AN official from the Yangon City Development Committee said last
week that a new system of collecting garbage according to categories
of rubbish would likely be introduced by the start of the 2008-2009
fiscal year.
U Than Lwin Oo, the deputy head of the committee’s pollution
control and cleansing department, said that according to the system,
mobile rubbish bins of different colours will be provided by YCDC
in Yangon’s 33 townships for people to discard different
types of garbage – such as food waste, paper, plastic and
old fluorescent lights.
He said that mixing different types of garbage can extend the
time-period it takes for the rubbish to decay and can also harm
the environment if toxic substances are mixed in with normal trash.
“Before the system is put into place we need to educate
people about how to categorise their garbage before throwing it
away and about the benefits of doing so,” he said.
“Most people don’t know much about environmental
issues so they need to be taught what kinds of garbage are dangerous
to the environment and to human health, what kinds decay quickly
and what kinds can be incinerated safely,” U Than Lwin Oo
said.
He added that most people in Myanmar already know about recycling
and understand the benefits of separating tin cans, plastic bottles
and cardboard from other types of garbage.
YCDC currently uses three systems for collecting rubbish: picking
up garbage bags that are discarded at specified dumping sites,
emptying mobile rubbish bins placed throughout the city and trolling
neighbourhoods with pushcarts into which residents can throw their
garbage.
U Kyi Nyunt, a 48-year-old resident of Botahtaung township,
said: “It will take time for people to get into the habit
of throwing their garbage into different-coloured cans. If YCDC
implements the system, I don’t think it will be easy for
people to follow because they don’t like to change their
ways,” he said.
According to YCDC records from March, the most recent month
for which statistics are available, about 1640 tonnes of garbage
are thrown away in Yangon each day, 1450 tonnes of which are collected
by the committee.
About 70 percent of the garbage is food waste.
