Solid waste management in Dhaka: Understanding the evolution of a waste regime

Municipal solid waste management is often viewed as a pressing environmental issue facing the global South, but waste can be turned into a valuable resource if properly managed. Waste mismanagement negatively impacts urban environmental sustainability. Waste governance in the global South has received significant attention due to complex social dynamics, interdependences, and webs of stakeholders involved. Detailed investigations are needed in southern cities to understand waste governance dynamics, how different socio-economic drivers influence governance shifts in waste governance, and what challenges cities face during these shifts. This paper investigates how municipal solid waste governance regimes have evolved in Dhaka over the last fifty years after independence in 1971 in terms of practices, strategies, and actors’ involvement. Using the waste regime concept, we analyse how MSW rules and regulations change over time, and how these changes impact waste infrastructure, actor participation, and waste flow dynamics. In July and September 2022, 50 semi-structured interviews were conducted with six stakeholder groups directly involved in municipal solid waste management in Dhaka, along with 18 focus groups and 3 field observations. Qualitative data analysis revealed three key waste regime periods developed between 1972 and 2022. There was a significant change in waste management practices and governance approaches during these periods. Ultimately, the waste governance regime increased waste collection efficiency and infrastructure development but failed to promote resource recovery. Dhaka’s solid waste governance requires an integrated formal and informal governance strategy that engages local stakeholders in appropriate resource recovery options. The paper provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the socio-political dynamics of waste governance regimes and how global South megacities manage waste and move towards environmental sustainability.