It is a short drive, about 20 minutes, from the city center of Vientiane to its suburb, in Xaythany district. As the population and traffic drop away, one might expect to see greener, cleaner  neighbourhoods. But in fact, the opposite is true. Now city officials are grappling with how to combat a growing garbage problem.

Mounds of trash dot open fields, while some piles lie burning by the roadside.  Clouds of acrid smoke drift across residential blocks choking residents and children who play in these fields.

Smoke from the 2018 fire at Vientiane Capital Km32 landfill site. Photo: The Laotian Times.

Waste is a problem for more than just the town of Xaythany. Other suburbs are afflicted by the same problem. Vientiane itself, home to more than 900,000 people, produces more than 600 tons of waste daily. 

Trash is collected by the municipality only if you have a contract, and it comes at a price. Businesses and homes without contracts – that account for about 70 percent of the population in Vientiane – throw their trash anywhere and everywhere: in heaps by the roadside, in open spaces and fields, and sometimes straight into the Mekong River.  

According to the Vientiane City Office for Management and Services (VCOMS), only 27 percent of the city’s population had contracts for waste collection in 2018. This presents a major challenge, as pollution from garbage affects the air, soil and water, which in turn affects public health.  

The Mayor of Vientiane and city officials raised waste management as a priority when our Accelerator Lab team met with them. The directive was clear: study the city’s waste management system, zero in on the challenges, and come up with solutions.  

So we began to examine the system, to get a comprehensive understanding of what was working, what wasn’t, and why. Our objective was to map the waste management system, identify gaps, and deploy targeted interventions.  

We tapped into our own, as well as UNDP’s networks to interview a range of  stakeholders engaged in waste management – such as sister UN agencies, government departments, private sector partners, NGO’s and international organizations.   

Figure 1. Waste Management Actors

Identifying Gaps 

Following a series of meetings and discussions, we identified several gaps:    

• A lack of law enforcement: Weak implementation of waste management bylaws
  

• A lack of trust: People do not separate their waste, as they believe it will eventually end up in a landfill
  

• A lack of awareness: Many people have little knowledge of waste segregation, and this topic isn't included in the national school curriculum 
  

• An easy way out: People burn their garbage out of habit, and because they can save money
  

• A lack of alternatives: People still use single-use plastic because it is cheap and convenient, however, they will most likely opt for alternative products  that offer similar convenience.    

The gaps shed some light on how we can address the problems at a systemic level, and where we might experiment with our interventions.  

So, we identified a few key interventions that we believe can be tested and scaled at the educational, economic, socio-cultural, legal, technological and institutional level, based on a hypothesis:

“People are unaware of waste management and the consequences of single use plastic; therefore, they do not separate and manage waste at home and work.”

What is the current knowledge of local people on waste management?   

To gauge waste management knowledge, we tested a focus group of 30 university students from different socio-economic backgrounds, with support from the National University of Laos and the Lao-American College.

Results revealed that almost 90 percent of students are aware of the consequences of poor waste management, as well as plastic pollution, and how current levels of consumption impact the planet. The results helped us comprehend the commitment of young people, especially university students, to help resolve these issues. We thought students could:

· Form a task force to tackle waste management in communities and educational institutions like Mod Deng Fai, and Recycle Bank

· Act as green advocates, utilizing social media to share information and practical know-how within their communities and networks 

We also learned that students are eager to follow waste separation procedures that they learned in school, or from media outlets, and would opt for cheaper alternatives to plastic.

And we realized that if proper waste management and recycling process are available, students would become early adopters and champions for the environment, which begged the question: How can we cultivate their spirit to create more impactful change?

Collaborative Experimentation with National University of Laos, and Vientiane City Office of Management and Services (VCOMS)

Our first experiment on waste management was conducted at the ‘That Luang’ festival, the biggest Buddhist festival in Laos, that hosts more than 10,000 visitors, annually.

We wanted to understand people’s behavior around waste management and to design suitable interventions. In parallel, as part of a portfolio of experiments, we also aimed to find out what would be a practical model for waste management at festivals in Laos. 

We mobilized 50 university students to help us observe trends at this 7-day festival from 5pm to 9pm. To better understand littering patterns, we randomly allocated 15 bins, along with 190 bins from the private sector, across the venue and observed each area. We received reports from volunteers and VCOMs staff on trash collected from those bins, at the end of each evening.

Figure below illustrated the allocation of bins at the venue

This information combined with our observations, revealed that plastic bottles and containers account for 80 percent of waste collected, while 20 percent is food waste. We also learned that a majority of visitors and vendors didn’t properly dispose or separate their trash.

The key findings:

• Unlike previous years – instead of making vendors responsible for waste management this year – Vientiane City took charge and encouraged corporate environmental responsibility. The private sector played a major role by providing bins and one business even assigned staff to distribute trash bags to every vendor. Meanwhile, city workers were tasked with taking the trash to a landfill
• The venue was cleaner because of the extra trash bins, but people still littered in the areas where there weren’t any bins
• Visitors paid attention to UNDP bins labelled for waste separation. Some parents brought their children to the bins to encourage waste separation, which also made it easy for trash pickers to collect recyclable materials
• Due to last year’s campaign urging reduction of print and sampling materials, there were fewer brochures, plastic plates, and cups
• Several ad-hoc youth volunteers at the festival took care of trash and educated visitors about waste management. This reinforced lessons we learned with the university students’ focus group
• The public sector also made announcements about trash management. And a team of cleaners cleared trash every hour, and city officials set up a booth to promote waste management and land conservation
• On the morning of the last day, we observed that 90 percent of plastic waste came from visitors giving alms to monks, as their offerings were wrapped in plastic

So, what do the study results show?  

To better understand perceptions on waste management and the single-use of plastic, we conduction an online survey with a large group of people, and also conducted interviews at the festival. Twenty student volunteers interviewed and observed visitors, vendors and exhibitors every night – monitoring littering from 5 to 9 p.m., for seven days.

When asked about plastic, half of the respondents knew about PVC, but nearly 40% reported that they didn’t know the seven types of plastics, in the questionnaire.

The survey also paralleled our observations of improper waste management. Regular waste bins filled up quickly, while the UNDP bins labelled for separation were mostly empty or were misused. On the last two days, volunteers were assigned to stand by bins to educate and raise awareness about waste segregation.

The main causes of littering: a lack of awareness, a limited number of bins, and people’s proximity to bins. Participants suggested increasing the number of bins and having disposal spots with clear signage, while others suggested an awareness-raising campaign, to highlight waste and its adverse consequences.

Our online survey result also supports these suggestions. Eighty three percent of respondents said they would segregate waste if there are well-labelled bins, and a well-managed recycling system.

More than 80 percent of respondents said a social media campaign would influence their behaviour. Interventions by rules and regulations scored low, but immediate banning of plastic is seen as critical.

Our ‘That Luang’ experiment and the focus group discussion produced two key findings.

First, people lack access to services due to a high service fee – US $6 for four bags a month, per family. Second, access for trash collection in some areas is

limited, especially due to narrow streets or if one lives in the suburbs. So, people burned their garbage or dumped into water bodies.

Second, the low visibility of the private sector in waste collection, especially in the suburbs. Waste management companies can play a crucial role in bridging inadequate waste collection capacity, more players will make for more competition, giving people access to faster and cheaper services.

What can be done? 

The waste management challenge isn’t unique to Vientiane and there’s no easy panacea or silver bullet. But the overall results seem to show that a well thought out awareness-raising campaign could be a game changer, as from the gaps identified, a pattern emerged:

· People don’t separate their waste

· People aren’t aware of waste segregation

· People burn their garbage out of habit

Our data suggested that open burning could potentially be mitigated, if citizens have access to information and are aware of its impact on health.

Armed with this information, we now embark on a call to action, seeking ideas from people to spark local solutions to explore, test, and scale. In our next blog of this series, we’ll take you on a journey to a Northern province of Laos, to learn how waste management is put in place, and what we can learn from positive deviance.

Written by: UNDP Accelerator Lab team in Lao PDR and our communications officer

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors alone and not the United Nations Development Programme.