Garbage banks for sustainable development

Just opposite the famous Sinbad amusement park, the small houses in a squatter settlement all wear a similar look, but standing out amongst these structures is a huge garbage dump yard that has a wooden boundary wall, filled to the top with silver packaging material cut into long, thin strips. In its midst is the famous Chandi Ghar; a single silver room house made completely out of plastic wrapper.

The structure can be built in just five hours, costs merely Rs7,000 and can survive harsh weather conditions. Hannan, a semi-educated man, is in-charge of construction and, under his supervision, 12 other perform tasks which vary from separating plastic and paper to forming wasta-blocks; compressed packaging material manually filled in a wooden mould and then covered with shiny plastic sheets to form blocks that are used as bricks for building ‘Chandi Ghars’. Each block takes half-an-hour to build and a worker involved in the construction can earn around Rs800 a day.

However, providing material for construction is just one of the many functions that garbage performs. According to the Gulbahao Trust, the brain behind Chandi Ghar, garbage makes fodder, fuel for power plants and instant compost. Additionally, the owner, Nargis Latif, has come up with the unique idea of forming “Garbage n Gold Banks”.

“The ideal Garbage n Gold Bank should be situated in a prime location of the city. It should have a modern infrastructure and the rates of different types of garbage displayed on LED screens. More importantly, it should have specialised people running it,” she says.

Zero interest rate is also part of the model and she guarantees that customers will be swarming these outlets. “Garbage is an untapped resource, but people do not understand its potential. It has mafias, tug of wars and corruption, but the masses only link it to Kabadias,” she says. For it to become included in the formal sector, Latif believes it is important for the academia to join hands with her organisation. LUMS is one university which has sought written permission from her to include the concept of Garbage n Gold Bank in its syllabus. The university has also awarded a research worker for her dissertation in the subject.

She goes on to explain that Karachi is a metropolis that’s produces a diverse range of garbage. “Forget that garbage is one thing; it has layers and the metal found in it can be sold for as high as Rs400,000 per tonne and the polythene from the cheapest material can cost as low as Rs4,000 a tonne,” she explains. “Pakistan used to import garbage till 2006, but now we should consider exporting it. It can be Karachi’s gift to the world,” she smiles as her eyes glint behind her huge round spectacles which cover most of her face.

Every activity in the service sector has emerged from a traditional model to a formal one, only after the educated lot comes into it. The Gulbahao Trust believes in these future banks too. But for this, it wants the government to take interest in its model of converting garbage into sustainable development projects. “Once it gets into the formal sector, garbage can be taxed too and the returns are beyond imagination,” says the scientist who has been trying to get her out-of-the-box plan accepted in the mainstream for the last 17 years