{"title":"Municipal solid waste generation and management dynamics under changing governance in Nepal","authors":"Raju Chauhan , Mohan B. Dangi , Kedar Rijal , Ram Prasad Chaudhary , Ananda Kumar Shrestha , Samir Budhathoki","doi":"10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101277","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nepal's transition from a unitary to a federal government system has had a notable impact on municipal service delivery, including solid waste management. However, limited empirical evidence exists regarding how this transition has affected waste generation and management practices at the local level. This study analyzes changes in solid waste generation, composition, and management practices in Ghorahi Sub-Metropolitan City, Nepal, between 2013 and 2023. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining household surveys, waste sampling, and field observations. Households were selected using systematic random sampling, and waste generated over 24-hour was collected, segregated and analyzed from each household. Additionally, field observations of local waste management facilities were conducted to supplement the data and provide contextual understanding. Results shows that the average household waste generation increased by 72.8% (371.94 to 643.05 g/day) between 2013 and 2023 while the waste composition shifted, with organic waste decreasing from 77% to 66% and plastics increasing from 12% to 25%. Municipal waste collection efficiency improved from 92% to 98%, while exclusion rates dropped from 5.7% to 2%. Post-federalization governance led to the improved transparency in waste management but reduced ward-level support. Despite improvements in waste collection efficiency and transparency, challenges persist in coordination among multi-level government tiers. The significant rise in waste generation and changing composition highlights the need for improved institutional capacity, better integration across government levels, and targeted interventions for waste reduction and environmental protection in Nepal's evolving federal system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54269,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Development","volume":"56 ","pages":"Article 101277"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Development","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211464525001435","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Nepal's transition from a unitary to a federal government system has had a notable impact on municipal service delivery, including solid waste management. However, limited empirical evidence exists regarding how this transition has affected waste generation and management practices at the local level. This study analyzes changes in solid waste generation, composition, and management practices in Ghorahi Sub-Metropolitan City, Nepal, between 2013 and 2023. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining household surveys, waste sampling, and field observations. Households were selected using systematic random sampling, and waste generated over 24-hour was collected, segregated and analyzed from each household. Additionally, field observations of local waste management facilities were conducted to supplement the data and provide contextual understanding. Results shows that the average household waste generation increased by 72.8% (371.94 to 643.05 g/day) between 2013 and 2023 while the waste composition shifted, with organic waste decreasing from 77% to 66% and plastics increasing from 12% to 25%. Municipal waste collection efficiency improved from 92% to 98%, while exclusion rates dropped from 5.7% to 2%. Post-federalization governance led to the improved transparency in waste management but reduced ward-level support. Despite improvements in waste collection efficiency and transparency, challenges persist in coordination among multi-level government tiers. The significant rise in waste generation and changing composition highlights the need for improved institutional capacity, better integration across government levels, and targeted interventions for waste reduction and environmental protection in Nepal's evolving federal system.
期刊介绍:
Environmental Development provides a future oriented, pro-active, authoritative source of information and learning for researchers, postgraduate students, policymakers, and managers, and bridges the gap between fundamental research and the application in management and policy practices. It stimulates the exchange and coupling of traditional scientific knowledge on the environment, with the experiential knowledge among decision makers and other stakeholders and also connects natural sciences and social and behavioral sciences. Environmental Development includes and promotes scientific work from the non-western world, and also strengthens the collaboration between the developed and developing world. Further it links environmental research to broader issues of economic and social-cultural developments, and is intended to shorten the delays between research and publication, while ensuring thorough peer review. Environmental Development also creates a forum for transnational communication, discussion and global action.
Environmental Development is open to a broad range of disciplines and authors. The journal welcomes, in particular, contributions from a younger generation of researchers, and papers expanding the frontiers of environmental sciences, pointing at new directions and innovative answers.
All submissions to Environmental Development are reviewed using the general criteria of quality, originality, precision, importance of topic and insights, clarity of exposition, which are in keeping with the journal''s aims and scope.