wastes and waste management practices are higher 
than the rest. The findings of this paper are also confirmed by various other authors, for instance, 
Batinic et al. (2011) confirmed that the nations or territories with different GDP, have also different 
shares of particular waste fractions and this association can also be observed at municipality levels. 
The municipality of Peshawar which has an awful situation in the matters of cleanness and has the 
equal poor sense to manage the waste which is note able while the socio economic condition as shown 
in table 1, of this municipality is not as bad as the municipality of Quetta where the cleanness is far 
better. 
 
 
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Waste Management in the Various Municipalities of Various Socio-Economic Conditions (An Empirical Evidence from Pakistan)

Waste Management in the Various Municipalities of Various Socio-Economic Conditions (An Empirical Evidence from Pakistan)

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