Abstract
The present study constitutes the first social life cycle assessment (SLCA) study in Afghanistan and aims at assessing the social performance of the waste management system (WMS) of Kabul city. The system boundary considered includes households generating the waste, the sanitation department of Kabul city, scavengers, recycling shops, the recycling factory, and the local community living in its vicinity. Compared to previous SLCA studies that consider one stakeholder per organization, we distinguished between the manager and the worker level for each organization. In total, eight stakeholders, 90 inventory indicators, and 20 impact subcategories were investigated. Results show three main social issues: the overwork of scavengers, recycling shop owners and recycling factories’ workers and managers, the absence of communication and implication of the local community, and the poor cleanliness of the surroundings of the recycling factory and collection points. At the sanitation department, managers were found facing more psychological stress and overwork than workers, demonstrating the current isolation of the department inside Kabul’s local government. It seems nonetheless possible to improve Kabul’s WMS by redesigning the location of garbage bins and conducting communication campaigns towards consumers and the local community. That would help to minimize the nuisances associated with the handling of waste and to integrate better waste management activities into the socio-economy of Kabul city.
Highlights
Low management of urban wastes can lead to the contamination of surface water, groundwater, soil, and the atmosphere
Schmidt et al [18] and Muthu [19] highlighted analyses of social impacts according to unit processes, which is similar to environmental life cycle assessment (E-LCA), whereas UNEP [16] and Dreyer et al [19] laid emphasis on the consideration of the conduct of companies, organizations, and actors in the studied system
The current study evaluated the social impacts of the current waste management system (WMS) of Kabul city
Summary
Low management of urban wastes can lead to the contamination of surface water, groundwater, soil, and the atmosphere. The issue of urban wastes and the importance of waste solid waste management (SWM) is important in economically developing countries marked by the rapid urbanization process. Though allocating 20%–80% of municipal revenues to SWM [3], open dumping and open burning remain a widespread activity in economically developing countries and collection rates are as low as 30%–60% of total generated waste. The poor performance of Kabul’s waste management system (WMS) can be attributed to the current focus of local government on economic aspects and to a lesser extent environmental aspects to the detriment of a social approach of WMS. Finnveden et al [5] emphasized the importance of considering social issues for holistic waste management policies because it can help to design practical and achievable policies. Li et al [7] evaluated composting, waste-to-energy, and material recovery technologies in the context of Chinese WMS considering environmental effectiveness, economic productivity, and social health safety, and concluded that simultaneous environmental, economic and social approaches are necessary for building sustainable WMS
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