16/01/2026
LANDFILL MANAGEMENT, RESOURCE MAXIMIZATION AND POLLUTION REDUCTION IN ZAMBIA. 🇿🇲
The majority of Zambia’s landfills are made up of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) which is everyday, non-hazardous waste produced by human activity. This includes food scraps, packaging, paper, and plastics.
As the country’s population and economy grow, waste management is becoming an urgent concern. While waste can pollute land, air, and water, it is also one of our most renewable resources.
The main focus is on maximizing the use of Municipal solid waste , reducing land use for landfills, and applying Technologies in Treatment and Resource Utilization (TTRU). This supports the RRR initiative (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), lowers our carbon footprint, and promotes job creation and green sustainable development.
Statement: “It all begins from home.”
How we can help at home:
Start by sorting your waste into compartments:
* Recyclable: Plastic bottles, containers, hard plastics, paper, boxes, metals, fabrics, glass
* Organic: Food waste, agricultural residues, garden waste
* Non-recyclable: Medical waste, chemicals, etc.
Plans that can help reduce waste in Zambian landfills:
• Educate citizens through a systematic initiative against improper garbage disposal. This starts from as early as Nursery schools all the way to company offices.
• Enforce policies that promote proper waste management and recycling such as the Extended Producer Responsibility EPR polices.
• Promote, educate and enforce proper waste sorting at all levels from house holds to industries.
• Cut down on fresh production of non-biodegradable such as plastic bottles direct from the sources such as beverage companies.
• Enforce law which mandates production companies to publish the percentage of recycled material used each financial year.
• Restrictions on importation of Non-Biodegradables.
• More research and Pilot programs on Waste to Energy facilities and controlled incineration plants.
• Mass use of the Japanese Fukuoka method at landfills to combat methane release into the atmosphere.
• Building of advanced waste sorting facilities and inclusion of digitalized sorting equipment to improve recovery of plastic and metals.
• Government run and funded waste collection organs under the local councils through CDF. (Due to lack of resources, many households lack the resources to afford private waste collection services leading to informal dumping or burning).
• Government owned large-scale recycling infrastructure.
• Pay for waste program where the government buys recyclable material from citizens at a fixed price depending on demand.
• Provision of Stationary Bins at places of mass public activity such as bus stops, schools, sidewalks.
• Research on Value added uses of organic waste.
• Formalizing plastic recycling at large scale.
One may ask where all these recycled materials will go after processing;
• Pellets formed in the recycling of plastic or rubber can be infused in mixes and added into a pavement design. These pavements can be used in public infrastructure like schools, hospitals, playgrounds, sidewalks etc.
• Paper recycled can be used to make books which can be provided for free at government owned schools and other institutions.
• Scaling of Biodigesters and formation of organic fertilizers that the government through FRA can run a pilot program where they sell the fertilizer to farmers who will then sell their produce to the government all within one circle of a purchase agreement.
• Recycled Plastic, Wood, Rubber and metal can be used to cast components to form benches at bus stations, hospitals, parks, garbage bins, textile fibers for polyester clothing, water tanks, etc.
• Recycled rubber can be used to make speed humps, shoes, vibration pads, etc
In short Recycled plastic, rubber, and paper can be converted into construction materials, packaging products, and consumer goods, reducing landfill pressure and conserving natural resources.
What are your thoughts about this?
