Category: Allgemein

The KCC Awareness Center is ready to open its doors to the public! Over the last year, the Awareness Center Team has been building expertise in public engagement and compiling research results from the SCIP Plastics project to present at the centre. Now, we are happy to announce the Awareness Center Open Days. First, every second month, and later every month, we will open our doors and invite a specific stakeholder group to join us in the centre and discuss waste management, plastic pollution prevention, and solutions for a cleaner and healthier Khulna. On 30.04.2024 and 07.07.2024, we successfully carried out our first two test runs with stakeholders at KCC and schools and colleges.

Opening the Awareness Center to the public is critical in fulfilling our mission to create a central contact point in Khulna, fostering connections among waste management practitioners and experts beyond the SCIP Plastics project. Through raising awareness and facilitating mutual learning, we aim to empower stakeholders and spread the research outcomes of SCIP, contributing to effective waste management practices in Khulna and the region.

My recent visit to Germany was an enriching experience that provided me with valuable insights into advanced scientific and waste management practices. Over 15 days, my colleague Niloy Das and I, both from the SCIP Plastics Project, had the opportunity to conduct fermentation tests on jute in a state-of-the-art laboratory. Measuring the amount of carbon dioxide evolved during the anaerobic process was particularly significant. Incorporating this data into the life cycle assessment of jute products will enhance the understanding of their environmental impact.

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting the scalable mechanical processing plant named SWH. RAB in Halle-Lochau deals with 80,000 tons of residual waste, bulky waste, and industrial waste yearly. Witnessing the efficiency and effectiveness of the plant operations was inspiring.

Another remarkable experience was touring the organic waste treatment plant in Erfurt. It is interesting to find out their landfill after care and how the plant utilizes the organic waste to get compost and energy as a byproduct. Both plants were managed by a few highly skilled individuals, showcasing the potential for streamlined operations even with limited personnel. It is eye-catching to see the contrast between the waste management systems of Bangladesh and Germany.

We visited the METHA treatment plant (MEchanical Treatment and Dewatering of HArbour-sediments) in Hamburg, Germany’s biggest seaport. It’s intriguing to learn about the process of a highly technical dredged material management concept used to separate and manage sand, fine grain silt, and contaminated sediment of the River Elbe.

This experience will undoubtedly contribute to our efforts to enhance sustainability in plastic waste management in Bangladesh. Overall, this visit to Germany was not just an educational journey but also an inspiring one, fueling our passion for bringing innovative solutions to our home country.

We were excited to facilitate a visit of our KCC key stakeholders, Mr Abir Ul Jabbar (Head of the Planning Department) and Ms Nurunnahar Anni (Conservancy Officer), to the German project partners in Weimar and Frankfurt and the IFAT trade fair in Munich.

Capacity building without a common understanding is challenging: waste transfer stations look different in Germany from the ones in Bangladesh. When colleagues in Bangladesh envision a waste sorting facility, their ideas might differ from what the German team understands. Thus, the visit of our KCC partners was an excellent opportunity to visit solid waste infrastructure in Germany and discuss differences, similarities and possible applications in Bangladesh. Highlights included the excursion to the composting plant in Umpferstedt close to Weimar and the residual waste treatment plant in Halle-Lochau.

The trip through Germany from 10.05. to 16.05.2024 ended with a visit to the IFAT trade fair in Munich. Together, we explored the latest inventions and applications in solid waste collection, sorting, composting and recycling.

The SCIP Plastics project had the honor of welcoming special guest Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr. Ulrike Kuch of Bauhaus-Universität Weimar to the Board of Directors meeting on April 27th at KUET. Dr. Kuch, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Social Transformation, accepted the invitation for a two weeks visit to Bangladesh. Her stay included visits to Chattogram, Khulna, and Dhaka, where she participated in various meetings and events.

In Chattogram, Dr. Kuch participated in a Knowledge Sharing Campaign with Chief Guest Prof. Dr. Mohammad Rafiqul Alam, Vice Chancellor of CUET, and engaged in discussions with the private recycling industry and the Chattogram Port Authority. In Khulna, she met with KUET officials focusing on the universities’ intentions of joint cooperation and exchange. In addition, she visited the Knowledge Transfer Hub and Waste Lab facilities on campus.

Her visit highlighted the challenges of plastic waste management and the efforts municipalities are taking to overcome the rising plastic waste production. With extensive insights, Dr. Kuch finally attended a strategic discussion on social transformation at the UGC to strengthen collaboration between the two countries in the field of education.

Aerial images are a great tool to survey any physical infrastructure. In the SCIP Plastics project, we have been using drones to survey and assess the Rajbandh final disposal site. In case of this open disposal site, drone images are critical, since not all sections of the site are safe to access. The images can help to determine the expanse of the waste body over time, to spot any waste leaks (solid and liquid) into the surrounding area, and oversee construction measures happening at the site.

Here are two drone images from March 2023 (left, © Florian Wehking) and April 2024 (right, © Noor Alam). We can clearly see how much closer the waste body moved towards the boundaries, especially in the north. Furthermore, a new larger leachate pond has emerged in the south-eastern corner just outside the boundary of the site. This is a concerning development and illustrates the need to improve containment measures at the site. The project team of Working Group III (lead: Pangkaj Kumar Mahanta) is currently working on improving embankments and the fence line.

After seeing how useful these drone images can be, we now started to use them in the urban environment to survey the state of secondary transfer points and stations in Khulna city. To create a baseline, on the 30th March 2024 we started with the open transfer stations. Here are the images of Boyra Azizer STS (left, © Noor Alam) and KDA Mosque STS (right, © Noor Alam).

Currently, we are developing operational guidelines and containment measures to reduce the spreading of plastic waste from transfer points and stations. Drone monitoring will be used to evaluate the impact of these measures.

Overall, the recent surveys illustrated that drones can be a great tool for city cooperations and public institutions to monitor and assess solid waste management infrastructure. The SCIP Plastics project has already developed basic standard operating procedures for the monitoring and will test these over the next months.

“You cannot manage what you do not measure!” is the motto of the hour. To put any waste management infrastructure planning on solid footing, we need reliable data. Up to now, waste quantities have been approximated by maximum truck payload. This might have led to an overestimation of waste generation in Khulna. We will soon find out! The SCIP Plastic project is currently constructing a platform at the entrance of the Rajbandh final disposal site. Here, we will carry out a truck monitoring with a mobile truck scale. Construction is well under way and we are optimistic to conduct our first weighing campaign in June 2024.

Key effort of working group II is the elaboration of business incentives for targeted collection and provision of mismanaged plastic waste while balancing additional expenditures for KCC providing safe treatment and deposition. Challenges and opportunities lie in the synergies that need to be transferred into a win-win business model, which overall prevents open and uncontrolled pollution of plastics.

In the past weeks members of working group II intensively developed a business model concept to tackle mismanaged plastic waste with the help of local private recycling actors. Corresponding to the project’s working packages a pilot study will be conducted to implement and evaluate this new business model. During March 2024 several meetings with involved stakeholders resulted in the official kick-off for the pilot study on business model implementation. KCC officials and representatives from the local recycling sector fortunately assured their commitment and contribution for this endeavour.

The establishment of the Knowledge Transfer Hub (KTH) stands as one of the pivotal goals within the SCIP Plastics Project. Following its successful inauguration in November 2023, our project partner at KUET, led by Dr. Muhammed Alamgir and Dr. Rafizul Islam, has accomplished the integration of the whole compartment (KTH and Waste Lab) into the university’s organizational structure (organogram). Under the new name “Waste Research Laboratory”, this integration secures its operation throughout the project’s lifespan. Consequently, the compartment will receive ongoing funding for operations, maintenance, and staffing. All project partners express their delight at this development and extend their gratitude for the dedication of Dr. Muhammed Alamgir.

In December 2023 waste from local vessels both at Mongla Port and Chittagong Port were collected. A team of researchers from working group IV distributed waste bags to 90 ship crews and asked for their cooperation. For three to ten days the crew members did not discharge their wastes but collected them in the provided waste bags and additionally participated in a survey. Overall, the waste from 37 local vessels could be collected. The waste was sorted manually by the researches after collection and the plastic fraction was analysed using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to determine the plastic types. The results of the waste sorting and NIR analysis are now being processed and will be used, among others, to develop waste flow diagrams of the Port areas.

Over the last year, WG III investigated various processes and activities at the Rajbandh open dump site, the only active final waste disposal site for Khulna city. Now, the team will start monitoring and quantifying plastic emissions in the form of wind-blown litter and washed-out material. On 13.11.2023, the WG III team, Pangkaj Kumar, Salahuddin Setu, Tasnova Imam, Saptarshi Mondal and Senta Berner visited the disposal site and outlined a first monitoring protocol, as well as necessary improvements along the fence line and embankments to ensure quantifiable sample collection. The team also tested a drone which will be part of the monitoring, especially to gauge the impact of extreme weather events on waste body movement and plastic emissions.