potential pathways for the waste management system of kasese

POTENTIAL PATHWAYS
FOR THE WASTE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM OF KASESE
*
Josefine Vanhille, Andreas Wolf, Kenneth Hansen, David Drysdale
P1 Semester project, Sustainable Cities, Aalborg University Copenhagen
January 2013

*
The marabou stork – with a wingspan of up to three and a half meter it is one of the biggest birds in
the world; at the same time it has been observed by the report’s authors to be one of the corner
stones of the non-human stakeholders in Kasese’s WMS. Due to the scope of this study its roles and
responsibilities in regard to the other stakeholders could not be further researched. Still it can be
stated, that its activities can be classified as informal treatment, being characterised by the consumption
of a high organic waste fraction. In the waste hierarchy it can be found on the second lowest
level, working at energy recovery supplemented by a small share of anaerobic digestion. It has been
identified as a potential indicator for a locked-in WMS, which needs further improvements.
The authors of the report wish the city of Kasese good luck with those improvements along new
pathways for their WMS and that the marabou stork can be un-locked on his way to a life in freedom
and un-wasted harmony.

Title:
At the Junction – Potential Pathways for the
Waste Management System of Kasese
Theme:
“Path dependency and sustainable urban
development: Creating niches for radical
transformation”
Project Period:
10 th of October 2012 – 11 th of January 2013
Authors:
Josefine Vanhille
Andreas Wolf
David William Drysdale
Kenneth Hansen
Supervisor:
Stig Hirsbak
David Christensen
Circulation:
3 pcs hardcopy
Digitally available via Aalborg University
Pages:
67
Appendices:
5 + appended CD (containing interviews)
Synopsis:
This report analyses the municipal solid waste
management system in Kasese, Uganda. This
study originated when the network organisation
access2innovation proposed the concept of
waste-to-energy as a solution for the Kasese
WMS and as a potential business case for Danish
companies. Crucial informational gaps with regard
to the characteristics of the WMS remained
unfilled.
The Integrated Sustainable Waste Management
concept provided the theoretical framework and
methodological foundation to carry out the research.
The first part of the study involved a
detailed mapping of both the elements of the
waste system and the stakeholders. In understanding
its structure and functioning, particular
attention was paid to the socio-technical dynamics
that shape Kasese’s WMS, creating path
dependencies and situations of lock-in. This
analysis led to the identification of a set of issues
that are key to improving the WMS. As a
second step, it was investigated how key issues
could be addressed in three potential future
pathways for Kasese’s WMS: an extension of the
waste system with a centralized biogas plant,
one where an incineration facility is added, and
a baseline pathway in which the possibilities for
improving the WMS without the introduction of
additional technologies.
In conclusion, the WMS in Kasese is characterised
by the generation of a dominant organic
waste fraction, which is mainly informally managed
while several sources of lock-in stabilises
this system. Improvements to the WMS could be
achieved within all three potential pathways,
provided that the non-technical aspects surrounding
the system are also put in place to
complement the chosen technology.
Keywords:
waste management system, Uganda, developing country, path dependency, integrated sustainable
waste management.
The report's content is freely available, but publication (with source) may be made only with the
agreement of the author.

PREFACE
This P1 semester project report was carried out from the 10th of October 2012 till the 11th of January
2013 on the Master Programme of Sustainable Cities at Aalborg University Copenhagen with the
following semester theme :
“The Role of Organisations and Business in Sustainable Urban Development and has the theme:
Path dependency and sustainable urban development: Creating niches for radical transformation”
(Driscoll and Mathiesen, 2012, 11)
The study was supervised by main supervisor associate professor Stig Hirsbak and co-supervisor
Ph.D. student David Christensen, both affiliated with the Department of Development and Planning,
Aalborg University Copenhagen.
The study could not have been conducted without the contribution of several persons to whom we
would like to pay our thanks:
James Okot-Okumu, Ass. professor at Makerere University, Kampala
Bahram Dehghan, Senior Project Manager in Energy City Frederikshavn
Baluku Kabbyanga Godfrey Kiime, Mayor of Kasese Municipality
Selverio Mukobi, Deputy Town Clerk of Kasese Municipality
Father Peter Mubanga Basaliza, Chair of the Rwenfod Foundation
Nakitende Fiona, Kasese Compost plant manager
Per Egede Nielsen, Managing director of Nielsen Consulting, Nairobi
Dr. Wefula Edward, Medical superintendent, Kilembe Mines Hospital
Louis Muhwezi, Municipal officer in charge of waste and health
Job Mutyaba, Energy manager, WWF
Robert Ddamulira, Energy and Climate manager, WWF
Nabankema Viktoria, trainee, WWF
Vian Musika, Kasese District, WWF
Also thanks to access2innovation and Aalborg University for the financial support to fund the field
trip to the case area.

ABSTRACT
This report analyses the municipal solid waste management system in Kasese, Uganda. This study
originated when the network organisation access2innovation proposed the concept of waste-toenergy
as a solution for the Kasese WMS and as a potential business case for Danish companies. Crucial
informational gaps with regard to the characteristics of the WMS remained unfilled. The Integrated
Sustainable Waste Management concept provided the theoretical framework and methodological
foundation to carry out the research. The first part of the study involved a detailed mapping of
both the elements of the waste system and the stakeholders. In understanding its structure and
functioning, particular attention was paid to the socio-technical dynamics that shape Kasese’s WMS,
creating path dependencies and situations of lock-in. This analysis led to the identification of a set of
issues that are key to improving the WMS. As a second step, it was investigated how key issues could
be addressed in three potential future pathways for Kasese’s WMS: an extension of the waste system
with a centralized biogas plant, one where an incineration facility is added, and a baseline pathway in
which the possibilities for improving the WMS without the introduction of additional technologies. In
conclusion, the WMS in Kasese is characterised by the generation of a dominant organic waste fraction,
which is mainly informally managed while several sources of lock-in stabilises this system. Improvements
to the WMS could be achieved within all three potential pathways, provided that the
non-technical aspects surrounding the system are also put in place to complement the chosen technology.

ABBREVIATIONS
AAU Aalborg University
A2I access2innovation
CDM Clean Development Mechanism
EIA Environmental impact assessment
ISWM Integrated Sustainable Waste Management
GHG Greenhouse gas
KMC Kasese Municipal Council
NEMA National Environment Management Authority
North Europe and Northern America >> developed countries
South Africa, Asia and South America >> developing countries
STS Science, Technology and Society
TIC Techno-institutional complex
UGX Ugandan Shilling
USD United States Dollar
W2E Waste-to-Energy
WHE Waste Hierarchy Elements
WMS Waste Management System
WSE Waste System Elements
WSP Waste System Phases

TABLE OF CONTENT
0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 2
0.1 STRUCTURE OF REPORT .......................................................................................................... 3
1 PROBLEM AREA AND RESEARCH QUESTION ................................................ 4
1.1 WASTE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ............................................................. 4
1.2 ENTER KASESE ......................................................................................................................... 5
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION & DELIMITATION OF THIS STUDY ........................................................ 5
2 THEORIES .................................................................................................... 8
2.1 PATH DEPENDENCY AND LOCK-INS - A WAY OF LOOKING AT SYSTEMS ................................. 8
2.2 ISWM - WHAT IS THAT THING ................................................................................................. 9
2.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE THEORIES USED ................................................................................11
3 METHODOLOGY .........................................................................................12
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................................................12
3.2 OPERATIONALISATION OF THE THEORETICAL CONCEPTS ....................................................12
3.3 METHODS ..............................................................................................................................13
3.4 TOOLBOX ...............................................................................................................................14
3.5 DATA ......................................................................................................................................15
4 CHARACTERISATION OF KASESE’S WMS .....................................................19
4.1 HIGH LEVEL OVERVIEW .........................................................................................................19
4.2 WASTE SYSTEM ELEMENTS ANALYSIS ...................................................................................23
4.3 ANALYSIS OF STAKEHOLDERS IN THE EXISTING WMS ...........................................................36
4.4 SOURCES OF LOCK-IN ............................................................................................................43
4.5 4.4 KEY ISSUES .......................................................................................................................44
5 POTENTIAL PATHWAYS ..............................................................................45
5.1 ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS IN FUTURE PATHWAYS ...................................................45
5.2 DESCRIPTION OF POTENTIAL PATHWAYS .............................................................................50
5.3 KEY ISSUES VS. POTENTIAL PATHWAYS .................................................................................51
6 DISCUSSION ...............................................................................................58
6.1 RESULTS .................................................................................................................................58
6.2 METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION .............................................................................60
6.3 THEORIES ...............................................................................................................................61

7 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................63
7.1 CHARACTERIZATION OF THE WMS IN KASESE ......................................................................63
7.2 POTENTIAL PATHWAYS FOR THE WMS IN KASESE ................................................................64
7.3 PERSPECTIVES ........................................................................................................................65
7.4 AFTERTHOUGHTS ..................................................................................................................65
8 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................67
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................69
APPENDIX A: CONTEXT .....................................................................................72
APPENDIX B: NATIONAL LAWS .........................................................................75
APPENDIX C: SCOPE..........................................................................................76
APPENDIX D: TABLE OF ISSUES .........................................................................78
APPENDIX E: SCHEDULE OF FIELD TRIP .............................................................86

0 INTRODUCTION
“A waste-to-energy solution would be a really big blessing for this town: The energy solution that will
come will help me to clean up the town” (Kiime 2012, Mayor of Kasese)
This report focuses on the municipal solid waste management system (WMS) in Kasese, Uganda, with
the overarching aim of contributing to its improvement.
The scene was set for this study when the network organisation access2innovation (A2I) identified
through observation some issues in the Kasese WMS (for example roadside dumping, burning of
waste, overladen skips etc.). From these initial observations by A2I the concept of waste-to-energy
(W2E) was identified both as a solution for the Kasese WMS and as a potential business case for Danish
companies. A shortcoming was that while a network is actively being built around introducing
biogas or incineration technologies into Kasese’s WMS, crucial informational gaps with regard to its
characteristics remain unfilled.
STABILIZED SYSTEM
WMS
CHARACTERISATION
KEY ISSUES
CHALLENGE THE LOCK-IN
POTENTIAL
PATHWAYS
"NEW"
STAKEHOLDERS
BASELINE
TIME
FIGURE 0.1: THE STORY OF THIS STUDY PROJECTED ON A
TIMELINE
With this shortcoming in mind, as a first step in this study, a characterisation of the existing system
(see Figure 0.1.) of waste management in Kasese is carried out. The WMS is conceived as a sociotechnical
structure, comprising the technologies
that are being used as well as the stakeholders
that are involved. The exercise carried out involves
a detailed mapping of both the elements
of the waste system and the stakeholders. In
understanding its structure and functioning,
particular attention is paid to the socio-technical
dynamics that shape Kasese’s WMS, creating
path dependencies and situations of lock-in.
This analysis leads to the identification of a set
of issues that are key to improving the WMS.
As a second step, it is investigated how and to
what extent these key issues could be addressed
in three potential future pathways for Kasese’s
WMS, that are currently proposed by the A2I network: an extension of the waste system with a centralized
biogas plant, one where an incineration facility is added, and a baseline pathway in which the
possibilities for improving the WMS without the introduction of additional technologies are discussed.
These potential pathways are analysed from the perspective of how they can contribute to
unlocking the current lock-ins within Kasese’s WMS.
2

0.1 STRUCTURE OF REPORT
The report is structured as visualized in the left side of Figure 0.2. The right side of the figure represents
how the report encompasses the different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.
1. Problem area and research question
Knowledge -
Remember
2.
Theories
3. Methodology
4. Characterization
of Kasese’s
WMS
5. Potential
pathways
7.
Conclusion
Understand -
Describe,
Explain
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate
6. Discussion and perspectives
Create
8. Recommendations
FIGURE 0.2: THE STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT, HOW THE CHAPTERS ARE INTERRELATED AND THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF LEARNING
The first chapter introduces the reader to the problem area of waste management in the context of
Kasese, leading to the twofold research question and its delimitation. Chapter 2 outlines the theoretical
framework that this research draws upon. The principles of Integrated Sustainable Waste Management
(ISWM) are framed in the broader field of Science, Technology and Society (STS), and it is
elaborated on how key concepts such as path dependencies and lock-in can shape a waste management
system. The way in which the theoretical concepts are applied in the operationalization of the
research is covered in the methodology chapter. The core of the report is formed by the analysis in
chapters 4 and 5, which are therefore placed in the centre of Figure 0.2. In turn, they respectively
assess the existing system and the potential future pathways of Kasese’s WMS, as visualized in Figure
0.1. In chapter 6 findings from the theoretical framework, methodology and analyses are critically
discussed and reflected upon. All described chapters serve as input to the conclusion that summarizes
the key findings in chapter 7. Finally, a number of recommendations for the WMS in Kasese are
distilled from the findings in chapter 8.
According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, attaining a complete understanding of a subject comprises several
levels of learning, ordered hierarchically from the level of remembering knowledge to the most complex
level of creation. The knowledge and remembering level as well as the level of understanding of
the taxonomy is applied through the introduction and problem area chapter to create the basis for
the report. The problems that have been formed in these levels are then applied and analysed in the
theoretical framework, the methodology and the analyses while an evaluation of these results and
methodologies is carried out in the discussion and reflections chapter. Finally, the findings of the
research are used to create recommendations, in which the gained knowledge is put into a practice
oriented perspective.
In the next chapter the problem area is described along with the research questions and delimitation
of the study.
3

1 PROBLEM AREA AND RESEARCH QUESTION
This chapter briefly explores the WMS in developing countries on a generic level. Focus is placed on
current challenges associated with managing a WMS and its relevance for sustainability. The second
part of the chapter describes firstly, the specific research questions for the Kasese WMS, including a
summary of why these questions are relevant, and secondly, a description of the delimitation of the
study.
1.1 WASTE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
In cities around the world, waste management is one of the most challenging and at the same time
most visible urban services. Understanding the way in which waste is generated, collected, transported,
treated and/or disposed provides important insight into how people live, how society is organized,
and how the urban area is governed. Solid waste management is often interwoven with its
organization at the municipal level. Ever since the mid-19th century, when the spreading of infectious
diseases was linked for the first time to uncollected waste and poor sanitation, waste management
was being installed as a municipal responsibility in cities around the world. Nowadays, the effectiveness
and sustainability of the waste management system is often seen as an indicator for the
quality of the city’s governance and municipal management (UN Habitat 2010; Okot-Okumu 2012)
Waste management is inherently related to the different dimensions of sustainability. First, from an
environmental perspective, the way in which waste is dealt with produces implications ranging from
local soil, air and water pollution to global environmental impacts stemming from the greenhouse
gas emissions (GHG) associated with waste treatment and disposal. Second, public health hazards
arise from deficient urban waste management systems. Uncontrolled open dumping directly affects
the spreading of infectious diseases and increases the risk of direct contact with the toxic substances
present in dumped waste. Smoke from (back-yard) burning of waste contains possibly toxic particles,
leading to increased risk of respiratory diseases and cancer. Furthermore waste management matters
socially for its aesthetic impact on the living environment, directly affecting the well-being of the
population. Third and finally, solid waste management commonly represents between 20 and 50% of
municipalities’ recurrent budget in the urban areas in developing countries (World Bank 2011). Even
though this often makes it the municipality’s principal expenditure item, the economic constraints
are still very strong. Lack of financial capacity to invest is often perceived as one of the heaviest barriers
to improvement of municipal solid waste management (UN Habitat 2010; Okot-Okumu 2012).
In cities in the developing world in particular, the challenges that are associated with each of these
aspects are especially pronounced. High population growth and rapid and uncontrolled urbanization
have led to exponentially growing waste flows in African cities (Onibokun 1999). Combined with
pressing financial constraints, the waste management capacity of local authorities is often too overwhelmed
to provide adequate services. This is displayed by the fact that often 30-60% of all the urban
solid waste in developing countries remains uncollected and less than 50% of the population is
served (World Bank 2011). However, every city is different, and for waste management systems certainly
counts that there are no standardised, one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, the (UN Habitat
2010; Okot-Okumu 2012) report on waste management in the world’s cities puts forward a “local
solutions to local problems” approach. From this perspective, a deep understanding of the specific
conditions, local circumstances, existing problems and, in particular, strengths in the functioning of
the WMS in the city at hand, is prerequisite to shape strategies for improvement that can build further
upon this knowledge.
4

1.2 ENTER KASESE
All of the aspects described above are applicable to the town of Kasese, the case in this report.
Kasese is the “chief” town in the Kasese district, situated in Western-Uganda. The urban area of
Kasese is estimated to count just over 100,000 inhabitants 1 . DoubIed in size since the last national
Census in 2002 (Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2002), it is one of the fastest growing cities in Uganda.
Uganda’s local government structure counts as one of the most decentralized in Africa (Oosterveer
and Van Vliet 2010), and local councils have been given the full mandate for environmental management
functions including waste management services (Okot-Okumu and Nyenje 2011). The
Kasese district was elected Uganda’s “green energy champion district”, an initiative of WWF Uganda,
implying that it must be completely CO 2 -neutral by 2030. This attracted attention from access2innovation
(A2I), a Danish-based network “bringing together civil organizations, businesses and
the academic world [...] to create new sustainable solutions and business models targeting needs and
potentials mainly in the emerging markets in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda” (access2innovation
2012). By working together with WWF Uganda as a local partner, A2I identified potential cases that
were business opportunities for Danish companies, centred around green energy in Kasese.
During one of the initial visits to Kasese in June 2012 with interested Danish partners, the delegation
members’ observations on the abundance of waste generated the idea of transforming waste into a
source of energy. By improving on both the waste management system and on energy provision
goals, installing a more controlled waste management system tied to waste-to-energy 2 for the production
of electricity seemed a textbook example of killing two birds with one stone.
In the early steps of conceptualising this research study an informational gap with respect to the
waste-part of this case was identified. An initial literature study of municipal solid waste management
in Uganda brought up a number of causes for poor and unsustainable implementation of waste
management strategies, such as lack of participatory planning, little local empowerment, and lack of
capacity to adequately adopt the technology-intensive methods from the developed world (Okot-
Okumu and Nyenje 2011). These issues transcend the borders of a narrow, traditional waste management
assessment of the tangible and technical elements. It clearly showed the need for adopting
a socio-technical perspective, that allowed to incorporate the technical, organisational, societal, and
institutional aspects of the WMS into the analysis. The approach developed under the title “Integrated
Sustainable Waste Management” provides a useful framework to embark on this report’s analytical
journey, given its broad scope, its emphasis on the need for context-appropriate solutions that
are supported by the local stakeholders, and its explicit striving to “achieve higher levels of sustainability
and integration in waste management activities” (Anschütz et al. 2004, 14).
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION & DELIMITATION OF THIS STUDY
The principal purpose of this study is to contribute to improving of the WMS in Kasese by acquiring
and presenting a full and comprehensive insight into its functioning. The second purpose is to apply
the understandings of the existing WMS to assess to what extent and under which conditions W2E
1 The reader, who is not familiar with the Kasese context, is kindly asked to refer to a more complete introduction to the
Kasese municipality and its surroundings, which is provided in Appendix X.
2 In contrast to its connotation in Denmark, the concept of waste-to-energy was used as a generic term to refer to any
energy recovery from waste, including incineration and biogas production.
5

pathways can provide an answer to the challenges of the WMS, given that A2I and WWF are focusing
on the scenario of W2E.This purpose is translated in the following twofold research question.
A. From an Integrated Sustainable Waste Management perspective, how can the waste management
system in the Kasese Municipality be characterized and what are its key issues?
B. How can the identified key issues be addressed in the baseline, a centralised biogas or an
incineration pathway?
The purpose of addressing the first question is to establish a sound informational base about the
WMS in Kasese based on the ISWM concept, as no such study has been conducted so far. What the
ISWM concept comprises is further elaborated on in the theories and methodology chapters, see
chapter 2 and 3. The term waste management system (WMS) is defined broadly, to include the dimension
of the waste system elements as well as the stakeholder dimension (see section 4.3 and
5.1). The characterisation is therefore done on both those dimensions, from which a set of key issues
are distilled 3 .
Answering the second question means assessing how the introduction of W2E technologies provides
opportunities and/or pitfalls to improving the Kasese WMS. Building further upon our findings from
the first question, the identified key issues are discussed in the light of a centralized biogas pathway,
an incineration pathway and a baseline pathway in which no additional technologies are introduced.
The explication of how these pathways are understood and used in the analysis can be found in section
5.2.
The scope of this research study is delimited in seven dimensions. First, it does not develop solutions
for implementing the outcomes and recommendations. The focus is on the identification of key issues
and how they could be addressed by potential pathways. Second, throughout the research report,
the WMS remains the focal point of interest. In this, the investigation of the W2E pathways
does not include a detailed analysis of the energy-related issues of introducing these technologies.
Rather, a sound understanding of the WMS is seen as a prerequisite for detailed investigation of their
energy potential. As such, it is important to emphasise that this study has no aim to be a feasibility
study for W2E technologies. Third, this study does not aim to be a complete ISWM assessment, as
prescribed in the ISWM guidance documents (Anschütz et al. 2004), as this can easily take several
years to complete and requires an involvement of the local stakeholders from beginning to end.
Fourth, the choice for a socio-technical perspective implies that the aim is not to gain an in-depth
insight of the technical properties of different waste management technologies, nor to investigate
the precise functioning of the Kasese’s institutional structure, but rather to provide the necessary
insight into the character of the WMS. Fifth, while environmental and health impacts are inherently
part of the WMS, this research has no aim to empirically measure these in the Kasese context. Rather,
we draw upon available research to outline the contours of the effects that can be expected in
both domains. Sixth, the focus is on the WMS in the geographical area of the Kasese Municipal Council
(KMC) 4 . Following from this, import or export of waste is not being considered. Also, we do not
take a life-cycle perspective to the WMS. A final delimitation is that only known technology has been
3 Section 3.3 in the methodology chapter describes the process of how this is done in more detail.
4 The exact meaning, implication and use of the term Kasese Municipality is elaborated in the scope in Appendix C.
6

taken up in the analysis. At no point in the research, we go into what the development of future
technologies could imply for Kasese’s WMS.
In the following chapter, the theories that underpin the report structure and methodology are described
to frame the approach taken to answering the research questions. In chapter 3 the theoretical
concepts are operationalized into a methodology adapted to the specific case at hand. In chapter
4 and 5, the analyses are carried out that lead to answering Research Question A and B respectively.
Before concluding in Chapter 8, the findings are discussed and reflected upon in Chapter 7.
7

2 THEORIES
This chapter outlines the theoretical framework we draw upon in order to answer the research question.
The underlying theories applied in this research are the theories of “path dependency” and
“lock-ins”. The theories will be applied at the relevant parts throughout the report to highlight overarching
effects of path dependencies and lock-ins on the WMS in Kasese. Therefore in a first step
these theories will be described. Secondly the core concept used for both the first and the second
part of the research question, the “Integrated Sustainable Waste Management” (ISWM), will be outlined.
After an explanation of what ISWM consists of, it is argued first for the appropriateness of path
dependencies and lock-ins and secondly why ISWM is the right framework for our research and why
it is supplementing the two theories mentioned before.
2.1 PATH DEPENDENCY AND LOCK-INS - A WAY OF LOOKING AT SYSTEMS
The theories of path dependency and lock-ins stem from studies in the field of Science, Technology
and Society (STS) taking a constructivist viewpoint. This viewpoint helps to describe how cultural,
political and social aspects are strongly intertwined with the way in which science and technological
innovation are constructed and how those at the same time shape culture, politics and social aspects
(Bijker 2001).
Path dependency theory hereby tries to explain how certain processes and technologies stabilize
over time. While at the beginning patterns of timing and sequence can be critical to the decision if
one or another path is taken, with time “particular courses of action, once introduced, can be almost
impossible to reverse” (Pierson 2000, 251). Therefore it happens that “large consequences may result
from relatively "small" or contingent events and consequently, political development is often
punctuated by critical moments or junctures that shape the basic contours of social life” (Pierson
2000, 251). Furthermore, once a path is chosen, maybe due to a small event, the mechanism of increasing
returns comes into play. Increasing returns means that a path is self-reinforcing itself, as the
probability for a next step on this path increases with each step down, or put the other way around,
the cost of switching to an alternative path increases over time (Pierson 2000). This might be due to
several reasons, such as (1) large set-up costs, (2) learning effects of a technology, which means that
efficiency improves with increasing experience, and (3) coordination effects, which arise when the up
scaling of an approach leads to reduced costs (Foxon 2002).
The theory of lock-ins is adding on path dependency, as it is describing the chronologically next step,
namely what mechanisms work around an already established system/technology. To describe the
source of a lock-in situation, Unruh uses the term of a techno-institutional complex (TIC), which is the
result of “technological, organizational, social and institutional co-evolution” (Unruh 2002, 318) of a
system/technology.
Table 2.1 presents sources of lock-in with some helpful examples.
8

TABLE 2.1: SOURCES OF LOCK-INS ACCORDING TO UNRUH (2002, 318)
Lock-in source
Technological
Organizational
Industrial
Societal
Institutional
Examples
Dominant design, standard technological architectures and components
Routines, training, departmentalization, customer-supplier relations
Industry standards, technological inter-relatedness, co-specialized assets
System socialization, adaptation of preferences and expectations
Government policy intervention, legal frameworks, departments/ministries
In order to challenge a locked-in, dysfunctional system different approaches, working at different
levels of the system, can be applied. Unruh names hereby:
The end-of-pipe approach, which refers to the strategy of e.g. only adding a filter to the end
of a pipe in order to avoid the undesired outputs of a system;
The continuity approach, which recognises that more fundamental changes to the system
have to be performed, but the overall system structure stays unchallenged; and
The discontinuity approach, which aims at replacing the whole system with a new one, that is
expected to function with less negative side-effects.
Even though it is the most difficult to achieve, Unruh argues further that the last mentioned approach
is in certain cases the only option. The forces for un-locking the system can either come from
outside of the system, as for example a new strong technology emerging and challenging the existing
one and thereby forming a new TIC around itself, or from the inside. But because “it is difficult for
policy makers to undertake institutional change without a solid mandate, social change often precedes
institutional change in democratic societies.” (Unruh 2002, 322). The insight from this statement
is in line with the ISWM, as it is a concept focusing on both bottom-up and top-down approaches
at the same time.
2.2 ISWM - WHAT IS THAT THING
The concept of “Integrated Sustainable Waste Management” (ISWM) has been developed since the
mid-1990s by a group of practitioners in waste management (many of them related to the World
Bank), scholars from WASTE in Gouda, the Netherlands, in collaboration with the UWEP programme
partners around the world, and was later adopted by, among others, the UN Habitat (2010). ISWM is
a framework to describe, theorise, assess and ultimately improve (depending on the focus of the
user) existing systems of waste management in a city or town, in particular in low and middle income
countries.
Anschütz et al. (2004) outline and describe ISWM as distinguished from more traditional, engineering-based
waste management assessment and planning methods in several ways, which is among
others, by:
An explicit attention for a broad range of stakeholders, issues and conditions;
A particular concern for the most disadvantaged groups;
9

Giving priority to the conservation of environmental resources, using the waste management
hierarchy as a cornerstone;
Basing the assessment on a wider range of normative principles, including fairness, sustainability
and equity besides efficiency and effectiveness;
Its radical shift in approach to the planning process, from a technical bureaucratic exercise to
decentralized and participatory one;
Its strong emphasis on the importance of taking into account the particular conditions,
strengths and weaknesses of the local context.
FIGURE 2.1: THE CONCEPT OF INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE
WASTE MANAGEMENT (ANSCHÜTZ ET AL. 2004, XX)
10
In order to achieve this, ISWM identifies
three key dimensions of the waste management
system: (1) the relevant stakeholders,
(2) the waste system elements and (3) a set
of aspects which are heavily dependent on
the context (see Figure 2.1). Those dimensions
are resulting out of the understanding
“that it is not the technical issues, but the
other aspects of waste management, which
are most likely to influence the success or
failure of interventions” (Dulac 2001, 8).
The first key dimension recognized in ISWM
is the stakeholders. ISWM defines a stakeholder
hereby very broadly as “a person or
organisation that has a stake, an interest in (...) waste management” (Anschütz et al. 2004, 19). Besides
the municipality and the households, which are always stakeholders, the stakeholders can be
very specific for each context and have diverse interests. One central challenge of the ISWM process
is “to get them to agree to cooperate for a common purpose, that of improving the waste system”
(Anschütz et al. 2004, 19).
Unlike other theories about actors, like the actor network theory by (Callon 1987), non-human actors
are not integrated in this approach. Despite this, ISWM recognises a set of waste system elements,
which can be interpreted as those non-human actors.
They contain the four phases generation, collection,
transport and treatment/disposal (in the
further report by the authors referred to as waste
system phases (WSP)), which can be described as
the technical components of a WMS. Furthermore
they also contain the four elements of the waste
hierarchy prevention/reduction, re-use, recycling
and recovery (referred to as waste hierarchy elements
(WHE)), with a declining desirability from
the first to the last element. The European Commission
puts strong emphasis on prevention (European
Commission 2012), therefore this point is
prevention/
reduction
re-use
recycling
recovery
disposal
desirability
FIGURE 2.2: THE WASTE HIERARCHY AS USED IN THIS
REPORT, BASED ON ISWM AND THE DEFINITIONS OF
THE EU COMMISSION (EUROPEAN COMMISSION 2012)

included in the most desirable level of the waste hierarchy used for this study. Furthermore the EU
Commission includes disposal, which is in this report referred to as a form of treatment, and therefore
a part of the WSE5 (see Figure 2.2).
The last key dimension in the ISWM approach is the aspects, which describe six “lenses, through
which the waste system can be assessed” (Anschütz et al. 2004, 20). These aspects are seen as crucial
to assess and understand, in order to apply changes to the system.
Along with the theorisation of ISWM as a concept, a set of guidance documents have been devised,
which offer an analytical framework for assessing and improving the existing WMS. One of these
guidance documents is used for the methodology for this study.
2.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE THEORIES USED
Why is this set of theories a good framework to answer the research questions? Our research is
based on the insight of the STS research, that technologies cannot be thought independent of the
framework they are embedded in. This is recognised by the theories of path dependencies and lockins
as the basic principle working behind established systems. They integrate this system perspective
in order to understand how whole systems, such as a waste management system, stabilized due to
increasing return effects along the pathway and how to challenge such a locked-in system. This adds
an important dimension in order to contribute to the improvement of the WMS in Kasese.
How does ISWM link with path dependency and lock-in theory? First it can be stated, that it is in accordance
with the insights of STS research, as the publications on ISWM 6 focus on how technological
dimensions (e.g. collection and treatment) and social dimensions (e.g. socio-cultural aspects or
stakeholder relations) in a waste system interrelate and that they have to be described together in
order to understand how a system functions and to make improvements on it. Furthermore it offers
a helpful framework for the assessment including all the dimensions desired by the authors of this
report around the technical components of the WMS. Our research benefits hereby from the fact,
that ISWM is a result of studies in developing world contexts and is therefore tailored to a context
like Kasese. This is presented by the UN Habitat (2010), where a list of examples make explicit what
ISWM means to concrete cases and how the methods described in (Anschütz et al. 2004) support the
process of improving the WMS.
The described theories in this section will be used as a framework for the methodology which is presented
in the next chapter.
5 At the same time it is recognised, that all actions, which cannot be covered by the top four levels of the waste hierarchy
can be described as disposal; therefore this additional last level is also part of the waste hierarchy used in this report, even
though it is described under treatment.
6 (Klundert and Anschütz 2001; Anschütz et al. 2004; Dulac 2001)
11

3 METHODOLOGY
This chapter describes the overarching methodological approach that was taken to answer the research
question and explains how the different analyses are coherent. The first section introduces
the case study research design that was adopted. The requirements for carrying out a case study
research design guide the following sections of this chapter. In section 2, the theoretical concepts are
operationalized and applied. Section 3 outlines how the methods were developed and employed.
Section 4 explicates the concrete tools that were used, while section 5 ends the methodology chapter
by elaborating on the data and their collection.
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
For the purpose of this study, a research design consisting of a (single) case-study is adopted, as the
entire setup of this research is fundamentally tied to the case of Kasese. As UN Habitat (2010) recommend
a “local solutions to local problems” approach, there is emphasis on the need to gain an indepth
understanding of the case at hand, encompassing the different aspects surrounding the WMS
and how they are interrelated. This is entirely in line with the reasons for adopting a case study design.
The complexity of a socio-technical structure such as a waste management system fits well with the
characteristics of case study research, which asks “how?” and “why?” about complex social phenomena
in the real world (Yin 1994).
Case studies can be characterized as descriptive, exploratory, or explanatory (Yin 1994). Due to the
dual research question, this study combines both a descriptive with an exploratory approach. The
first research question, concerning the characterisation of the existing system, can be categorized as
primarily descriptive, while the second research question, that investigates the potential pathways, is
more exploratory in nature.
When aiming to answer a broadly-oriented research question such as the one that guided this study,
theoretical propositions should guide the methods for general analytic strategy (Yin 1994), which is
often not routinized and should be developed by the researcher. At the same time, a case study is
principally an empirical inquiry, in which many variables are of interest 7 and multiple sources of evidence
should be drawn on (Yin 1994). Both components are present in this research, and are in turn
elaborated further on in, respectively, section 3.2 and 3.3(how theoretical propositions guide the
methods), and 3.5 (on the data required and collected for the purpose of this case study).
3.2 OPERATIONALISATION OF THE THEORETICAL CONCEPTS
When applying a case study research design, the research methods should be guided by theoretical
propositions (Yin 1994, see also section 3.1). This section provides the theoretical underpinning of
the methodology by operationalizing the concepts treated in 2.Theories.
The basic perception of this study is, that the waste management of Kasese can be described as a
system, which is therefore, in accordance with Unruh (2002), understood as surrounded by an insti-
7 For the purpose of this research, both quantitative and qualitative data are needed (cf. section 3.5); a characteristic for
which a case study design is generally also better adapted.
12

tutional, organisational, technical, industrial and societal framework stabilising this system. If sources
stabilising this system are present, the system can be described as locked-in.
From this insight, supplemented with the theory of path dependency, the structure of this report has
therefore been derived, as visualised in Figure 0.1. In order to understand how the pathway taken by
the waste management in Kasese has stabilised this system, chapter 4 will relate the findings, to potential
sources of lock-in. At the end of the characterisation chapter the identified sources will be
summed up and classified according to the dimensions outlined in section 2.1.
In a next step, chapter 5 analyses how potential future pathways can challenge the stabilised system
and contribute to un-lock it. This is done by relating those pathways to the key issues identified for
the existing WMS.
In a last step chapter 6 discusses what path dependency effects of waste management systems stabilised
in other countries mean for the perception of potential future pathways which has to be chosen
upon on the current junction point. To round this discussion up it is also discussed how these potential
pathways might lead, due to the mechanism of increasing return, to lock-in the changed system.
3.3 METHODS
For a case study analysis, the procedures to be followed are not routinized (see section 3.1). To reflect
the analytical strategy, a method is developed that is tied to the purpose of the study and the
case at hand. This is entirely in the spirit of an ISWM assessment: its guidance documents leave a lot
of interpretative freedom on the steps and methods to take, as it is “intended to stimulate the reader
in exploring and developing their own ideas, tools and instruments, rather than as a cookery book,
with all the recipes already in it” (Anschütz 2004, 14). This study is therefore not a textbook example
of an ISWM assessment, but it is an adapted approach based on the steps and conceptions from the
ISWM method that, given the constraints in terms of time and resources and the specific purpose of
the research, were most suited to address the research question. What the adapted approach consisted
of and how it was adjusted to the specific purpose of this report is outlined in this section.
This “adapted ISWM method” comprises four major phases: 1) to define the precise scope of the
assessment, 2) to characterize the current, operational WMS in Kasese, from which in 3) the key issues
are distilled. The key issues are the starting point to 4) assess the three potential future pathways
for Kasese’s WMS that has been characterised.
1. The scope defines the borders of the analysis. To define the research area very specifically, the
geographical borders, the use of the term waste, the division into its composing fractions, and our
understanding of the formal and informal sector were made explicit. The result of this exercise is
found in Appendix D.
2. The characterisation is the main part of the analysis carried out. It comprises the organisational,
institutional, societal and technical dimensions, which are treated through a high-level overview of
the WMS, analysis of the waste system elements (WSE) and a stakeholder analysis. The tools used for
conducting the latter two are described below (section 3.4).
3. A limited number of key issues are derived from an extensive list of issues that are identified
throughout the analysis. Those issues identified as key are the main outcome of the first part of the
13

analysis, and can serve directly as input to the involved stakeholders. In the next step, they serve as
the starting point. The tool used for determining the key issues is described below (see section 3.4.3).
4. The assessment of the potential future pathways is done in the light of the identified key issues.
Three potential pathways are currently considered by WWF: a baseline pathway, a biogas pathway,
and an incineration pathway, that are described in detail in section 5.2. These pathways are deliberately
kept generic, as none of the stakeholders has developed more detailed visions for what these
paths might look like.
First, the stakeholders that are coming in in future pathways are identified, assessed and the relations
between them and the stakeholders of the stabilised system are analysed. Next, the potential
problems and solutions related to each of the pathways are qualitatively assessed from the perspective
of each key issue, asking the question: how do the three pathways address the key issues of
Kasese’s WMS? In this analysis, the theoretical concepts of path dependency and lock-in are drawn
upon as this can help to understand the cause of an issue and whether a potential approach can contribute
to unlock a path dependency or lock-in. In this way, the aim is to take an additional step towards
potential improvements in the WMS of Kasese.
3.4 TOOLBOX
Along with an overarching method for assessment, the ISWM also provides a number of specific tools
that can be used. Three of the tools outlined in the guidance documents (Anschütz et al. 2004) were
applicable to the analysis that was carried out: a tool for analysing the WSE, a tool for doing the
stakeholder analysis, and a tool for determining the key issues. We define these as tools because
they offer a very applicable and specific method of dealing with a complex matter, in order to come
to a clearer understanding of the matter at hand. This section outlines each of these tools in more
detail.
3.4.1 ANALYSIS OF WASTE SYSTEM ELEMENTS
The waste system elements comprise the four phase elements of the waste system (generation, collection,
transport, treatment/disposal) and the four waste hierarchy elements (prevention/reduction,
re-use, recycling and recovery). These elements provide the skeleton for how the waste system is
conceived throughout the report.
In order to visualise and synthesise the findings from the waste system elements description, two
diagrams were prepared. First, the waste flow diagram was used for presenting the waste streams in
the WMS and to illustrate every action in every phase of the WMS. Second, a material mass balance
diagram serves to present the waste masses, compositions and flows through the WMS.
3.4.2 STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
Regarding the stakeholder analysis, the ISWM recommended to set aside several months to up to
two years for this phase of an ISWM assessment. Since this entire research study was undertaken in
a few months the “prescribed” tool was adapted in order to obtain meaningful results from stakeholder
analysis. 8
8 In particular, the phase of stakeholder mobilisation and engagement was estimated to be out of scope for the purpose of
this analysis.
14

The three different steps in the stakeholder analysis consist of (1) the stakeholder identification, (2)
mapping of the roles and responsibilities, interests, influence and perceived problem areas for key
stakeholders and (3) the visualisation of their relations in a stakeholder network.
3.4.3 DISTILLATION OF THE KEY ISSUES
The ISWM guidelines provide a ranking exercise as a tool for distilling the key issues from the analysis
of waste system elements and stakeholders. Ideally, this exercise is carried out with involvement of
the relevant stakeholders in both the development of the method and the ranking itself. As this has
not been possible within the timeframe of this research project, the method and ranking is done by
the report authors.
●
●
●
●
As a first step, all issues that emerged from the characterisation analysis are listed in a comprehensive
table.
The second step consists of developing a transparent method for ranking the issues. The
method adopted in this report is called matrix scoring or ranking. A set of 6 criteria is agreed
upon against which each issue is assessed. Each issue from the list is given a score reflecting
its priority according to the 6 criteria (see appendix C).
As the third step, each issue in the list is scored by the reports’ authors individually. When
the scores are added together (both over the different dimensions covered in the criteria and
over the different people participating in the scoring), an order of importance emerges,
where the highest scoring issues are marked as the key issues.
The fourth and final step is to prepare a key issues document, in which the issues are defined,
elaborated on and problematized. Eight to ten issues in total is recommended. This
document is the output of the entire assessment.
3.5 DATA
As the available data on the case of Kasese are scarce, data collection constituted an important part
of this research. Reaching the breadth and depth that a case study requires necessitates the use of
multiple sources of evidence, while the nature of the research question required both quantitative
and qualitative data. Four main methods of data collection were employed: literature review, interviews,
surveys and observations. The latter three were carried out during a field visit period from 2nd
to 12th December 2012.
3.5.1 LITERATURE REVIEW
A literature study on WMS in developing countries and in Uganda in particular was conducted in the
first and important phase of conceiving the scope of the research. For understanding the particular
issues at stake in Uganda, the research carried out by James Okot-Okumu, a waste management expert
from Makerere University, Kampala, was of especially high use. This literature provided a thorough
overview of waste management issues in Uganda with some insight into political, economic and
social issues that impact on effective waste management at a local level, and thus formed one of the
core literature pieces for this research.
For the quantitative data for the waste stream analysis and waste mass balance, data was taken from
an Environmental Impact Statement for the Kasese Township from 2007 (Aryagaruka et al. 2007)
15

and a paper on Municipal Solid Waste Composition and Decay Rate Constants (Kyambadde et al.
2006). This data provides a rough overview of the waste amounts and compositions in Kasese Municipality.
The results should not be seen as comprehensive but simply a snapshot.
Literature to analyse the institutional framework was taken from government reports, national legislation
documents, and academic studies on these issues. This data allowed to understand how the
WMS of Kasese is embedded and gain insight in some of the sources of path dependency and lock-in.
3.5.2 INTERVIEWS
A critical part of the data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews with the identified stakeholders.
Qualitative data from the interviews were used for the analysis of the WSE and the stakeholder
analysis, and to inform the second research question. The interviews allowed the researchers
to understand specific viewpoints, contexts, perspectives, intents, relations, etc. In some instances
the interviews led to identifying additional stakeholders who were later interviewed. In total, 10 interviews
were conducted. On average interviews lasted for between 30-60 minutes.
The method for interviews followed Bickman and Rog (2009) who explains that a good research
question is assigned with a clear objective and therefore this was carried out for the research. The
main question categories asked in the interviews along with the objectives are presented below.
1. Who are the main stakeholders involved in the current WMS?
Objective: To understand how much the stakeholder knows about the WMS stakeholder network
and to learn about new stakeholders
2. How are you as a stakeholder involved in the current WMS?
Objective: To understand the role the stakeholder plays in the WMS stakeholder network
3. What are the main challenges of the current WMS?
Objective: To understand the main challenges of the WMS and to understand how much the stakeholder
knows about the WMS and its issues
4. How could the current WMS be improved?
Objective: To understand what the stakeholder thinks is a good idea on how to improve the WMS
and to identify potential path dependencies
3.5.3 SURVEYS
In the guidance document on ISWM it is recommended that between 15 and 100 household/services
surveys are carried out. In this research 20 household/services surveys were carried out to get the
point of view of these very relevant stakeholder groups including some of the most disadvantaged
groups. The surveys were carried out using the ViewWorld application (© ViewWorld ApS) and asked
in the first place for questions on waste generation patterns, disposal practices and satisfaction levels.
In a number of cases, qualitative questions were added concerning the views and perceptions of
local residents towards the WMS in their area.
For all households and commercial services the survey spots were accessed via foot and were located
in the town centre. The aim was not to have a representative sample but rather one in which different
geographical areas and socio-economic groups were included. Figure 3.1 shows the locations
where surveys were made on the map of Kasese Municipality (red spots).
16

FIGURE 3.1: A MAP OF KASESE WITH DATA ADDED ABOUT SURVEY LOCATIONS (GOOGLE MAPS 2013)
3.5.4 SITE OBSERVATIONS
Observational data was collected in order to verify interview data and was used as an additional
method for characterising the current WMS. The technique used for observational data collection
was direct observation. The reason for choosing this technique was that the research aimed to understand
the real and current state of the WMS, observing phenomena going on in real-time (Olsen
and Pedersen 2008). When carrying out observations certain rules were applied such as being discreet
and unobtrusive with the aim to observe without causing interference.
Time and resource constraints prevented a comprehensive waste stream analysis, therefore observations
were principally visual and not based on physical inspections such as weighing, sorting or any
other physical analysis.
The boundaries for observation were mainly restricted to the town centre of Kasese and only certain
spots were observed since the team were on foot and could only cover certain areas in the
timeframe available. However in some cases a vehicle was made available and observations were
carried out on the outskirts of the township, at the prison, hospital, abattoir, and at two hotels.
17

Before venturing into the field a rough observation guide was developed to serve as the structure for
the observations carried out during the field visit. 9 The observational guide was focused on visible
characteristics that provided a snapshot in time of the current WMS. These characteristics included:
Generation, collection, transport and treatment/disposal
Evidence of re-use, recycling, recovery, burying and burning of waste
Presence of illegal dumping such as roadside, pits, hillsides
Identifying the different waste fractions present in the waste in the dumpsite, skips and
waste sent to composting
Sorting happening at the generation level such as in households and commercial services
In summary, it can be stated that the adoption of a case study research design allowed the connection
between both the theoretical framework and the concrete purpose of this study which is fundamentally
tied to the case and context of Kasese. While providing an overarching analytical strategy,
a case study requires that the tasks of conception and development of the concrete methods,
tools, and data required, are carried out by the researcher. Justifying and sharpening the adopted
approach therefore constitutes a crucial phase in order to obtain a clear and focused analysis, that in
turn, allows answering the research question.
In the next chapter the first part of the analysis is presented, characterising the current WMS in
Kasese.
9 As pointed out by Bryman (2012) structured observations may risk imposing an inappropriate or irrelevant framework,
which was confirmed once in the field. The observational guide developed prior to arriving had to be modified once in the
field since the situation was vastly different from what was expected.
18

4 CHARACTERISATION OF KASESE’S WMS
This chapter presents a thorough analysis of the WMS in Kasese, describing in detail all the WSEs,
from generation through treatment/disposal, and the stakeholder network. Throughout the analysis
different issues and sources of lock-in are identified, which means that the purpose of this chapter is
to characterise the existing WMS and provide applicable data and findings for further analysis.
The first section gives a high level overview of how the current WMS was initially perceived in Kasese
based on ISWM. This overview provides the framework for further research into the existing WMS.
Following this, an outline of the institutional framework is described in detail in order to contextualise
the current WMS in Kasese. The second and third sections go into more detail in order to characterise
the current WMS, analysing the waste system elements and stakeholders involved respectively.
The description of the WMS elements in section 4.2 results in a waste flow analysis and material
flow analysis. In the stakeholder analysis section, each stakeholder is identified and described in
terms of roles and responsibilities, problems areas, interests and influences within the current WMS,
resulting in a stakeholder network.
4.1 HIGH LEVEL OVERVIEW
The high level overview consists of outlining the stylized structure of the WMS and introducing the
institutional framework in which Kasese’s WMS is embedded. From the ISWM framework and principles,
a stylized diagram was developed of what the analysis of the Kasese WMS should include. The
waste management system comprises the waste system elements (the phases and waste hierarchy
elements) and the stakeholders. Figure 4.1 integrates those in a stylised diagram of how we perceive
the waste management system to set a framework for this chapter.
generation
- households
- industries
- services
-institutions
organic
plastic
glass
metal
others
mix
formal formal formal
collection
transport
informal informal informal
treatment /
disposal
stakeholder influence
prevention/reduction
re-use
recycling
recovery
s t a k e h o l d e r s
FIGURE 4.1: STYLISED STRUCTURE OF THE WMS WITH THE TERMINOLOGY USED IN THIS REPORT
Viewing the WMS as a whole, it can be divided into different phases. At the generation phase, the
four categories of waste generators (households, services, industries, institutions) produce waste.
Any measures or policies aiming at waste prevention or reduction directly impact on this phase. After
generation, waste can immediately be recycled or re-used, it stops being waste and leaves the waste
cycle at this point. The remaining waste, that in the material balance analysis is split into 5 fractions,
19

can next be collected, transported and treated or disposed. The context in which each of these phases
can take place can be characterized as “formal” or “informal” - the definition used as well as examples
are further elaborated on throughout the waste system element analysis and Appendix D.
Stakeholders surrounding the waste management system can influence the WMS at each stage, as
well as impact upon each other.
4.1.1 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK: LEGAL, POLICY AND FINANCIAL ASPECTS AND
MECHANISMS OF THE WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
This section describes how the WMS in Kasese is institutionally embedded. Laws, policies and financial
mechanisms all affect the way in which the waste management system is shaped, and which
stakeholders are involved in what manner. As such, they can constitute possible sources of lock-in, as
the legal, policy and financial instruments provide are very powerful instruments to reinforce existing
systems.
Part of these aspects and mechanisms stem from the national government stipulations, and part
have their source within Kasese. Of course, the aspects are also affected through more general channels
such as market mechanisms, economic and socio-demographic dynamics and financial structures.
In the following description, the main aspects are discussed in their application to the Kasese WMS
and these include national laws from national government, by-laws and policies of Kasese Municipality
and budget for waste management. The enumeration and discussion of the potential aspects and
mechanisms does not aim to be exhaustive, but rather focuses on those aspects and mechanisms
that during the period of analysis have been identified as affecting the functioning of the Kasese
WMS.
LAWS FROM NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
The National government holds the legislative competence In Uganda. In order to understand how
the legal system influences the local WMS in place, the most relevant laws, their content and their
application is presented.
Two main laws are of direct relevance to the analysis carried out in this report: the National Environment
Act chapter 153 from 1995 and the National Environment (Waste management) Regulations
no. 52 from 1999 (NEMA 1995; NEMA 1999), (Okot-Okumu 2011). The overarching aim of these laws
is to ensure that “Every person has a right to a healthy environment” (NEMA 1995, cap 153, 3), a
right that is directly affected by (a lack of) waste management. Due to this right, several duties regarding
waste management have been put on different legal bodies (public and private) to manage
(and reduce) waste. These duties regard both general duties, applicable to every person (NEMA
1995, cap 153, 3 & 52) and waste management duties are also concerning specific WMS stakeholders
(NEMA 1995; NEMA 1999). The precise content of the laws is described in more detail in Appendix B.
From field observations carried out in Kasese, it is concluded that these laws are not systematically
being enforced in Kasese.
Every person has a duty to maintain and enhance the environment, and to manage any waste generated
by his or her activities in such a manner that he or she does not cause ill health to the person or
damage to the environment. As waste dumping in environmentally fragile areas, lack of waste treat-
20

ment, etc. belong to the category of phenomena that may affect the environment significantly, we
can say these laws are not being enforced in Kasese. It remains unknown whether this is because no
one in Kasese fulfils the above described duties, or there is no awareness about these laws, or it is
unclear which responsibilities follow from these duties exactly, or whether the authorities do not
have the capacity and resources to deal with the problems.
Facility or premise owners have a duty to minimise waste by adopting cleaner production methods
through better production processes, in which raw materials and energy are conserved, and the use
and production of toxic materials, emissions and waste is reduced. Yet, in the case of Kasese, only (a
very limited amount of) energy recovery was observed by facility or premise owners.
Industries are obliged to treat waste in an approved treatment facility and manner. In Kasese, it
could be observed that some industries had specific ways to deal with their waste (see section
4.2.1.4), but this did not involve specially approved treatment facilities.
Also treatment and disposal plants and sites are regulated. It is required to gain a license for operating
a waste disposal site, and forbidden to discharge waste onto a unlicensed site or plant. From observations
in Kasese, illegal dumping remains however omnipresent.
Finally, the laws also install the responsibility of monitoring waste-related activities by the local environment
committee. Waste dumping, burning and burying can be categorized as activities of this
type, however, during the field research it was not possible to identify or collect any evidence of the
functioning of the local environment committee with respect to this monitoring.
Kasese Municipality by-laws and policies
It has not been possible to gain possession of a written version of the local laws and regulations that
affect the WMS in Kasese. Therefore, the policies were identified from the interviews with local politicians
in Kasese. The overarching aim for Kasese is to create a so-called “clean, green and wellplanned
city” (Kiime 2012). The principal objective of policy in this area is to create clean streets in
the city and improve the aesthetics compared to the existing situation, where waste often is visible.
Local policy focuses on the collection and transport phases of the WMS.
From interviews with local politicians and stakeholders it was learned that there exists a waste
dumping fine of 20,000 UGX (approx. 7.40 USD) if one is caught during dumping of waste. The fine
can be given by so called waste scouts that walk around the city and assist people with collecting
their waste in the formal collection points, but can at the same time fine people if necessary
(Nakitende 2012). This is an example of a specific by-law put in place by the municipality which stems
from the national laws on environmental and waste management.
The principal health inspector of Kasese mentioned that local enforcements of the regulation was
rather poor in Kasese (Muhwezi 2012), an issue which was also highlighted by Okot-Okumu (2011) as
generally present in Uganda. This factor can constitute as an institutional source of lock-in for the
WMS. A history of poor enforcement of laws is difficult to reverse, and can work as a path dependency
with increasing returns. As such, it can lead to a lock-in where the effectiveness of one of the
most important instruments of governance, namely regulation, is weakened.
21

Budget for waste management
The financial aspects and mechanisms regarding the Kasese WMS concern (1) the funding mechanisms
for the local councils and (2) the division of funds and responsibilities with respect to the WMS
between the different governments.
First, the funding for local councils in Uganda originates mostly from the national government, own
tax collections and from international donors and NGO’s. The local government revenues in Uganda
in general consists of 66% transfer from national government, 15% own taxes, 5% user fees/charges,
11% donor contributions and 3% other non-tax revenues, see Table 4.1 (Kritika et al 2010). According
to several interviewees, this funding is however insufficient in order to adequately carry out the local
waste management. About 88% of the budget of the municipality transferred from the national government
is tied to what it should be spent on (conditional grants), which means that the municipality
has discretionary power over (only) 11% of its budget from the national government (Kritika et al.
2010).
TABLE 4.1: REVENUE STRUCTURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN UGANDA, ADAPTED FROM KRITIKA ET AL. (2010)
Own
taxes
Shared
taxes
User
fees/charg
es
Single
source
revenues
Transfers
from national
governments
Other
non-tax
revenues
Donor
contributions
Borrowing
Total
15 0 5 0 66 11 3 0 100
As the local population does not pay fees for the waste services, the budget that is raised locally
through licences, fines, is very limited. While previously amounting to 67% of the revenue, the suspension
of Graduated Tax for local authorities has made a huge impact on the local funding (Kritika
et al. 2010; Muhwezi 2012). The restrictions on the budget allocated from the national government
and the reductions in locally raised revenue makes that, on average, Ugandan urban councils spend
less than 10% of their total funds on waste management (Okot-Okumu 2011).
This funding aspect is a source of lock-in for the WMS as the local governments cannot decide on the
budget independently of the national government. It can be traced back to the decentralisation policy
carried out in the 1990s, in which large transfers of competences took place from the national to
the local governments, yet not always accompanied with the necessary resources to fulfil these (see
appendix A).
Second, the division of funds and responsibilities between the different local governments directly
affects the functioning of the WMS. The divisions are responsible for providing the money needed to
fuel the collection trucks. The difference in wealth between the Central Division and the Nyamuamba
Division has a direct impact on the rate and frequency of skip collection. 10
10 Because the central division contains the overwhelming majority of businesses and markets, who are a source of local
taxes, this (WWF Uganda 2012)division disposes of significantly more funds than the Nyamuamba Division (Muhwezi 2012).
22

The final financial mechanism that is described in this section is evolving the so-called performance
based funding from the national government. The mayor mentioned that the Kasese WMS was funded
according to the level of performance of the systems deliver (Kiime 2012) and from informal talks
with a person responsible for the financial budget department of the municipality it was experienced
that the budget is increased or decreased with +/- 20% according to the waste system performance.
4.2 WASTE SYSTEM ELEMENTS ANALYSIS
The purpose of this section is to characterise the waste system elements, which can be described as
the technical component of the WMS, in order to obtain a better understanding and identify potential
problems and issues. Therefore the waste system phases (generation, collection, transport,
treatment/disposal) and waste hierarchy elements (prevention/reduction, re-use, recycling and recovery)
are described. The knowledge gained from this exercise serves as input to fill the general
waste system structure with the specific details of the case at hand. This information was adapted in
order to form two diagrams. On the one hand, the waste flow diagram assesses Kasese’s WMS from
a phase or stream perspective, while the material balance diagram on the other hand is conceived
from a waste composition perspective, including the waste types and masses moving through the
WMS.
4.2.1 WASTE SYSTEM PHASES
In the description of the waste system elements six perspectives are taken: How is the element performed,
who is doing it, where is it done, what plans, policies and laws are relating to it, how is the
funding structured and is there any monitoring going on.
4.2.1.1 GENERATION
Generation of waste can generally be defined as human activities consuming natural resources leading
to waste generation (Tjalfe lecture). The human activities accumulate materials and once these
have been used or are no longer necessary they are disposed of as waste. In Kasese, these human
activities include e.g. cooking, consumption of products and packaging, done by four groups of waste
generators: households, services, industries and institutions. Hereby it is very difficult to estimate
how much waste is actually generated, as the generation patterns are diverse and the data on the
quality and composition of waste are not available in order to improve the system (Mutyaba 2012).
The only identified data on the generation of MSW is provided by Ayagaruka (2006), but it seems to
be based on very rough estimations. Due to no alternative sources this data is still presented in the
diagrams in section 4.2.3 Waste flow analysis and 4.2.4 Material balance analysis, after it has been
grouped according to the classification of this report (households, industries, services, institutions).
The overall amount of generated MSW is hereby around 230 t/day, which is in accordance with the
number mentioned by the manager of the compost plant (Nakitende 2012).
Consequently, the Central Division has a larger budget for waste handling, and its waste is more frequently collected and
transported than in the Nyamuamba Division. This was also obvious from field observations as many skips did not look like
having been emptied recently in the Nyamuamba Division. The Mountain Division is not involved in this municipal waste
management system because its more rural character and hence the larger distances between the households are estimated
to render a communal collection and transport system inefficient. Household survey analysis showed that most of the
households in this area deal with waste themselves by systems of composting, burning and/or burying (WWF Uganda
2012). Therefore, it is largely left out of scope in this study.
23

The generated waste can be divided into fractions, including organic waste (sewage sludge, animal
manure, food waste, paper/cardboard, yard/park waste), plastic, glass, metal, plastic, hazardous
waste and e-waste. The waste is generated across the urban area of Kasese, but main generation
locations are the city center, where population density is highest, and markets, where especially
large amounts of organic waste are generated.
FIGURE 4.2 AND FIGURE 4.3: ORGANIC WASTE GENERATED FROM A MARKET AND COLLECTED BY A FORMAL WASTE
TRUCK (LEFT); MARKETS WITH A MAJORITY OF ORGANIC WASTE GENERATION (RIGHT)
The part of the waste that is collected is being monitored by the municipality at the stage of treatment
at the compost plant. Occasionally, wider estimations on the total amount of generated waste
are calculated, in order to scale capacity and infrastructure or adjust the waste management planning.
4.2.1.2 COLLECTION
The collection is handled differently, depending on the source of the waste and location of the generator.
In households, mostly small containers or plastic bags are used, which are then brought regularly
(ranging from several times a day to every couple of days) either to a local treatment option
such as burning or burying locations, or to one of the official collection points equipped with a skip.
There are in total 25 collection points, mostly located in close proximity to the main waste generators
and in the areas with high generation density. The observed skips were mostly fully loaded with
significant amounts of waste disposed around the skip. While some of the people observed bringing
waste were still putting effort into disposing their waste in the skips, others just dumped it next to it.
Especially children have problems to reach the edge of sometimes almost two meter high skips. It
also should be mentioned that this collection system does not allow for any waste separation at the
source.
24

FIGURE 4.4: SKIPS FILLED WITH MSW FOR FORMAL COLLECTION
The commercial services in our sample mostly didn’t have a separate collection container, but disposed
their waste simply in front of the building, where it gets collected on a regular basis (between
2-4 times a week). Hazardous waste is hereby collected separately. The survey of a petrol station and
a pharmacy showed that old oil and respectively old pharmaceutical products are collected by special
companies responsible for the treatment. In contrast, hotels in slightly less central locations collect
and handle their waste by themselves or deliver it to one of the collection points. In September 2011,
a pilot project was launched for a house-to-house collection scheme (or relais system) in the inner
part of the city, which faces the problem of people not being at home while the collection times
(Kiime 2012). Furthermore, efforts have been taken to install 50 dustbins in the city. Unfortunately
all but 11 of those have been removed by citizens to use the containers for other purposes
(Nakitende 2012).
Some industries arrange a way of collection with other industries, such as a cooperation between the
coffee industry and Hima cement factory, where the coffee shells are used to provide energy in the
cement production process. The official collection points, the house-to-house collection scheme, and
inter-industry cooperation in waste collection comprise the formal collection.
Beyond formal collection also informal collection has been observed. This includes mainly dumping
in backyards or ditches behind houses or at spots known to the local community where several
households dispose waste. As this informal dumping is considered illegal by the KMC, it can be fined.
Littered spaces along the roads and in residential areas also prove that a certain extent of waste is
not collected.
25

FIGURE 4.5 AND FIGURE 4.6: WASTE ILLEGALLY DUMPED IN A DITCH WITHOUT FURTHER TREATMENT (LEFT); WASTE
LITTERING ALONG A ROAD (RIGHT)
4.2.1.3 TRANSPORT
The transport of waste in Kasese can be divided between formal and informal transport. The formal
transport is organised by the municipality while informal transport is done by individual persons
transporting it to collection points, pits or other locations to somehow deal with the waste.
The formal transport is done by 3 waste trucks (one compressor truck, one “open waste truck, and
one skip truck) and 1 tractor, both from the collection points (12 skips in Central Division, 13 in Nyamuamba
Division, 0 in the Mountain Division) as in the house-to-house relais scheme. Municipal
waste management employees collect the waste manually (sometimes using only their hands) to get
it into the waste trucks. All waste collected in this way is transported to the only formal waste treatment
facility in the city, the compost plant.
The intention is to empty the skips regularly, ranging between almost daily for skips in market places
to weekly for skips in less densely populated area, but based on own observations this target is not
always reached. As the fuel costs are to be funded by the divisions, a shortage of money in a certain
division implies that the waste in its skips will temporarily not be collected. As such, waste is transported
more frequently to the compost plant in the Central Division than in the Nyamuamba Division
(Muhwezi 2012).
FIGURE 4.7 AND FIGURE 4.8: TWO OF THREE WASTE COLLECTION TRUCKS IN KASESE FOR TRANSPORTING WASTE (LEFT);
RECENTLY INTRODUCED COMPRESSOR WASTE TRUCK TRANSPORTING WASTE TO THE COMPOST PLANT (RIGHT)
26

Data on waste amounts delivered to the compost plant between February and September 2012 allowed
us to assess the continuity of the formally transported waste stream. As the compost plant has
no weigh station for its trucks, the collected waste amounts are estimated by calculating the volume
out of the skip size and the filling height. The data is presented in Figure 4.9.
FIGURE 4.9: WASTE VOLUMES DELIVERED TO THE COMPOST PLANT THROUGHOUT 9 MONTHS DURING 2012
The analysis of these data allows for several conclusions. First it can be mentioned that the collected
waste volume varies heavily between zero (due to weekend days, breakdown of collection vehicles
or for unknown reasons) and around 60-100 m 3 /day with some extreme peaks, one of them up to
380 m 3 /day. 11 The reason for the peaks could either indicate that the maximum collectable waste
volume is rarely reached, or it can be explained by mistakes in the waste volume estimation.
The available data allows only statements about the waste volume; it is difficult to assume an average
waste bulk density, due to the two rainy seasons within the year the waste density cannot be
seen as constant; Diaz et al. (1996) propose a bulk density of 300–500 kg/m 3 for developing countries,
while Okot-Okumu (2012) assumes between 180 and 310 kg/m 3 for East African countries; with
those numbers the average collected weight should be between 6.46 and 18 t/day; the manager of
the compost plant assumes a density of 590 kg/m 3 for Kasese, which seems to be quite high and
would mean an average collection of 21.3 t/day of MSW.
There are periods of several days, sometimes even a whole week, where no waste is collected; in the
available time span of eight months there have been in total 20 periods (one day or longer) of truck
breakdowns.
It can be concluded, that the reliability of the collection frequency is rather weak and causes challenges
for an efficient operation of the waste management system, as a more constant input of
11 There are two possible explanations for this peak: either the waste amounts collected on that day (May 15, 2012) were
allocated wrong in the provided data, or the potentially collectable waste amount is in case of optimal working conditions
around one magnitude higher than the average collected amount, which is 36 m 3 /day (weekends included).
27

waste to the compost plant would make better use of the available capacity in terms of storage and
manual sorting labour. In addition it can be stated, that there seems to be a contradiction between
the measured data and the given information about the daily collection of MSW, as the above presented
numbers indicate a much lower transport to the compost plant (see also below 4.2.1.4
Treatment & Disposal).
Informal transport of waste is carried out by individual persons taking waste from their homes to
nearby pits, for locations where waste is burned or treated in another way. This type of transport is
done as a necessary part of household work and mainly by women or children using plastic bags,
sacks made by wool fadge or wheelbarrows and bowls (source: own household survey). The survey
also included a person who transports waste to the skips as a source of income, for households who
live far away from collection points. For informally provided service he earns between 200 and 500
UGX (0.07-0.18 USD) per transported bag, depending on the size, weight and distance. Per day, he
does up to 30 of these transports, thus potentially earning up to 10,000 UGX (3.5 USD) per day from
this activity (source: own household survey).
FIGURE 4.10 AND FIGURE 4.11: STE INFORMALLY TRANSPORTED BY A WHEELBARROW (LEFT); WASTE INFORMALLY
STORED AND TRANSPORTED BY WOOL FADGE SACKS (RIGHT)
4.2.1.4 TREATMENT & DISPOSAL
After collecting and transporting the waste from the spot of generation or collection, it is in the one
or the other way treated and/or disposed.
The formal treatment in Kasese is carried out at the compost plant based on the guidelines for compost
plants (NEMA, 2011), prescribing necessary actions and measurements. The compost plant has
been set up as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This plant sells Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits to
the Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF) of the World Bank (UNFCCC, 2009), running for 21
years from October 2007 onwards. The compost plant started operating in 2009. It is run by the municipality,
while NEMA and the World Bank provide training and infrastructure.
The waste is delivered from waste trucks to the compost plant from Monday to Saturday, while sorting
and treatment is done during weekdays. The plant receives around 1500 t/month of waste. From
that, it produces about 90t of compost, using leachates and a mix of water and animal manure as
catalysts. The plant can theoretically manage an inflow of 70 t/day, but is seldom operating at full
capacity.
28

Upon receiving the waste from the skips, manual sorting takes place to separate the inorganic from
the organic in fractions of plastic, glass, polythene bags and rubber tyres. These inorganic fractions
are then dumped in separate pits next to the plant and no other treatment of these fractions are
carried out. As it was phrased by WWF the problem of lack of inorganic treatment is just transferring
the environmental problem from one place to another (Mutyaba 2012). The compost plant is only
treating organic fractions, converting it into compost, and relies on the regular input of this specific
waste fraction. This creates a lock-in for the organic waste fraction, as all of the organic waste that is
formally collected is transported to the compost plant, is not used for other purposes, such as re-use,
recycling and alternative forms of recovery.
For about 52 days, the organic fraction undergoes several phases of conversion into compost, during
which repeated additional sorting takes place to remove the inorganic fractions from the final compost
product. The compost is supposed to be sold to local farmers, to improve the quality of their
soil, but in reality almost nothing is sold and the compost remains piled up next to the plant. The fact
that there are no compost producing competitors in the city (except from individual composting)
suggests that a major reason for the absence of any demand for compost lies in Kasese’s topography
and the fact that most farming occurs in the highly fertile mountain soils.
Concerning monitoring, the leachate from the composting process is collected next to the plant and
is being tested every third month. Other measurements carried out at the composting level include
oxygen and temperature level of the compost at the different stages. From the monitoring information
at the compost plant level, NEMA and the World Bank calculate the methane and carbon
monoxide emissions, on the basis of which the carbon credits are granted to Kasese municipality.
FIGURE 4.12 AND FIGURE 4.13: KASESE COMPOST PLANT SHOWING THE WINDROWS TO CONVERT WASTE INTO COM-
POST (LEFT); WASTE TRUCK DELIVERING WASTE TO THE COMPOST PLANT (RIGHT);
29

FIGURE 4.14 AND FIGURE 4.15: NON-TREATED WASTE PILES OF PLASTIC, GLASS, METAL AND BOTTLES NEXT TO THE
COMPOST PLANT (LEFT); EQUIPMENT FOR SORTING WASTE BETWEEN ORGANIC AND INORGANIC WASTE FRACTIONS
(RIGHT)
The informal treatment includes a large number of activities, which can be divided into those serving
mainly to get rid of the waste and those which regard the waste as a resource. In the first category
belongs the burning of waste, which can cause in the case of plastic toxic emissions and substance.
Furthermore, waste is often buried in pits. This might cause environmental problems, such as
groundwater pollution and emissions of GHG due to anaerobic digestion taking place. The mentality
of the people, where the majority is considering waste as a burden that they need to get rid of
(source: own household survey), is a source of lock-in, as the option to use it as a resource is not
really considered. If improvements should not be solely formal actions from authorities or private
companies, this has to be un-locked in order to make people a part of improving the system.
FIGURE 4.16 AND FIGURE 4.17: BURNING OF WASTE (LEFT); WASTE BURIED IN A BACKYARD AT A HOUSEHOLD (RIGHT)
The ways of dealing with waste in which it is regarded as a resource is treated in the following section.
30

4.2.2 WASTE HIERARCHY ELEMENTS
The terms prevention/reduction, re-use, recycling and recovery can be defined in different ways, on
which the ISWM documents remain rather vague. Therefore, in this report the definitions from the
EU framework directive 2008/98/EC are used to complement the ISWM framework in this respect.
4.2.2.1 PREVENTION/REDUCTION
In the EU framework directive, prevention is defined as “measures taken before a substance, material
or product has become waste that reduce (European Commission 2012, 28):
the quantity of waste, including through the re-use of products or the extension of the
lifespan of products;
the adverse impacts of the generated waste on the environment and human health; or
the content of harmful substances in materials and products”
Following this very broad definition, it can be stated that from the side of the KMC no measures have
been identified or installed that aim at preventing waste, even though the municipal council is aware
of and recognises the importance of waste reduction in a context of a rapidly growing population and
associated waste produced (Mukobi 2012; Basaliza 2012).
At household level various activities leading to the extension of a product’s lifetime, and therefore
prevention/reduction, could be identified. In general, the used items and machinery seemed to have
a longer lifespan, including more repairing, than common in developed countries.
4.2.2.2 RE-USE
The EU framework directive 2008/98/EC defines re-use as: “Any operation by which products or
components that are not waste are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived”
(European Commission, 30).
Re-use is not widespread in Kasese according to the field observations, interviews and document
studies that have been conducted. However, a formalised system for re-use is in place for glass bottles
through a pand scheme. Plastic bottles are not part of this scheme and were widely spread in the
waste collected in skips and informal collection locations. Plastic bags are re-used to some extent,
given the relatively significant cost of purchasing them for private users (a polythene bag was observed
to cost 100 UGX, or 0.03 USD).
4.2.2.3 RECYCLING
The term recycling is defined by the EU framework directive as “any recovery operation by which
waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or
other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery
and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations.” (European
Comission 2012, 32)
Concerning the treatment of plastics one activity has been identified in Kasese, which matches this
definition. A number of individuals grouped themselves and mobilised the local community to collect
and deliver adequate plastic waste for a rate of 100 UGX/kg. The plastic was crushed in several steps
until a fine plastic powder was obtained, which was sold to a company delivering the product to
Kampala. This business collapsed due to a temporary decline in demand for the crushed plastic, while
31

unning costs for fuel and the incoming plastic still had to be paid. The owners of this informal recycling
business are currently trying to collect the required funds to start up the business again.
FIGURE 4.18 AND FIGURE 4.19: CRUSHER USED FOR PLASTIC IN THE RECYCLING BUSINESS (NO LONGER OPERATING)
(LEFT); SAMPLE OF PLASTIC TO BE RECYCLED (RIGHT)
In the residential areas it could be observed that items of daily use are sometimes made out of materials
which can be considered as waste. While children constructed toys out of used materials, grown
ups used old canisters for new purposes.
FIGURE 4.20 AND FIGURE 4.21: RE-USE OF CANISTERS AND SACKS (LEFT); RE-USE OF HOUSEHOLD WASTE FOR CHIL-
DREN’S TOYS (RIGHT)
Besides plastic the waste stream contains other valuable materials like metals. According to the
statement of Louis Muhwezi, Kasese’s principal town health inspector, these metals are scavenged
and melted for other purposes (Muhwezi 2012). 12
It can be stated that compared to the visited landfill site in Kampala, recycling and scavenging of the
waste stream is happening to a rather small extent in Kasese due to the lack of a market for those
reclaimed materials. Whereas in Kampala one can make a living out of the revenues from waste
scavenging, those activities are insignificant in Kasese.
12 During the field visit it could not be observed where metal fractions are accumulated and activities of this kind take
place.
32

FIGURE 4.22 AND FIGURE 4.23: WASTE SCAVENGERS AT KAMPALA LANDFILL (LEFT); RECYCLING OF PLASTIC BOTTLES
NEXT TO LANDFILL IN KAMPALA (RIGHT)
4.2.2.4 RECOVERY
Recovery operations can be defined as “waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials
which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being prepared to
fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy” (European Commission 2012, 30).
Recovery is carried out in Kasese in both formal and informal ways. In the formal sector waste recovery
takes place at the compost plant. The compost produced can replace other natural or artificial
fertilizers. Also the use of coffee bean shells by Hima Cement, bought from the coffee industry in
Kasese at a rate of 300 UGX/kg, qualifies as a recovery practice.
FIGURE 4.24: COFFEE INDUSTRY IN KASESE PROCESSING COFFEE BEANS FROM LOCAL FARMERS
Informal sector recovery operations including individual composting of organic waste to produce
fertilizer for gardens and fields, a practice that was found to be in place in some (but not all) compounds
with gardens (source: own household survey). In the more rural areas of the municipality, the
organic waste is used as a feedstock for animals (WWF Uganda 2012) thus reducing the need for
purchased feeding.
The waste system elements are diagrammatically summarised below by presenting a waste flow
analysis diagram and mass balance diagram, including some key summary points.
33

4.2.3 WASTE FLOW ANALYSIS
In this section, a waste flow diagram is presenting the WMS in Kasese from a stream or flow perspective.
The purpose of a waste flow diagram is to indicate how waste is tracked through the different
phases in the WMS and how they are related, in order to create an overview of the system.
generation
households
Industries
Services
Institutions
95 t/d
85 t/d
51 t/d
0.9 t/d
formal collection
- 25 collection points
- Dustbins in the city
- House-to-house
informal collection
- Illegal dumps
- House-to-House
formal transport
- 3 trucks, 1 tractor
informal transport
~60 t/d
formal treatment
- Hima Cement
formal treatment
- compost plant
Organic:
composted
Inorganic: burried
~3 t/d
informal treatment
not collected
~180 t/d
- Burning
- Burying
- Re-use
- Recycling
- Recovery (animal
feedstock,
composting)
generation
collection
transport
treatment/disposal
FIGURE 4.25: WASTE FLOW DIAGRAM OF KASESE WMS DESCRIBING THE DIFFERENT WASTE TRACKS
From this visual representation of the waste flow in Figure 4.25, three additional observations can be
made.
First, formal and informal waste management paths are largely disconnected. After the waste generation
phase, the only linkage between the formal and the informal path is a small operation within
informal transport, where persons transport waste to the collection points to earn an income.
Second, the “distance” from generation to informal treatment is much shorter than from generation
to formal treatment, as some waste is informally treated immediately after generation, while the
waste for formal treatment has to undergo at least two additional phases. The potential losses and
increased effort required in the formal path is therefore larger than in the informal path. This leads
to higher requirements on manpower and infrastructure.
Third, recycling and re-use is only carried out in the informal waste path. The formal waste path is
putting effort into collecting, transporting and composting the waste, but if compared to the waste
hierarchy a lot of the more desirable waste treatment approaches are absent.
4.2.4 MATERIAL BALANCE ANALYSIS
This section summarises the mass balance mapping for Kasese’s waste stream. As the available data
is scarce, the analysis is mainly qualitative with the existing quantitative data being fed in at the relevant
places. The main source of quantitative data is provided by Kyambadde et al. (2006), containing
a characterisation of Kasese’s MSW over a period of one month (July 6th to August 10th 2006). The
34

samples on which the composition exercise was based come from areas with high waste generation
rates, “like markets, and densely populated residential areas, and also final waste disposal sites”
(Kyambadde et al. 2006, 5). Therefore it is expected that it is representative for the formally collected
waste stream and as such added in Figure 4.26 as additional information in the mixed waste stream
(with a higher level of detail in regard to the waste fractions).
The considered fractions are divided into organic, plastic, glass, metal and others, which includes e.g.
e-waste and hazardous waste. The mixed waste stream in the WMS is visualised by a black line in the
diagram while other line colours mean that the fractions, to some degree, remain separated. Within
the general categories of waste generators, more detail is included for the known stakeholders. This
list doesn’t claim to be exhaustive, but rather maps a higher degree of detail for those stakeholders
which were identified and assessed within the analysis. Others are mentioned, without having data
for their waste composition available, a task that could be taken up in a more in-depth study. A detailed
stakeholder analysis is presented in section 4.3.
re-use / recycle / recovery
households
mixing
Informal recycling
institutions
~ 95 t/d
hospital
prison
schools
no data
Individual treatment
(burning, burying,
composting, animal
feedstock)
Incineration
Composting plant
~ 60 t/d
Hima cement
Informal
treatment
Formal
treatment
small shops
mixing
services
markets
hotels & restaur.
mixing
mixing
~ 51 t/d
industries
farmers
abattoir
Hima cement
no data
organic
plastic
glass
metal
others
mix
~ 85 t/d
generation
collection
transport
treatment/disposal
FIGURE 4.26: MATERIAL BALANCE DIAGRAM OF KASESE WMS, INCLUDING WASTE SYSTEM PHASES, WASTE GENERA-
TORS, WASTE FRACTIONS AND THE WASTE CHARACTERISATION CARRIED OUT BY KYAMBADDE ET AL. (2006)
The findings from the material balance exercise is summarised below in order to identify issues related
to the existing WMS.
Waste can leave the collection stage both in mixed form (black lines) and as and a separated fraction
(coloured lines).
35

The separation of waste (and thus separated waste stream lines) occurs to some extent in the informal
path, in contrast to the formal path, where separation is occurring only in the treatment phase at
the compost plant. While some degree of detail can be included in the formal path, those detailed
data are not available regarding the informal waste stream and characterisation.
Dominant waste fractions are organic, as already mentioned by Kyambadde et al. (2006) who described
that food waste, garden waste, paper and some other smaller organic fractions constitute
94% of the waste stream. This is also supported by Figure 4.26, which shows that almost all waste
generators produce an organic fraction.
Inorganic waste fractions are minor plastic waste fractions constituting 5% of total produced waste,
glass and metal waste constituting 0.4% and 0.1% of the waste stream respectively and other waste
fractions, such as hazardous waste, that have only been identified for small shops (e.g. old pharmaceutical
products), petrol stations (old motor oil), households and the hospital, where critical waste is
treated onsite by incineration.
The use of waste as resource includes only a limited number of recovery options in the informal sector
(composting at the compost plant and the burning of coffee husks as a secondary fuel by Hima
Cement), while at household level re-use, recycle and recovery of waste material takes place to a
certain degree.
Treatment and disposal stages are connected to the different informal and formal treatment alternatives.
In contrast to the mixed waste that goes to the compost plant, the waste that is treated individually
consists of mostly separated fractions, as often the manner of individual treatment is different
for the waste fractions (e.g. burning of the plastics and composting of the organic fraction).
In general, individual treatment forms the backbone of the waste treatment in the WMS. Nevertheless,
important information is missing about the waste stream generated by the industries, showing
the need for further research.
Concluding, we can say that the WMS is very open cycle. Only very little of the generated waste is fed
back into the system in order to reduce resource input at the source, which makes the system inefficient
and resource demanding.
4.3 ANALYSIS OF STAKEHOLDERS IN THE EXISTING WMS
An ISWM assessment distinguishes itself from more traditional approaches to waste system analysis
among others by its emphasis on the importance of understanding the stakeholders and their relations
within the WMS. The aim of this section is to pay explicit attention to the involved stakeholders
and what issues 13 exist for and between stakeholders as these relations also the power structure and
who is influencing the WMS. Chapter 3 describes how this is done. In the following, the stakeholders
are assessed in text and, towards the end of this section their relations are assessed in a network
diagram.
13 during the data collection phase, the starting point for characterising the stakeholders was provided by the following four
elements: the role and responsibilities in relation to the WMS, the perceived problem areas, the interests, and influence on
decision making.
36

Based on the data gathered mainly through semi-structured interviews, the identified issues are discussed
for the four major groups of stakeholders involved in the Kasese WMS: the Kasese Municipality,
the households, the commercial services, and the institutions present in the municipality. 14
4.3.1 KASESE MUNICIPALITY
FIGURE 4.27: THE MAYOR AND DEPUTY TOWN CLERK OF KASESE
As the Kasese Municipality was identified as a principal stakeholder, we set up interviews with different
persons at the town council who are professionally involved with the waste management system:
the mayor of Kasese town, Baluku Kabbyanga Godfrey Kiime 15
the deputy town clerk, Selverio Mukobi 16
the principal health inspector (and waste management responsible), Louis Muhwezi 17
the manager of the municipal compost plant, Fiona Nakitende 18 .
The municipality is the responsible over the phases of collection, transport and treatment/disposal of
the formal waste management system in Kasese. The KMC provides and maintains the infrastructure
for the collection points, transport, and composting site, and is responsible to provide the funding for
their operation (see also section 4.2.1). However, in this it is also constrained by the earmarking of
the funds it gets allocated by the national government (see section 4.1.1).
The mayor’s election campaign slogan was to have a clean, green and well-planned town. Both the
manager of the compost plant as the principal health inspector mentioned that on this point, the
town had made significant improvements over the past two years. (Nakitende 2012; Muhwezi 2012)
14 The discussion is structured according to the attached importance by the stakeholders. As an indicator for this, we use
the number of different persons who mentioned a particular issue or the amount of emphasis that was put on the issues by
a particular interviewee.As in total nine interviews were carried out, not all data gathered could be presented in this section,
rather the information is summarized and presented often taking different points together.
15 outlines the budget spent on waste management and draws the plans for the collection phase (a.o. location of the skips),
to be approved by the council (Kiime 2012).
16 was the former environmental manager of the town and is familiar with the WMS from an environmental perspective.
17 head public servant in charge of the WMS.
18 managing the effective operation of the collection, transport and treatment phases of the formal WMS.
37

Asked about the major challenges for the current WMS, all interviewees mentioned in one way or
another the lack of proper waste management among households as one of the major problems,
referring to “poor methods”, “little awareness”, “lack of education” (Kiime 2012; Mukobi 2012;
Nakitende 2012; Muhwezi 2012). Related to this, the deputy town clerk mentioned a lack of community
participation, while the principal health inspector spoke of a lack of willingness to get involved.
According to both persons, the prevailing perception among the population is that waste management
is a task of the municipality, and accordingly, poor waste management a problem that should
be solved by the authorities. The deputy town clerk linked this to a current lack of local ownership of
the existing system.
A second challenge identified by all interviewees is one of funds (Kiime 2012; Mukobi 2012;
Nakitende 2012; Muhwezi 2012). The interviewees explained how occurring liquidity problems hamper
an effective operation of the current waste management services, e.g. because the fuel needed
for the trucks cannot be paid for, or no money is available for repairing a technical defect, thus prolonging
the period that it is out of service. Besides these most pressing problems, the limited budget
of the municipality also prevents investment in extensions of the present infrastructure, such as extra
skips, trucks and bins.
Three other challenges were mentioned by several interviewees. First, involvement with waste without
proper protective gear (mostly affecting children playing around in dump locations, but to some
extent also employed waste workers who did not seem keen on wearing protective gear) causes
health hazards (Mukobi 2012; Muhwezi 2012). Second, a rapidly increasing population and associated
waste flows challenges the capacity of the formal waste management system (Mukobi 2012 ;
Nakitende 2012). Third, there is a lack of market and thus economic valuation for products resulting
from waste treatment, such as the produced compost from the compost plant, as well as plastic for
recycling (Mukobi 2012; Muhwezi 2012). Finally, the deputy town clerk also mentioned that people
need to become more aware of possibilities for more efficient use of resources in the form of waste
reduction and re-use, in particular with respect to plastic.
The principal health inspector put a lot of emphasis on the criterium that new technologies in relation
to waste management that can be introduced into the waste system should be “saving money”.
Waste management being one of the biggest gorgers of the municipal budget, the interest of the
municipal government is accordingly drawn to keeping the financial impact of the WMS under control.
38

4.3.2 HOUSEHOLDS
FIGURE 4.28 AND FIGURE 4.29: LOCAL CITIZEN CONDUCTING INFORMAL WASTE TRANSPORT FOR A LIVING (LEFT); LOCAL
HOUSEHOLD IN KASESE (RIGHT)
To investigate the views of the households towards waste and the local WMS within the short
timeframe of the field research, a two-track strategy was adopted. On the one hand, the small-scale
survey was carried out in different parts of the town area to gain more insight in the way in which
waste is handled at the household level and know more about the views and thoughts of households
towards the town’s waste management system. On the other hand Father Peter Mubanga Basaliza 19
was interviewed who was in close contact with the community and familiar with the different layers
of the local society.
Where most interviewed persons at the municipality and also Father Peter characterised the households
as of the opinion that improving the waste management system is the municipality’s task only,
the household respondents provided us with a more nuanced picture. While the regular collection of
the waste collected at the collection points was seen as the responsibility of the municipality, 5 out
of the 15 respondents explicitly mentioned the joint responsibility of the community (“the people”,
“ourselves”, “the households”) to keep the town clean (source: own household survey). Innovative
methods for this came up throughout the survey, for example self-organisation within the community
a fixed day in the weak for cleaning.
Upon being asked to indicate their degree of satisfaction with the existing system 20 , 4 respondents
answered they were “satisfied”, 2 respondents answered “OK”, 5 respondents answered “not really
satisfied” and 4 respondents answered they were not satisfied at all. Among the latter two categories,
the principal problems that were raised concerned the skips: respondents felt that the waste
collection from the skips was too infrequent, that there were too few skips (and thus the available
ones got full very fast) or too few trucks (preventing more regular collection), and that waste was
flowing out of the skips and spread through the town (especially when it rained). One respondent, an
unemployed man who earned his living now as an informal itinerant waste collector, going around
and collecting households’ waste to bring it to the skip for a small fee, mentioned that in some
neighbourhoods the skips are located too far away. While mentioning this as a problem, he also said
19 priest at one of Kaseses parishes, head of the local community leaders (representatives of the neighbourhood level) and
chairperson of a local community organisation (Rwenfod, or Rwenzururu Nyabaghole Foundation for Development).
20 choice between very satisfied - satisfied - OK - not really satisfied - not satisfied at all
39

that this also was now his source of income. Also, several respondents mentioned that they resented
the smell that is spread by waste that has been lying around for too long. One respondent mentioned
the damage to health and the environment (and water pollution in particular).
When asked about the principal problems that households faced with respect to the waste management
system in the town, Father Peter emphasised the lack of knowledge among the population
about what constitutes good practice, and the reasons behind why it is important. In his opinion,
changing the attitudes of the people was the primary challenge, at the same time he was very optimistic
about the potential success and results of this (Basaliza 2012).
Nearly every household expressed its interest in a clean town. More difficult to detect were the reasons
behind this stated preference, and whether their concerns were about general pleasantness of
the town they lived in, about the effect on their health or about the environmental impacts. While
Father Peter said that awareness about health and environment aspects of waste was rather low,
one respondent did mention this as a primary concern (source: own household survey). Another
respondent highlighted the social aspect of a clean town and said that too much waste destroyed the
community (source: own household survey). In general, one could state that households have the
high interest in a well-managed waste system overall, for reasons that comprise several dimensions
of well-being and transcend the particular interests of a person.
4.3.3 SERVICES, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS
There are numerous types of commercial services and institutions located in Kasese Town. Data was
collected for the commercial services from small survey samples and site visits. Four small shops
were surveyed as well as one petrol station and two hotels. Site visits were carried out to the abattoir,
the hospital and prison. The latter premises are among the largest generators of waste in the
Kasese town area.
One informal small business, a recycling plant, was included in the survey. Unfortunately, this business
does not operate at present, but its original responsibility was to buy waste plastic from the
Kasese people who brought it to them, shred the plastic into fine pieces and sell it to buyers in Kampala.
But when demand from Kampala decreased, the plant ran out of money to pay the plastics
vendors and had to shut down. Hence, the plant has no current role in the WMS in Kasese except for
demonstrating that there is interest in plastic recycling in Kasese yet the unfavourable market conditions
are forming the major constraint.
The small shops located in Kasese Town generate a large proportion of inorganic solid waste. An employee
at a surveyed shop mentioned that they separate cardboard from other waste because informal
collectors come and collect the cardboard for their own use (source: own business survey). 21
Hotels located further away were provided a waste bin by KMC and the bin is meant to be collected
regularly. Hotels located near the township deposited their waste in the nearest skip. The hospital is
responsible for separating waste by hazardous type (Figure 4.32) and incinerating hazardous waste
21 It remains however unknown who these people are and what they do with the cardboard.
40

onsite (Figure 4.33), among others. 22 Around 200 tonnes of organic waste is generated per year from
the crop farming by prisoners.
FIGURE 4.30 AND FIGURE 4.31: WASTE GENERATED FROM COMMERCIAL SERVICES (LEFT); COMMERCIAL WASTE PILED
UP IN FRONT OF A SHOP (RIGHT)
FIGURE 4.32 AND FIGURE 4.33: INCINERATION OF HAZARDOUS MEDICAL WASTE AT KILEMBE MINES HOSPITAL (LEFT);
POSTER TO GUIDE MEDICAL WASTE SORTING AT KILEMBE MINES HOSPITAL (RIGHT)
Upon being asked to indicate their degree of satisfaction with the existing waste management system,
all four surveyed small shops answered to be satisfied with the service of the municipality collection
service. One shop mentioned that the collection could be more efficient. One hotel was very
dissatisfied with KMC since the waste bin provided to them has never been collected. This meant
22 Other waste practices of the hospital include the collection and on-site burying of non-hazardous waste (including kitchen
waste), the seperation of medicine vials that are collected by municipal council. The hospital’s latrines are emptied by
the national water and sewerage corporation. Medical human waste (blood, placenta) is collected in a tank where it decomposes
automatically
41

that they resorted to illegal dumping near the hotel. Another hotel was located on the outskirts of
the town and transported their waste in a private vehicle to a nearby skip which was dissatisfactory.
The hospital hazardous waste, especially from medical centres, is sometimes disposed improperly
and is transported to the compost plant or to a skip where people are exposed to it (Muhwezi 2012).
The small shops are mostly interested in discarding their solid waste and keeping their premises
clean. (source: own survey) There was little interest in separating their waste for recycling, but given
that there is no system for recycling and little encouragement, this was not surprising.
4.3.4 STAKEHOLDER NETWORK
A stakeholder network diagram is presented in this section to diagrammatically summarise the main
stakeholders and their relations with each other.
administration / funding
community mobilisation & inclusion
/ knowledge provision
World Bank
national government
provide money
for composting
plant
training for staff &
money from
NEMA
provide money
for budget &
legislation
treatment
Kasese Municipal
Council – 3 divisions
church
King of Rwenzururu
Hima Cement
compost plant
Provide funding
and delivery of
waste
plastic recyclers
Includes
collection of
some special
waste like
medicine vials
from the hospital
waste collection
and transport /
get elected
trust & communication /
mobilisation of people
coffee husks used
in kilns
organic waste
used for
composting
process
waste collection and transport
provide waste /
pay for plastic
industries
institutions
services
households
abattoir
animals
farmers
products for
markets
one or bidirectional
relation
waste generators
currently not
operational
FIGURE 4.34: STAKEHOLDER DIAGRAM OF STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN THE EXISTING WMS OF KASESE
It was found that the Kasese municipal council and the compost plant occupy a central place within
the stakeholder network. Further, three types of relations were identified and distinguished: first,
relations with the institutional structure underpinning the WMS, second, the relations with the waste
generators, and third, relationships characterising how the community works. Each of these types of
relationships is described in more detail below.
4.3.4.1 RELATIONS DUE TO ADMINISTRATION AND FUNDING
The national government is a major stakeholder in the institutional structures surrounding the WMS.
By earmarking the allocated budgets for the local governments, the Ministry of Local Authorities has
42

a large influence on the way in which the municipal budget is spent (see section 4.1.1). The National
Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) determines to an important extent the way in which
the formalised waste system is managed, as they write and publish the guidelines for the handling of
MSWM composting (NEMA 2011) as well as provide funding and training for staff. The World Bank is
another stakeholder related to the compost plant, as the latter was established in a programme that
was set up, co-financed and supervised by the World Bank.
4.3.4.2 RELATIONS TO AND BETWEEN THE WASTE GENERATING STAKEHOLDERS
The waste generators were grouped in four broad categories: households, services, institutions and
industries. The main relations between these stakeholders are summarised below.
Centrally located waste generators located in the centre of the town are related to the formalised
municipal waste system because some of their waste is being collected by the trucks of the compost
plant. Distant waste generators that are located in the outskirts of the town are less related to the
formalised municipal waste system, as they are generally not connected to the compost plant collection
scheme.
Large waste generators, such as the hospital, the coffee industry and the abattoir, have arranged
direct agreements with other stakeholders about the handling of their waste. The hospital has
agreements with the municipality to come and collect specific parts of their waste, such as the medicine
vials, while the majority of the waste is still treated onsite. Hima Cement desires induces that
coffee husks are being collected and sold to Hima Cement to be used as a source of heating in the
cement production process. The compost plant is using the animal’s excreta (mainly cow dung) of the
animals that are slaughtered in the abattoir and collected every three days, and transported directly
to the compost plant where it is used to improve the composting process of the organic fraction of
the municipal solid waste. The prison, another large waste generating institution within Kasese is
currently looking for such an agreement to do something more useful with the large amounts of
waste they generate. At this moment however, they are treating it themselves by just burning it.
Informal waste treatment and residents used to be quite closely connected to the residents when
the plastics recycling business was in operation. Their main source of separated plastic was people
who did the sorting and brought the plastic to them for a small fee. Their output relations were in
Kampala and therefore fall out of the scope of our current investigation.
4.3.4.3 RELATIONS DUE TO COMMUNITY MOBILISATION AND INCLUSION
The church and the local King were identified as the key community stakeholders, exercising an important
influence on household views and practices, e.g. with respect to health, environment and
waste. The King and the Rwenfod foundation are linked strongly as the foundation was founded by
the King and his Ministry and there is an on-going direct involvement in the foundation from their
side.
4.4 SOURCES OF LOCK-IN
The characterisation exercise carried out in this chapter allowed to identify four sources of lock-in,
comprising the societal, institutional and technological dimensions as defined by Unruh (2002).
●
Laws are not being perceived as being enforced, thus weakening the power of the governance
instrument of regulation (societal/institutional)
43

● Ear-marked funding from the national government limits the possibilities of local governments
to assign funds according to perceived importance (institutional)
● The compost plant relies on the regular input of this specific waste fraction. This creates a
lock-in for the organic waste fraction, as all of the organic waste that is formally collected is
transported to the compost plant, is not used for other purposes, such as re-use, recycling
and alternative forms of recovery. (technological)
● The mentality of the people, where waste is principally considered as a burden that they
need to get rid of (societal)
Each of these have large influence over how the WMS was shaped over time, as mechanisms of increasing
returns marked the paths over which the system stabilised in its form of today.
Besides these sources of lock-in, the characterisation also pointed to numerous issues with respect to
Kasese’s WMS. These are treated in the following section.
4.5 KEY ISSUES
The (partial) ISWM assessment in this chapter has the purpose of identifying the issues at stake in
the WMS in Kasese. Something is regarded as an issue if an action, operation, or a finding identified
in our analysis might have an impact on the Kasese WMS. It is also an issue if it is an issue to only a
single person in the WMS of Kasese.
From the analysis conducted in the previous sections of this chapter, a list of 79 issues are derived
(see Appendix D for full list). It has to be noted that only those issues that have or might have a negative
impact are included. As explained in 3. methodology a tool for ranking was developed for the
issues, which can be found in Appendix D.
Based on the ranking methodology the top 8 issues were selected as key issues. The key issues identified
are:
Prevention/reduction, re-use and recycling of waste is not widespread in Kasese
Insufficient funds for WMS
Lack of community participation in WMS
People need to become more aware of possibilities for more efficient use of waste as a resource
and of waste reduction
Challenge posed by a rapidly increasing population, which will create more waste
Although there is a legal framework in place regarding duty to manage and minimise waste
there is no evidence that it is enforced.
Several waste fractions get mixed together and makes the treatment complicated
Illegal dumping or burning of waste takes place in backyards or ditches behind houses or at
spots known to the local community
The key issues are the principal input for the next chapter, which investigates the impact and implications
of a W2E pathway on the WMS; the key issues are described more elaborately in section 5.3 in
the next chapter.
44

5 POTENTIAL PATHWAYS
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse whether, and how, the baseline pathway and two waste-toenergy
pathways address the key issues. In the previous chapter, the current stakeholders did not
STABILIZED SYSTEM
WMS
CHARACTERISATION
CHALLENGE THE LOCK-IN
POTENTIAL
PATHWAYS
BASELINE
TIME
KEY ISSUES "NEW"
STAKEHOLDERS
FIGURE 5.1: THE STORY OF THIS STUDY PROJECTED ON A
TIMELINE
involve A2I and associated stakeholders. As visible
from the diagram in figure XX, these new
stakeholders come in and take up important roles
in the potential pathways. Therefore, the assessment
is structured so that in a first step, the
stakeholders of future pathways are described
and analysed and key issues are identified. Next,
the three potential pathways to the WMS are
described. Finally, the key issues that were the
outcome of the previous chapter are used as the
starting point for an assessment of whether the
different potential pathways are addressing
them.
5.1 ANALYSIS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS IN FUTURE PATHWAYS
The WMS described in the previous chapter presented the current state of the WMS. As described in
1. Problem area and research question, WWF initiated the “green energy champion district” vision
for Kasese and therefore came into the system as a new stakeholder. WWF attracted and involved
other new stakeholders which might play a role in future changes to Kasese’s WMS, such as A2I.
Those new stakeholders are identified and assessed and described in regard to their relations between
and within the “old” stakeholder system in this section.
In order to classify the new stakeholders the “triple helix network model” from access2innovation
(A2I) provides a good point of departure. The network that A2I wants to set up consists of NGOs and
the civil society, companies and university partners with A2I as a facilitator of exchange and interaction
between these three stakeholder groups (see Figure 5.2).
FIGURE 5.2: TRIPLE HELIX DIAGRAM OF THE NETWORK AROUND A2I (ACCESS2INNOVATION 2012)
45

In the case of Kasese, the NGO is represented mainly by WWF and to a lesser extent also by JEEP. As
both these NGOs are operating at the Ugandan national level, WWF attracted the local Rwenfod
Foundation as a partner for WWF for Kasese in particular, representing the civil society.
Which companies exactly will be involved in Kasese remains undefined at this stage, but different
investors, most of them members of the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI), have shown interest
in the business cases described by A2I and investigated these further during two visits in Kasese.
Even though not being a company as such, also the Frederikshavn Kommune is in the following description
regarded as belonging to this category, as their role is to provide and cooperate on capacity,
knowhow, marketing, etc.
Each of the stakeholders involved in the future potential pathways is described and assessed below.
5.1.1 A2I
As mentioned above A2I aims to bring together NGO/civil society, companies (investors), and universities
in order to build a network that delivers a suitable solution for a problem in developing countries.
To match Kasese’s green energy champion aims and given the Danish expertise in this area, the
business case of W2E was developed for Kasese as an answer to both a deficient WMS and a desire
for green energy.
In Kasese A2I (together with WWF) can be seen as the main network builder for the implementation
of W2E. Its main responsibility is the facilitation of the network, by identifying, approaching, bringing
together the partners, and organising the communication between relevant stakeholders, e.g.
through meetings and workshops. In order to get the appropriate partners on board, A2I also actively
participates in identifying the most suitable technological solutions.
A2I can influence the WMS through facilitating foreign companies in offering a W2E solution. This
aspect attracted the attention and support of the KMC, that did not have detailed knowledge of W2E
systems before it was introduced by A2I. Therefore it is evident that A2I has an influence in terms of
transferring knowledge about W2E to the municipality in Kasese.
A problem might be that A2I does not possess enough data in order to get the potential companies
interested in investing in a W2E solution. Furthermore the different economic, political and social
conditions in the developing countries may mean some solutions developed for and in developed
countries are incompatible.
5.1.2 NGOS / CIVIL SOCIETY
The stakeholders in this group include WWF and the Rwenzururu Nyabaghole Foundation for Development
(Rwenfod). WWF Uganda’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment
and to build a future in which humans live in harmony in nature (Mutyaba 2012). WWF is
the direct partner of A2I in Uganda. The Rwenfod Foundation is a Kasese-based social organisation. It
was founded by the King and Queen of the Rwenzururu Kingdom 23 . The Foundation’s headquarters
are in Kasese and its activities are related to promoting the local population’s social wellbeing (Basaliza
2012).
23 a regional Kingdom spread over several districts within the Western Region in Uganda.
46

The role that WWF may play in the future WMS is that of being the crucial link between the municipality
and the external stakeholders (outside Kasese) 24 . In this, WWF is one of the most important
actors in the network surrounding the potential introduction of new approaches to waste management.
WWF would aid capacity building, networking, supporting partners and providing coordination
when required (Mutyaba 2012). WWF is responsible for providing updates for the municipality on
the A2I progress and to provide information and awareness, therefore it can influence the municipality.
WWF also manages the “green energy champion district” initiative, of which a W2E initiative may
form a part.
Rwenfod’s role can be characterised as providing social support to the local community, including
awareness raising and mobilisation. They are in direct contact with the local communities and the
chairperson, Father Peter, hosts a popular radio programme reaching 400,000 people in the area
(Musaliza 2012). In order to facilitate a successful W2E solution or to implement change in the WMS
it is evident from an ISWM perspective that the local people must be involved. Therefore the
Rwenfod Foundation must bring the people on-board as soon as possible to enable successful
change.
Lack of local investment capacity makes WWF principally interested in attracting investors to codevelop
replicable and scalable business models, that can serve as demonstration projects for the
rest of Uganda and the developing world (Mutyaba 2012). Rwenfod is interested in this project because
an improved WMS directly affects the living conditions of the local people.
WWF are not experts in W2E and rely mostly on external expert knowledge (Mutyaba 2012). This
may lead to bias where WWF’s focus is drawn to W2E without considering other solutions to the
same degree. While particular characteristics of the Kasese MWS are a crucial determinant of the
potential and success of a W2E approach, they are possibly not understood in depth by external
stakeholders. 25
5.1.3 POTENTIAL INVESTORS, COMPANIES AND FREDERIKSHAVN KOMMUNE
While a number of Danish investors currently considering the business cases proposed by A2I for
Kasese, one of which is the W2E case, there was no W2E company present on the field visit organised
by A2I from 4/12/2012 to 10/12/2012. From Frederikshavn Kommune, several representatives participated.
The role of investors and companies is to develop the business cases and, if feasible, provide investment
in a technological solution. Making a successful business case out of Kasese’s W2E project
could mean making profits out of it but also to serve as a pilot project for W2E in a developing country
context or to provide a stepping stone to further access to the emerging East African economies.
In addition, investors may be interested to use the project for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR),
or for exposure.
24 WWF will take up this role at least until 2015, as the green energy champion district programme runs until this time.
WWF however expressed its interest in a continued involvement in Kasese also after this date, and just recently installed a
local office and permanent staff member in the municipality.
25 As an example, lack of knowledge of the particular composition of the waste, might induce ideas for W2E approaches
that are not adapted to the context. This issue is treated in more detail in Key issues vs. potential pathways
47

Frederikshavn Kommune has a Champion District initiative similar to Kasese therefore their role is to
be a partner of KMC to exchange good practices and provide advice and support. Frederikshavn
Kommune’s interest is to establish a mutually enriching partnership with a developing country municipality,
and contribute to their development through knowledge exchange and capacity building.
5.1.4 UNIVERSITIES
Besides the public and private partners in the A2I network described above, the “university”-part of
the A2I network at this stage does not really have fixed contours either. This section discusses Aalborg
University, as this university has the closest connection to A2I and the Kasese case.
The role of AAU is to deliver state of the art knowledge about the possible technologies that can contribute
to A2I’s objectives. It is the explicit aim to implement innovative solutions rather than traditional
ones. A high degree of technical knowhow thus becomes more important than in regular development
and investment projects.
The influence of AAU is to change the way business cases are developed by pointing out potential
problems and by adding knowledge. The involvement of universities gives a certain authority to the
projects carried out, that can be important to influence potential support for the projects, both in
Denmark and Uganda.
5.1.5 STAKEHOLDER NETWORK WITH FUTURE PATHWAY STAKEHOLDERS
Based on this analysis, the stakeholder diagram from section 4.3.4 is revised to adapt it to a context
in which the stakeholders of future pathways are integrated. This exercise, visually presented in Figure
6.1 allows for assessing the way in which the stakeholders are affected by a potential introduction
of new W2E technologies in the Kasese WMS, and to describe the key relations arising from this.
One of the new main relationships is between A2I, external investors, technology providers and the
local branch of WWF in Kasese. A2I is able to facilitate this network in order to identify a potential
W2E solution and to communicate information to WWF. WWF Uganda is occupying the central position
of intermediary between A2I and the KMC. Rwenfod is an important intermediary between the
municipality and the local people since they are already in a close relationship with the local people.
Frederikshavn Kommune is considering to have a closer cooperation with the KMC in order to provide
counselling and inspiration.
From the stakeholders introduced in the future pathways some issues have been identified. In regards
to external stakeholders such as investors or A2I there is the issue of power relations with the
local municipality. Power relations might shift when investors come into Kasese and the investors
possibly remain disconnected from the Municipality, despite their connection to A2I.
Furthermore, there is a possibility that investors may leave the project if difficulties arise and therefore
possibly leaving issues for the KMC to manage.
The transfer of W2E knowledge to the municipality is also an issue as essential investors provide information
about solutions to A2I which in turn informs WWF who informs the KMC. This knowledge
transfer can introduce some bias as the municipality is not introduced to, or is informed about, other
alternatives for improving the WMS, that might potentially be more suitable.
48

Another issue is that AAU’s role to bring state of the art knowledge about WMSs into the process by
partnering with A2I is limited at present and their role might be neglected in future pathways, when
they are no longer seen as adding knowledge.
From the list of issues provided above, the issue of power relations changing between investors and
the municipality when investors remain disconnected, was chosen as a key issue to be analysed for
each of three future pathways. Therefore this issue is also analysed as one of the key issues in section
5.3 below.
administration / funding
community mobilisation & inclusion
/ knowledge provision
Aalborg University
World Bank
treatment
provide money
for composting
plant
Hima Cement
national government
training for staff &
money from
NEMA
compost plant
provide money
for budget &
legislation
waste-to-energy?
Provide funding
and delivery of
waste
plastic recyclers
investors
propose
potential business
cases
Frederikshavn Kommune
permanent
partnership?
Kasese Municipal
Council – 3 divisions
Includes
collection of
some special
waste like
medicine vials
from the hospital
waste collection
and transport /
get elected
church
Involve them as a
non-commercial
partner and role
model
partnership for
realizing the
green energy
champion district
vision
trust & communication /
mobilisation of people
King of Rwenzururu
access2innovation
Instrument to
support the
citizens
strategic
partnership to
develop and
realize business
cases
WWF Uganda
partnership for
realizing the
green energy
champion district
vision
Rwenfod Foundation
social support
coffee husks used
in kilns
organic waste
used for
composting
process
waste collection and transport
provide waste /
pay for plastic
industries
institutions
services
households
abattoir
animals
farmers
products for
markets
new stakeholders
one or bidirectional
relation
waste generators
currently not
operational
FIGURE 5.3: STAKEHOLDER NETWORK DIAGRAM INTEGRATING FUTURE PATHWAY STAKEHOLDERS
49

5.2 DESCRIPTION OF POTENTIAL PATHWAYS
In order to analyse the identified key issues in context of the potential pathways currently considered
for the WMS in Kasese, the potential pathways firstly have to be described. The three assessed
pathways are the following:
● Baseline pathway: a continuation of the existing system, that has room for improvement but
without the introduction of W2E technologies.
● Biogas pathway: a centralised anaerobic digestion unit is installed.
● Incineration pathway: a centralised incineration plant is installed.
The baseline pathway was chosen due to the possibility of no investors being introduced and this is
the default pathway if this occurs. The biogas and incineration pathways were chosen since they are
the most popular options for A2I and WWF at present. In accordance with their current status in
A2I’s case, the anaerobic digestion and the incineration approaches are not defined in detail but intentionally
left open for different technical specifications. Their description starts from the current
situation, outlining the general requirements, the performed process and the benefits and pitfalls.
5.2.1 BASELINE PATHWAY
In the baseline approach, the waste stream is composed of a dominating organic fraction, a rather
small fraction of plastics and some other minor fractions. In the formal collection system the waste
generators bring their waste to provided skips that are often overstrained, which then get collected
by trucks and brought to the compost plant. Insufficient funding, among other reasons, prevents the
municipality to expand the frequency of collection, the collection area and the infrastructure for collection
and treatment. This leaves the majority of the waste to be managed in a system of informal
waste treatment, which includes dumping, burying and burning. It can be stated that in this system,
only rarely waste is recognised as a resource.
5.2.2 BIOGAS PATHWAY
The implementation of a centralised biogas plant that generates electricity and heat requires a licence
to operate and connect it to the grid, trained staff and a designated plot of land, which should
not be located too close to residential areas, due to potential odour problems. Furthermore, there is
the need for both a storage area for the delivered biomass and gas storage for the produced biogas.
As input, an organic fraction that is clean as possible is required, which has to be transported to the
treatment plant. If the separation at source cannot be carried out to a sufficient degree, the waste
has to be presorted at plant level, as only organic material can be treated since other fractions might
harm the digestion process (Danish Energy Agency 2012).
The treatment is an anaerobic process generating biogas, which typically consists of 60-70% methane.
This process can take place at three different temperature levels (Psychrophilic (coldest),
mesophilic (middle), thermophilic (warmest)) each with an increasing technical complexity (cold to
warm), but at the same time also increasing yields of gas. The more complex the process, the longer
it can take to adjust until it generates revenue. Depending on the chosen temperature level to keep
the process running, biomass has to be exchanged continuously, for example up to several times a
day. After the biogas is generated (and eventually buffered in the gas storage) the biogas is then processed
in an engine generating heat and electricity. While the electricity could be fed into the electricity
grid in Kasese, the heat can only be used to a certain extent to improve the digestion process,
50

since the heat demand in Kasese is low and there is no available infrastructure to utilise it (Danish
Energy Agency 2012).
The sold electricity can be sold to generate a revenue for the plant owner(s). Another source of income
could be carbon credits from the avoidance of methane emissions through a Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM). A biogas plant can also contribute to local capacity building and creation of
jobs. Another advantage is that the digested biomass contains “environmentally critical nutrients,
primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, [which] ]can be redistributed” and its “fertilizer value (...) is better
than the raw materials” (Danish Energy Agency 2012, 186).
5.2.3 INCINERATION PATHWAY
The operation of an incineration plant can be less complex than the process of the biogas plant. Besides
a storage, it also contains a feeding system firing a grate furnace, which is connected to a steam
boiler, powering over a turbine where a generator produces electricity and heat. An incineration
plant requires a licence to operate, plot of land with a certain distance to the residential areas, storage
for the delivered MSW and connection to the grid. While the electricity could be fed into the
electricity grid, the heat is likely to to be left unused.(Danish Energy Agency 2012) Unlike for the
biogas plant, presorting of waste is not required for the operation of the plant, even though hazardous
waste fractions still should be treated in more environmentally sound ways than incineration.
However, given the high moisture content of the large organic fraction of Kasese’s waste stream,
drying the waste might be required in order to obtain a sufficient heating value.
After the incineration there is on the one hand a remaining fraction of bottom ash/slag, which can
for instance be used in (road) construction works, and on the other hand the “polluted, corrosive flue
gas (...) requiring extensive treatment”, which in turn generates residues that can be classified as
hazardous waste (Danish Energy Agency 2012, 63).
Like with biogas, the sold electricity generates a revenue for the plant owner(s). The electrical efficiencies
of an incineration plant are, at least in a Danish context, lower than the ones of a gas turbine
(Danish Energy Agency 2012). Since all waste fractions can be treated with incineration other treatment
technologies are obsolete, but can still be integrated at the same time in the WMS. Possible
issues with incineration are that the output is partly hazardous and has to be treated / dealt with
separately, and the advantage of valuable nutrients as an output of the system is unknown. Due to
high sunk costs, learning curves and mechanisms of increasing returns (Pierson 2002), an incineration
plant poses a risk of lock-in. Once a incineration plant is installed, both the energy and the waste
management system will be more and more adapted to the system of incineration, thus locking it in
and hampering the adoption of other, potentially more desirable options and technologies.
5.3 KEY ISSUES VS. POTENTIAL PATHWAYS
The key issues identified in Chapter 4 are each described in more detail. The 9 key issues are considered
of the same level of importance, implying the ordering below has no significance. For every key
issue an assessment is carried out discussing qualitatively whether, and in which way, it can be addressed
by the three potential approaches described above.
51

5.3.1 PREVENTION/REDUCTION, RE-USE AND RECYCLING OF WASTE IS NOT WIDE-
SPREAD IN KASESE
If the current treatment methods in Kasese are compared to the waste hierarchy (see section 2.2),
the methods are primarily limited to only a few different methods consisting of disposal (burning,
burying, dumping) and recovery (composting). Individual persons are also conducting small-scale reuse
and recycling. The more desirable treatments, according to the waste hierarchy, such as prevention
of waste, re-use and recycling are either absent or only carried out to a very limited extent.
Baseline approach - The baseline approach contains little re-use, recycling and reduction of waste,
despite the mentioned small business recycling plastic. This means that the know-how, the technical
set-up and the customer relationships to carry out plastic recycling in Kasese are present, but might
need support to get the business running again. Besides this, it also shows that there are opportunities
to transform this informal activity into a formal way of treatment or start other formal re-use
and recycle initiatives. This would imply that waste would have an economic value, which can initiate
a fundamentally different pathway, towards better collection and improved treatment. These more
environmentally sound treatments could also benefit the local economy and the efficiency of the
WMS, if implemented.
Waste prevention/reduction could be addressed by the baseline approach, as discussed along with
the following key issues. Currently the compost plant does not collect all available waste so there is
possibly capacity to reduce waste without affecting the demands of the compost plant.
Biogas and incineration approaches - Both the biogas and the incineration plant do not address the
issue of re-use, recycling and reduction. Instead they work on the level of energy recovery, which is
regarded in the waste hierarchy as the second lowest level. If the incineration plant is commissioned,
the WMS will operate long term on the level of recovery, because fractions suitable for recycling,
such as the plastic materials, will be included in the incineration. In some cases metals can be reclaimed
and recycled after the incineration process but this would account for a minimal fraction of
the
MSW.
A biogas plant only treats organic waste and is therefore not a stand-alone form of treatment. The
required presorting of the waste stream for the biogas approach might potentially induce more recycling
of the non-organic waste fractions, as they eventuate as a cleaner fraction after sorting.
In general recycling, re-use and reduction/prevention of waste can contribute to transform the WMS
into a more closed cycle system consuming fewer resources since it would imply that the resources
are used more than once, thus reducing the required input of materials into the system.
5.3.2 ALTHOUGH THERE IS A LEGAL FRAMEWORK IN PLACE REGARDING DUTY TO
MANAGE AND MINIMISE WASTE THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT IT IS OBEYED
Although the National Environment Act Chapter 153 article 52, clause 3 obliges “Every person whose
activities generate waste shall employ measures for the minimisation of waste through treatment,
reclamation and recycling” it is not obeyed in Kasese. This is both in regards to larger generators like
shops and individual households dumping waste. The lack of enforcement can be caused by several
reasons, e.g. no knowledge about the law or that the law is being ignored, or no enforcement laws
like bylaws including fines.
52

Baseline approach - In the baseline approach the waste generators need more options in regard to
the collection and separation of their waste in order to fulfill their legal obligations. One way to make
it more likely that the law is being obeyed could be to provide separate skips for different waste fractions.
In this way, reclaiming and recycling of the materials is made easier, and the waste fraction
that has to be treated without returning revenue is minimised. Also an option where the waste generator
also treats the waste by himself (the informal treatment in this report), can also be fostered,
but should be carried out in accordance with the expertise of the municipality’s waste department.
Biogas and incineration approaches - A biogas plant addresses this key issue by adding a treatment
facility to the WMS, which deals with the organic fraction of the waste. By separating the organic
fraction at source, the waste generator can ensure that he/she follows his/her legal obligation, which
can be of special importance for stakeholders generating bigger waste amounts.
The same counts for the approach to install an incineration plant in the WMS, with the difference
being that all waste fractions are treated together and separation at source is not required. Minimisation
of waste - through active measures or through individual informal treatment - is not really
compatible with either incineration and biogas, as these systems require a constant input. It has to
be noted that an anaerobic digestion approach might be compatible with a policy of minimisation of
plastic waste.
5.3.3 PEOPLE NEED TO BECOME MORE AWARE OF POSSIBILITIES FOR MORE EFFICIENT
USE OF WASTE AS A RESOURCE AND OF WASTE REDUCTION
The awareness of people about waste management options may be related to the previous key issues
as it can constitute one of their causes. If most people see waste as a burden, and are not aware
of the benefits that they entail when managed appropriately, automatically this will lead to less prevention/reduction,
re-use and recycling.
Baseline approach - In general awareness about the more efficient use of waste as a resource should
be addressed regardless of the potential approach. It might be achieved through education in
schools, campaigns, awards like for the cleanest division in the Municipality, through the channels of
religious and cultural institutions and leaders, or by making people experience the benefits from
certain ways of dealing with waste (Mutyaba 2012). Increasing awareness about waste as a resource
might address some important malfunctions of the existing system, such as treatment that poses
health risks and dumping. In the baseline approach, the main output of the system is compost which
can be used as a fertilizer. Currently, the compost has no market value however; it is not sold or utilised.
This is one example of low awareness about the value of the waste.
Biogas and incineration approach - In contrast, the implementation of a biogas or incineration technology
is using waste directly as a resource, generating revenue from the sale of electricity. As such,
the waste itself also gains a certain value. In the case of the biogas plant, the by-product can be used
as fertilizer. To the extent that this fertilizer does not face the same challenges as the compost in the
existing system, it can create another visible benefit for the community. Establishing modern technologies
can also create a certain “wow-effect” in the communities and attract attention to the
WMS, maybe even (far) beyond the borders of Kasese. This can also increase the awareness about
the value of the waste.
53

5.3.4 WASTE IS BEING ILLEGALLY DUMPED OR BURNED IN BACKYARDS OR DITCHES
BEHIND HOUSES OR AT SPOTS KNOWN TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
For its adverse impacts on health and environment, dumping or burning of waste was made illegal in
the municipality’s bylaws and policy. These practices can thus be fined. Their existence indicates that
people might not be aware of the adverse impacts (and therefore also relates to this previously described
key issue) and/or that it is regarded as too demanding to carry out the recommended management
practices.
Baseline pathway - Ideally, the burned and dumped waste should be treated properly, either formally
or informally, where it could potentially serve as a resource to generate revenue or minimize costs.
If the desired ways of waste management require a too high level of effort, this can certainly influence
people’s decisions to treat waste by themselves in less appropriate ways. In combination with
awareness raising measures mentioned above, this implies reducing the effort needed for the proper
waste management by the waste generators, e.g. by extending and/or rethinking the collection system.
Biogas and incineration pathways - By introducing biogas and incineration technologies the incentives
for treating waste differently might be increased since a valuable output is generated and
hence, people can see a reason behind collecting a larger share of the waste for treatment at a central
location instead of dumping it. This nevertheless requires that concurrently the infrastructure
and conditions are improved.
The incineration plant can be seen as a way to convert illegal burning to legal burning, which can be
controlled in terms of environmental and health impact, and with the benefit of energy output. In
general, a mentality change is prerequisite to radically decrease dumping and burning of waste, that
can be achieved through a combination of putting a value to waste, creating incentives and raising
awareness about waste treatment.
5.3.5 SEVERAL WASTE FRACTIONS GET MIXED TOGETHER AND MAKE THE TREATMENT
COMPLICATED
Waste fractions are getting mixed together at different levels of the WMS, making adequate treatment
for each fraction significantly more difficult. Since only the organic fraction is formally treated,
waste sorting is required at some point. Currently, this is done manually at the compost plant by
municipal staff. The treatment of inorganic waste fractions is almost non-existent in the entire existing
system.
Baseline and biogas pathways - In both the baseline and biogas approaches only the organic fractions
get formally treated. The reason why the waste is getting mixed can be traced back to several
causes. First, it is of course crucial that the infrastructure to sort the waste at the point of generation
is missing. Second, there certainly also is a lack of awareness about the impacts of waste sorting at
source. Third, there is a lack of treatment method for the inorganic fraction of the waste. Of course,
the three reasons are inherently related. While some households currently do waste separation at
generation level, at the collection point the separated waste is put together again due to lack of infrastructure
for collecting separated waste (source: own household survey). Also, waste generators
might not see any purpose in sorting the waste when it is not really used for beneficial purposes afterwards.
54

Incineration pathway - If implementing the incineration pathway the issue of sorting is less relevant
since no sorting is required and all waste fractions can be used for producing energy. Of course, according
to the waste hierarchy energy recovery remains an inferior option compared to recycling. As
such, incineration can eventually lead to less emphasis on recycling and thus a less desirable waste
management path compared to other potential pathways.
5.3.6 INSUFFICIENT FUNDS FOR EFFECTIVE WMS
According to several sources, the budget of the WMS in Kasese is insufficient for an adequate operation
of the formal WMS (Niimbe 2012, Muhwezi 2012, Mutyaba 2012). This has a direct impact on
the effectiveness of the system and impacts almost all waste system elements. The insufficient funds
are exemplified through lack of fuel for waste collection trucks, lack of spare parts and funds for repairs
on trucks and no funds for further investment in WMS infrastructure (Mutyaba 2012).
Baseline pathway - The insufficient funds of the existing WMS can be overcome by either generating
more income for the system or by reducing the costs (Mutyaba 2012).
The baseline pathway does not generate any revenue, given the low demand for the compost. Increased
demand for compost would generate revenue, a formalization of profitable recycling practices
such as the plastic crushing, or operation costs can be brought down. Regardless of the pathway
it is necessary to optimize the system which is not well planned (Mutyaba 2012). An option could be
to rethink the formal collection and transport systems, to include new and creative ways that are less
capital-intensive. This would imply moving away from the path that comprises copying developed
countries’ approaches to waste management, and move towards fundamental locally-grounded solutions
to these phases, that might well be more labour-intensive, a resource that is much more widely
available in Kasese. Also the performance based mechanism rewarding efficient WMS’s might benefit
the baseline pathway as this creates additional incentives for improving the system and expanding
the budget.
Biogas and incineration pathways - Biogas and incineration technologies could generate revenue for
the system, but of course also imply costs for investment, operation and maintenance, regardless of
the stakeholders involved and ownership structures. Due to the more complex nature of the biogas
and incineration technologies, there would also be costs related to the transfer of knowledge and
capacity building. Depending on the contractual agreements, generated revenues could be directed
towards improving the WMS in Kasese, or not (Mutyaba 2012). A full financial feasibility assessment
for implementing biogas or incineration falls, of course, out of the present report’s scope.
5.3.7 LACK OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN WMS
The communities are rarely participating in the Kasese WMS beyond collection of waste and informal
treatment. The formal collection, transport and treatment of waste is disconnected from the communities,
which may be one of the reasons why there is a limited feeling of ownership of the WMS in
the communities. The lack of participation impacts on the efficiency of the system.
Baseline pathway - In the baseline pathway different measures have already been proposed, for
example an initiative is proposed where a bag of waste could be exchanged for a bag of compost
(Nakitende 2012). This will contribute to include the communities more, while other measures could
55

also stimulate the separation of waste at source. Other options that could deal with this problem
might include self-organisation by the communities in order to keep their neighbourhood clean.
Biogas and incineration pathways - In the biogas and incineration pathways communities can also be
part of the collection scheme as the plants require fixed inputs of waste and this could be ensured by
involving local people. A more concrete initiative could potentially comprise paying individuals (or
small organisations) for collecting the waste and bringing it to the treatment plants to supplement
the formal collection and transport. Higher payments could be given for separated fractions of waste
with a high energy content and in this way induce sorting of the waste. From an interview with a
Danish businessman located in Uganda it was also concluded that the key to motivation is often
money and hence payments to the local people for participating in the WMS (e.g. collection and
transport) is an option that most likely will increase the participation of the communities (Nielsen
2012).
5.3.8 CHALLENGE POSED BY A RAPIDLY INCREASING POPULATION, WHICH WILL CRE-
ATE MORE WASTE
The rapid population growth of around 3.6% p.a. (CIA 2012) is already causing an impact on the generation
of waste as more people are generating more waste and other measures need to be implemented.
The increasing generation of waste adds greater pressure on the existing WMS and requires
it to be improved.
Baseline pathway - The baseline pathway has to ensure that the capacity of the compost plant is
sufficient to meet the growing waste amounts. However not only the treatment capacity should be
increased but growing waste quantities will also affect the sorting and collection phases.
Biogas pathway - To deal with growing waste amounts the biogas pathway will require an increase in
efforts in several phases, including collection, sorting, digestion. This means that the supplementary
waste treatments besides biogas also have to be upscaled, and this would most likely involve several
different stakeholders. On the other hand growing waste generation also leads to a higher generation
of biomass, meaning that the required input to the biogas plant will be more secure and possibly
sources of organic waste with a better suitability for energy generation can be cherry-picked. At the
same time the capacity of the biogas plant and the potential revenues can also be upscaled as there
will be more organic waste produced.
Incineration pathway - For the incineration pathway there will potentially be a higher input of waste,
which could lead to more electricity and higher revenues, while at the same time the fixed input of
waste will be more secure. The incineration pathway will need to be adjusted to the growing waste
volumes in fewer elements of the WMS than the other potential pathways as no additional sorting is
necessary. The capacity of the incineration plant will have to be adjusted to treat the growing waste
amounts and the collection and transport of it.
At the moment the waste volumes collected for treatment in the treatment facilities are fluctuating
strongly throughout the year and might impact W2E pathways as they have to operate with a certain
base load production. The growing waste generation might partly overcome this issue, even though
the fluctuating demand might also be caused by several other mechanisms.
56

5.3.9 POWER RELATIONS CHANGE IF INVESTORS ARE INTRODUCED TO KASESE WMS
AND THEY POSSIBLY REMAIN DISCONNECTED FROM LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS
As external stakeholders, such as investors, get introduced to the current WMS there is the issue of
power relations with the local municipality.
From an interview with an experienced investor in East Africa (Nielsen 2012) it was found that investors
find it difficult to work with local municipalities because of difficult power relations and inefficient
decision making processes. This can lead to a lack of interest by both stakeholders.
Baseline pathway - In the baseline pathway it is not envisaged that there are new investors involved.
Therefore this issue does not arise in this pathway.
Biogas and incineration pathways - In both these pathways it is possibly envisioned that external
investors will provide capital and technology inputs to the WMS of Kasese. An issue could arise with
respect to the engagement by the investors with local stakeholders and the municipality. Whether
the investors work with the local stakeholders and get involved to become an integrated part of the
system, or whether they remain more on the outside of it, depends on the type of success that is
pursued.
From an ISWM perspective the KMC should be put in a position where it can supervise the initiative
and take over a feeling of ownership, thus increasing the chance of success. This is also desired by
the mayor of the KMC (Niimbi in Stakeholder Meeting).
In the interviews with the local municipality it was evident that they are willing to cooperate and
provide assistance. Even though there was a willingness to learn more about W2E, the general
knowledge of the local authorities regarding W2E was rather limited. Nevertheless, some of the staff
had already investigated the potential applicability of W2E technologies further than what had been
presented to them by WWF and A2I (Mukobi 2012). Prior examples showed that the local authorities
can adapt to new technologies demonstrated by the compost plant which was commissioned by
foreign investors but is now being managed solely by local Ugandans.
The main findings from the potential pathway chapter is with regard to new stakeholders involved in
the WMS and how the potential pathways might address the key issues. It was found that the technology
in itself cannot ensure an improvement, but that all the aspects surrounding the WMS should
be in place to ensure an improvement. The key issues might be viewed upon as something that can
be overcome from inside or outside the system or alternatively as something that has to be adjusted
to in order to avoid potential impacts. The findings and methods applied is discussed in the next
chapter.
57

6 DISCUSSION
The aim of this chapter is to discuss some key insights from the study and to reflect upon the way in
which the study was conducted. Many results were developed in this study and the point of this section
is not to go over all results but simply to expand on some that are interesting and benefit from
further discussion. In addition some interesting aspects of the methodology and theory will be discussed
in order to elaborate on the appropriateness and effectiveness of these.
6.1 RESULTS
The results and findings from the report is reflected upon in this section. Assumptions play an important
role in the understanding of the WMS and the potential pathways that can be integrated as
certain assumptions can be so crucial to the analyses that if they are not valid might undermine the
discussions. Such an example is the assumption of feeding the electricity from the W2E pathways
into the national grid, even though no studies have investigated whether there is a demand for this
electricity. If there is no demand for this there is no reason to discuss W2E pathways, unless a local
distribution network is established, which is very unlikely.
Unlocking the current WMS with future pathways
During the analysis several sources of lock-in of the WMS were identified, and these occur around
the existing system and hinder improvements in the WMS. As explained in the chapter 2 these
mechanisms can be challenged, or even unlocked, by different approaches and on different levels in
order to make improvements to the system.
The results show that the baseline pathway will act from the inside, making improvements, while the
W2E pathways will act from outside the system, trying to create a new TIC. The baseline pathway
may be referred to as continuity as changes are required, but the overall structure of the system
remains unchallenged. By integrating either biogas or incineration technologies the un-locking would
be discontinuity approaches, replacing the entire system with a new system and thus expecting that
the negative side-effects will be reduced. Hence, there is a difference between the pathways in terms
of the way the existing lock-ins will become challenged. Also, considering whether the forces for unlocking
the system is coming from within the system or from the outside there is a difference.
Path dependency at work
FIGURE 6.1: VISUALISATION OF INFLUENCE ON POTENTIAL PATHWAYS
BY FOREIGN STAKEHOLDERS
58
Another point to discuss is that the way
developed countries look upon their
WMSs, and hence the technologies that
are implemented, directly influences the
technologies that have become desired
in Kasese. This can be interpreted as a
path dependent effect, which is working
even over the boundaries of different
contexts (developed to developing countries),
as the pathway that developed
countries have taken might continue
elsewhere (see Figure 6.1).

One reason for this can be found in the fact that decision makers in Kasese have visited developed
countries such as Denmark, where for example, incineration is more widespread, and they have seen
how this technology manages large shares of the waste. Consequently from this experience the decision
makers may assume that this can also be a feasible solution in their context, even though potential
downsides have not been considered and the conditions might be completely different (e.g.
Uganda does not have the same heat demand as Denmark and thus heat generated by incineration is
not of the same worth as in the Danish context). At the same time the waste fractions are not comparable
and hence the energy content is different, which in the Kasese can be exemplified by a much
larger wet organic waste fraction that must eventually even be dried first in order to get a significant
energy output.
A potential problem area for WWF Uganda is that due to WWF’s focus on the “green energy champion
district” goals for renewable energy and the nature of the contract between A2I and WWF Denmark,
WWF Uganda could possibly get locked into a path dependency with the W2E option. With the
more effort invested and steps taken with the idea the more dependent WWF Uganda could become
with this option. The problem arises when alternative options are not considered which do not involve
W2E because of the path dependency and bias of WWF Uganda.
Putting this report into context
A consultancy report from (Kyambadde, Hawumba, and Nyanzi 2006) studied various components of
solid waste stream at different stages of the waste management process in Uganda and showed that
“in general that there are many recycling activities going on” (Kyambadde, Hawumba, and Nyanzi
2006). They found that these recycling activities are widespread, mainly performed by individuals,
while such findings did not arise from observations and interviews performed by the authors of this
report while in Kasese. Possibly, this is due to the fact that most of the informal recycling is carried
out inside individual houses or just after generation of waste in farms and alike. Hence, it has not
been possible to observe this and this might impact the perception of the WMS that has been developed
in this report. As the example shows, different authors might have different results and therefore
the present study cannot be a stand-alone report providing all the answers, but should be accompanied
by additional research about the Kasese WMS.
Robustness of data
The robustness of some of the quantitative data is questionable shown by the following example.
Regarding the quantity of waste generated and collected in Kasese different sources can provide
different data. The waste generated in Kasese according to the compost plant manager was around
240 t/day, while the mayor stated that 60% of the waste can be collected. This would mean that the
generation of waste would be around 83 t/day as the collected waste is around 1500 t/month (Kiime
2012); (Nakitende 2012). As other sources also indicated that the waste generation was around 230-
240 t/day this was assumed to be the case for Kasese. A potential reason for the data inconsistencies
might be that the waste generation data that was provided from the formal sources in Kasese was
based on visual observations, which makes it hard to produce exact data.
In general it can be said that what gets measured gets managed and therefore improved data samples
should be produced in order to plan for the future WMS.
59

6.2 METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION
Case study design
The research design used in this study is subject to a number of common criticisms. First, it could be
argued that case studies do not allow to develop scientific generalisations. Given the specific purpose
of this research, which was to provide a characterisation of the WMS in Kasese based on ISWM, this
was not deemed to harm this research, as the accordance with the purpose of the study was guarded.
Another pitfall of case study design consists of its lack of a routinized analytical strategy. This can
potentially lead to a lack of systematic handling of data. By a careful elaboration of the methodology
used and the employment of systematic reporting tools, this pitfall was aimed to be avoided, however,
it cannot be excluded that a number of outcomes would have been different in a case where other
authors would have carried out the analysis. The possibility of bias introduced through specific
methods that were used is further elaborated on below, with regard to the subjectivity of ranking
key issues.
Qualitative versus quantitative data
The methods used for data collection determined what data was available for the analysis. The data
applied was not plentiful as only few prior studies regarding the WMS of Kasese had been carried out
and this resulted in lack of data or uncertain data in parts of the analysis. To increase the validity of
the findings, triangulation was aimed for where possible, by searching converging findings from different
sources. However, most of the data had to be collected by the report authors. As mostly qualitatively
methods were used, thus providing qualitative data, only little quantitative data were implemented
in the report.
The quantitative data, and lack of such, could potentially impact the issues that are revealed within
the existing WMS, as the issues on which no data exist about cannot be revealed. Moreover, the
analysis could to a larger degree have been accompanied by local people with greater knowledge
concerning the existing system and with more resources available to ensure that the process of outlining
the system and identifying key issues will continue after the end of this report.
The references used also affected the outcome of the analysis, e.g. data from the EIA of the compost
plant (Aryagaruka et al. 2007) was only applied when no alternative was available, as stakeholders
pointed the report out as “not accurate” and “not comprehensive” (Okot-Ukumu 2012). Also the
local Ugandan academic references was biased towards mostly one individual from Makerere University,
James Okot-Okumu, meaning that the local Ugandan academic knowledge applied in the
report was collected from one source.
The timeframe available allowed us to do a modest, small-scale survey of households and commercial
services in the Kasese area. Ideally, a larger survey size would have allowed to make more generalizable
statements, or to apply statistical methods to the data gathered. Although potentially a very
informative source of data, carrying out a larger scale survey also require levels of resources that are
significantly higher than what this study allowed for. Despite these shortcomings, the data collected
in the surveys provided useful insights into local business and household activities and attitudes towards
the WMS in Kasese.
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Interview reflections
The interviews provided a large proportion of information for the research and enabled the research
team to characterise the WMS. However, interviewing generates inherently subjective findings due
to the subjectivity of the interviewees, therefore follow up interviews may have been needed to be
carried out in order to verify certain findings and derive more robust recommendations. The interview
data were also affected by the social desirability of answers. In some interviews, the authors’
perceived that the answers were rather socially desirable rather than wholly truthful, which prevented.
When interviewing people with responsibility or with expectation placed upon them such as public
authorities, there is a tendency to answer questions to avoid undesirable answers which may distort
getting a “real” picture.
Observation reflexivity
The weakness of observations as highlighted by (Olsen and Pedersen 2008) is that the observation
causes reflexivity where the observer is causing an effect on the aspects being observed. This was
noticed when collecting the data, for example in one case roadside burning of waste was being carried
out and when taking a photograph the individuals burning the waste became hostile and hence
the WMS was affected. However, observations made up a crucial part of the data collection and added
important findings to the understanding of the construction of the local WMS.
Subjectivity of ranking key issues
The key issues about the WMS in Kasese were used to assess the three pathways, however they were
derived by using rather subjective criteria. Since the research group members developed the criteria
and ranked the issues this certainly introduced a certain degree of subjectivity. If local stakeholders
defined the criteria and then ranked the key issues a different set may have been chosen, hence it
remains unsure whether the assessment in this report meets the needs and desires of the local people
and stakeholders of Kasese.
6.3 THEORIES
Path dependency and lock-in theory
The report used path dependency and lock-in theory as the basis for the research. These theories
enabled the researchers to identify whether a lock-in was existing and what the sources of lock-in
were. The lock-in theory also provided a foundation from which solutions to unlock the lock-in could
be derived and relate them to the potential pathways applied in this report.
The lock-in and path dependency theory were linked with the ISWM theory as they are both trying to
identify the “core” network structures of the system in order to improve it and provide a basis for
discussions for decision makers.
As these theories were found feasible for the project research other theories were not taken into
consideration and evaluated in regards to whether they could have been more appropriate to use as
the foundation for the research. Alternative theories could have included the more classical engineering
approach for WMS, which also might have provided valuable knowledge about the WMS.
The justifications for choosing these theories are described in chapter 2.
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Socio-technical theory
The path-dependency, lock-in and ISWM theories are working within the frame of socio-technical
theories that form a certain “school” of research. Alternative “schools” were not considered in
depth, even though their validity with respect to this research project is unknown. If we had taken
the perspective from another “school” of research, such as traditional engineering, some issues may
not have appeared as key issues. For example it may be rather irrelevant how the power relations
are shifted between stakeholders when the focus in this alternative “school” lies on the technology
efficiency of the system.
This example shows that the lenses applied for the research is affecting the outcome to a large degree
as well as the recommendations for how the WMS potentially can be improved.
In summary, this section has provided some further discussion into some key outcomes from this
study. In the next chapter the main conclusions from the study are presented.
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7 CONCLUSION
This chapter collects the main findings of this report, which helps to answer the twofold research
question. The questions posed were:
A. From an Integrated Sustainable Waste Management perspective, how can the waste
management system in the Kasese municipality be characterized and what are its key issues?
B. How can the identified key issues be addressed in the baseline, a centralised biogas
or an incineration pathway?
The general purpose of answering these questions was to contribute to the improvement of Kasese’s
WMS. As it was recognised that waste management is not merely a technical issue, the structure of
the report was guided by the theory of path dependency and lock-in. Therefore the existing system
was, with the guidance of an adapted and supplemented ISWM framework, assessed and its key
issues and sources of lock-in identified. In a second step those key issues have been assessed in relation
to three potential pathways, which might contribute to the un-locking of the existing system and
improvements of the system.
7.1 CHARACTERIZATION OF THE WMS IN KASESE
The analysis started with a basic system overview, highlighting important terminology like the distinction
between formal and informal activities, and describing the legal, financial and political
framework surrounding the WMS.
In a next step the waste system elements were assessed. It hereby was shown, that the generated
MSW is mainly defined by a strong organic fraction. The formal collection covered only a small share
of the overall generated waste and the patterns of collection showed strong day-to-day variations.
The formal treatment was mainly carried out at a compost plant. Furthermore the major share of the
waste was treated informally by e.g. dumping, burying, composting or burning.
From a waste hierarchy perspective it can be stated that prevention/reduction, re-use and recycling
have only rarely been observed. Recovery is taking place mainly formally through the production of
compost at the compost plant, and to a lesser extent informally. This lead to the conclusion, that the
system can be characterised by a rather open cycle with a high resource consumption.
In the following step the stakeholders shaping the WMS were assessed and the relations between
them identified. Hereby the KMC and the households have been identified as the main stakeholders.
The latter was observed to be strongly influenced by religious and cultural leaders. Furthermore it
was concluded, that the stakeholders responsible for the waste generation and their mobilisation/inclusion
had low influence on the WMS, while the main power was held by the stakeholders
responsible for collection, transport and treatment and administration/funding.
While carrying out the above mentioned analytical steps, several sources of lock-in of the existing
system have been observed. Important sources of the lock-in can be traced back to the financing
mechanism, which leads to an insufficient budget for the WMS, and the low perception of waste as a
resource. The identified sources of lock-in were complemented by a wide range of other issues,
which were then ranked to crystallise 8 key issues of Kasese’s WMS.
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7.2 POTENTIAL PATHWAYS FOR THE WMS IN KASESE
The second part of the analysis focused on potential pathways for Kasese’s WMS. The stakeholders
involved in these pathways were assessed and it could be observed that WWF Uganda acts hereby as
a network builder, who introduced access2innovation as a new player, bringing Danish business
partners into the network. It has been identified that these new involved stakeholders might shift the
power relations strongly from the KMC to themselves.
The potential pathways considered by the new stakeholders comprise two waste-to-energy technologies,
a centralized biogas and an incineration plant, and one baseline pathway aiming for improvements
without bringing a new technology in.
The assessment of the potential pathways’ capability to address the earlier identified key issues induces
more important conclusions.
It has been detected that the two pathways focusing on energy recovery (W2E) are working on the
second lowest desirable level of the waste hierarchy and might cause a source of lock-in to this level
for the adapted system and will therefore shift the long term focus away from aiming at higher levels
of the waste hierarchy.
Besides, it has been concluded, that awareness raising and education pointing at waste as a resource
should be part of every pathway, which might, among other measures, lead to the reduction of illegal,
informal treatment. This could also be fostered by the two W2E pathways, as they have a tendency
to change the perception of waste seen as a burden, due to their potential value-adding side
effects.
Another key issue which has to be addressed by all three pathways is to increase the overall effectiveness
and efficiency of the system. This can include separation at source in the baseline and the
biogas pathway and a higher amount of collected waste in total. To make these improvements to the
system either additional funds are needed, which could e.g. be generated out of the revenue of a
biogas or incineration pathway, or by applying more organisational changes to the WMS. One way of
doing that could be to draw on unused human resources for the waste separation, collection or reuse/recycling
pathways.
Unlike the prior key issues also key issues influencing the WMS from the outside is apparent in the
WMS of Kasese. External factors will continue to affect the WMS of Kasese, i.e. as it is one of the
fastest growing cities in Uganda in terms of population, waste amounts are likely to increase, making
waste management an even more pressing problem.
The discussion chapter revealed that the three potential pathways have to unlock the existing system
in order to make improvements to it. This can be accomplished on different levels and with different
approaches. While the baseline pathway works from inside of the currently locked-in system and can
be described as a continuity approach, the two waste-to-energy pathways are coming from outside
of the system in the form of new emerging, strong technologies aiming at a discontinuity approach. If
one of the considered pathways will be taken, the new system will due to path dependency effects
create new sources of lock-in around itself.
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To round-up the conclusions, it can be stated that the WMS in Kasese is characterised by the generation
of a dominant organic waste fraction, which is mainly informally managed while several sources
of lock-in stabilises this system. Improvements to the WMS could be achieved within all three potential
pathways, provided that the non-technical aspects surrounding the system are also put in place
to complement the chosen technology.
Besides the answers provided by this report, Kasese’s waste management system poses a set of other
questions, which have to be addressed in order to ensure improvements in the WMS. The next
chapter points at some of those gaps, where decision makers have to conduct further research.
7.3 PERSPECTIVES
The findings in this report can be rather difficult to generalize as it is based on a case approach,
which makes the context for every system different.
However, the experiences achieved by conducting improvements to the system in Kasese can be
transferred to other WMS’s in Uganda. As pointed out in one of the interviews conducted Kasese can
serve as a “pilot on a national level which could lead to similar developments in other cities”
(Mutyaba 2012). The new technologies that potentially might get installed in the future can serve as
a showcase and show that energy and waste projects in combination are possible to carry out in
Uganda.
During the study it also became clear that further research was required within several areas in order
to continue the process towards improving Kasese WMS. Further research should be carried out on
the conditions around the compost plant such as contractual obligations about the amount of waste
treated and compost produced annually. As no feasibility studies of the potential pathways and
technologies have been conducted so far, carrying out a study like that could contribute with valuable
knowledge regarding the impacts and feasibility of implementing different pathways. Finally, a
full ISWM assessment could help to integrate the local stakeholders further and generated valuable
knowledge for the future process.
7.4 AFTERTHOUGHTS
As the research question put a frame around what was investigated in this study, not all relevant
dimensions of Kasese’s WMS were researched. Throughout the project period and the field trip several
additional thoughts and ideas came to the authors’ mind that could be relevant to gain deeper
insights into the WMS. Selected thoughts are formulated below and could serve as ideas for further
research and debate around Kasese’s WMS.
●
●
●
●
To what extent can business cases initiate sustainable development in developing countries?
What are the accompanied downsides from this?
It has been perceived that cities with a role model character in developed countries are also
recognized as such in a developing country. How can they contribute to leap-frog developments
taken place in our past, which are today considered as unsustainable?
Is it in reality possible as a foreign investor to come to Africa for a short period of time and
come up with solutions for the local issues installing modern technologies, when the area of
activity as is as complex as a WMS?
Why is there a lack of communication between local authorities and households in KMC regarding
waste management, what problems is it leading to and how can it be solved?
65

●
●
●
●
Is the community actually interested in becoming more integrated into the local WMS as
there are only few incentives in place at the moment?
Which potential problems can arise from the fact that very few decision makers were familiar
with the impacts of integrating foreign waste technologies to their local systems and still
desired them?
Proposed solutions for improving the WMS included mostly capacity building of infrastructure,
but are they in reality the most feasible solutions for improving the system?
As the WMS of Kasese was complex new innovative solutions could be required in order to
achieve improvements to the system. How can these solutions look like?
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8 RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are based on the report findings and can be used either as suggestions
for improving the WMS, or for highlighting what needs to be taken into consideration. Hereby
the recommendations are not directed towards any stakeholders in particular.
8.1 GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
● It is important to challenge and address the sources of lock-in, in order to carry out improvements
in the WMS (sources of lock-in are both due to technological, organisational, societal
and institutional sources)
● The perception of waste should be shifted and redefined from being a burden to a valuable
resource (e.g. compost that is sold, energy, usable products/materials, etc.)
● Implementing measures to close the waste cycle and minimise resource consumption should
be integrated, through inducing more re-use, recycling and recovery
● External factors from the WMS must be considered in early planning phases as waste composition
and amounts will change in the future
● More data and information about the WMS should be collected in order to assess more precisely
where improvements of the system can be conducted
● Health impacts should be assessed and considered to a larger degree in the WMS (especially
for employees affiliated with the WMS)
8.2 ORGANISATIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS
● The WMS should be optimized, especially in regards to collection, transport and treatment.
More effective collection and transport schemes could be implemented?
● Infrastructure and conditions for the WMS should be improved, particularly in relation to
(more) collection, transport and equipment for waste sorting
● Increase budget of WMS by either minimizing costs or increasing revenue by potentially turning
the WMS into a business case. The existing unused human resources could be part of this.
8.3 RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING THE COMMUNITY
● Support should be allocated towards bottom-up initiatives for WMS improvements at the
neighbourhood level as innovative ideas are already present in the population, but there exists
no means to carry them through
● Draw upon strengths of informal waste management as many resources are available within
this waste management section
● Communities should be involved early in the process, ideally already in the idea generating
phase and the planning
● Awareness raising and education is required in the communities. More concrete measures
could comprise of days focussed on waste, and personal waste management counselling by
educated personnel going from house-to-house
● More ownership and responsibility towards the system should be created amongst the users
by making them an active part of the system
● Incentives for participating in the WMS and not performing dumping of waste is required,
e.g. by reducing the effort required by users for being part of the system
● The communities should feel the impacts of their participation in the system (by allocating
some of the potential valuable outputs generated from the WMS to the communities)
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8.4 POTENTIAL FUTURE PATHWAYS RECOMMENDATIONS
● A broad range of alternative pathways should be taken into consideration as options for improving
the future WMS (W2E, recycling stations, briquettes, centralised/decentralised solutions,
etc.). The impacts from each of these pathways should be thoroughly assessed and
considered.
● If a W2E pathway is chosen, structures should be considered, which return some of the revenue
for the improvement of the WMS through contractual agreements
● Strategies should be developed for managing all waste fractions (especially inorganic fractions),
regardless of the pathway chosen
● Implementation strategies should depend on and be adapted to the pathway chosen
8.5 AVENUES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
● It should be researched if the compost plant has legal binding contracts about Certified Emission
Reduction credits which have to be accomplished annually, or whether it would have to
co-exist in combination with other potential waste management pathways
● Feasibility studies of potential pathways should be conducted as well as environmental impact
assessments and health impact assessments
● A more thorough integrated sustainable waste management assessment should be conducted
68

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APPENDIX A: CONTEXT
This section briefly outlines the broader political and institutional context of Kasese relevant for understanding
the functioning of Kasese’s WMS.
Kasese is the “chief” town in the Kasese district, situated in Western-Uganda. The urban area of
Kasese is estimated to count just over 100,000 inhabitants, which recently entitled it to the status of
“municipality” according to the Ugandan population size criteria for towns, municipalities and cities.
26 It is one of the fastest growing towns of Uganda, and almost doubled its size in the ten years
since the last national Census in 2002 (Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2002), when 53,907 inhabitants
were counted in Kasese town. It has a multi-ethnic character, with the Bakonjo and Batooro people
as the main ethnic groups, next to smaller Banyankole, Basongora and Bakiga groups (Kasese District
Information Portal 2012).
The Kasese Municipality is situated nearly at the equator (at 0°11ʹ′N 30°05ʹ′E) and can be topographically
characterized as an elevated area (height 1,000m above sea level) surrounded by hills. Farming
activities are mostly carried out in these surrounding mountains, where soil is estimated to be fertile
and the climate mild. Kasese has two raining seasons, from March to May and from August to November.
In the district, agriculture is the predominant source of income and employment (Kasese District
Information Portal 2012), which can also be observed in the immediate surroundings of the town
centre. Not on the municipal territory itself but very near to the town of Kasese are also two of the
most important industrial activities of the Kasese district: the Kilembe Mines (where cobalt, copper
and sulphur are being mined when it is in operation) and the Hima cement factory (the second biggest
in the country). Besides these major plants, a newly developed industrial area is developed within
the town borders for smaller industries such as meat, matchbox and coffee production. Furthermore,
Kasese is a (local and international) travellers hub, with many of the associated services such
as hotels, cafés and restaurants. Kasese is well connected to Western and Central Uganda by a 350
km tarmac road from Kampala, leading to increased trade with the urban centres in Western and
Central Uganda as well as Eastern Congo.
The environmental challenges in Kasese and its surroundings are related to climate change, deforestation
and polluted land, water and air. Increased cases of flooding, prolonged droughts, landslides,
loss of biodiversity, declining soil fertility and resulting food insecurity are among the most
noticeable effects (Goretti and Et 2010; Mutyaba 2012).
While the national government outlines the national strategies, their implementation and the responsibility
to provide the key public services lies with the local governments. The Ugandan local
government structure is regarded as one of Africa’s most decentralised institutional systems (Kritika
et al. 2010). It was based on the view that local governments will be most effective at managing the
issues and problems that they are directly affected with (Oosterveer and Van Vliet 2010). Ugandan
26 Except for those areas which are already gazetted, before declaring an area to be a town, municipality or
city, the following requirements should generally exist—
1. the population must be, in the case of— (i) a town, above twenty-five thousand inhabitants; (ii) a
municipality, above one hundred thousand inhabitants; (iii) a city, above five hundred thousand inhabitants;
(Local Government Act, 1997, Schedule 3, Article 32-1)
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local government is organized in a five-tier pyramidal structure (cf. Figure A.1), ranging in municipal
areas from neighbourhoods or zones (LC1), over wards or parishes (LC2), municipal divisions (LC3), to
the municipality (LC4), and the district (LC5). The political organ at all local levels is the council,
whose members are elected in regular elections (Steiner 2006).
FIGURE A.5: LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE IN UGANDA (SOURCE: STEFFENSEN, TINDEMAND AND SSWEKANKAMBO
(2004) AS CITED IN KRITIKA ET AL. (2010))
The national government has followed a decentralization policy since the 1980s. The decentralisation
of environmental governance (including WMS) was constituted in the 1995 constitution and the Local
Government Act of 1997. The responsibility was therefore devolved from a central authority to
more local authorities and city councils giving them full mandate for waste management services,
hereunder also the legal authority, to make ordinances and bylaws (Okot-Okumu 2011). The decentralization
policy development has however experienced some problems to implement the national
waste management targets due to failure to mainstream environmental policy, lack of participatory
planning, lack of fiscal decentralization and institutional weakness (Okot-Okumu 2011, 539).
The responsibilities of a WMS can be divided into three groups according to the waste policies of
Uganda; national government, higher local government (LC5) and lower local governments (LC4 and
LC3) (Okot-Okumu 2011). The national government administers policies, regulations and monitoring,
the overall planning and capacity building, among others. The higher local government develops city
and district plans, and coordinates the lower local government, provides support to the community
and reports to the national government. Finally, the lower local governments (LC4 and LC3) are responsible
for delivering services, participate in planning and report to higher local government.
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Providing the public service of waste management is the responsibility of the municipal council, but
in Kasese its operation (in particular the money for collection of the trucks) occurs in collaboration
with the municipal divisions.
Kasese municipality is administratively divided into three “divisions” that have a number of own
competences (such as tax collection). The Central Division contains the town centre, the new industry
area and a densely populated residential area. The overwhelming majority of the shops, hotels,
transport services and other businesses are situated within the borders of this division. Second, the
Nyamuamba Division is primarily residential, with only a small number of markets, hotels and shops.
Geographically located very close to the town centre, it is still quite densely populated, but its infrastructure
as well as average household income are on a lower level than in the Central Division. A
third division, the Mountain Division, is less densely populated and has a more rural character.
Policy addressing environmental issues is principally developed at the level of the district (Oosterveer
and Van Vliet 2010). The district of Kasese was elected Uganda’s green energy champion district after
a multi-stakeholder consult directed by WWF Uganda. Out of the 111 districts, Kasese scored best
on a set of criteria for green energy. With its title of green energy champion district, the district
commits to be 100% CO 2 neutral in terms of energy provision by the year 2030. The strategy on how
this goal can be attained is currently under development, and includes biomass, hydropower, and
solar power. Developing and demonstrating business models that are replicable and scalable is central
to the strategy that wants to be a showcase of accessible clean energy for the whole of Uganda
(Mutyaba, 2012). With the latter aim, it relates to the “Rural Electrification Strategy” (Rural Electrification
Agency 2006) that is a national political strategy in Uganda.
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APPENDIX B: NATIONAL LAWS
In the laws some general duties have been established to avoid potential impacts:
- The environment act cap 153, 3: “Every person has a duty to maintain and enhance the environment,
including the duty to inform the authority or the local environment committee of all activities
and phenomena that may affect the environment significantly.”
- The environment act cap 153, 52 about duty to manage and minimize waste: “Every person has the
duty to manage any waste generated by his or her activities or the activities of those persons working
under his or her direction in such a manner that he or she does not cause ill health to the person
or damage to the environment. [...] Every person whose activities generate waste shall employ
measures for the minimisation of waste through treatment, reclamation and recycling.”
In the National environment regulations of 1999 paragraph 5, (1) duties for facility or premise owners
regarding cleaner production methods are:
(1): “A person who owns or controls a facility or premises which generate waste shall minimise the waste generated
by adopting the following cleaner production methods -
●
(a) Improvement of production processes through
○ conserving raw materials and energy;
○ eliminating the use of toxic raw materials;
○ reducing toxic emissions and wastes;”
Also industries are obliged to treat waste according to the National environment regulations. In paragraph
12 it is stated that:
(1): “an industry shall not discharge or dispose of waste in any state into the environment, unless the waste
has been treated in a treatment facility and in a manner approved by the lead agency in consultation with the
Authority”
Operators of waste treatment plants and disposal sites are also required to consider and prevent
pollution from their facilities, according to the National Environment regulations:
“17: Prevention of pollution from treatment plant and disposal site.
(1): Every person who operates a waste treatment plant or disposal site shall take all necessary measures to
prevent pollution from the site or plant, including the erection of necessary works and instituting of mitigation
measures.“
For the WMS in general the local environment committee shall:
“16, 2), b/c: Local environment committee shall:- to monitor all activities within its local jurisdiction
to ensure that such activities do not have any significant impact on the environment” (National environment
act cap 153, 16, (2))
75

APPENDIX C: SCOPE
To define the boundaries and limitations of this report the following were described: geographical
borders, the term waste, the type of waste, and informal sector.
Geographical area of study: The Kasese Municipality
The geographic area and administrative borders were defined so it was clear which collection areas,
waste generators, with more, were included. In this report the unit of the Kasese Municipality set the
administrative and geographical borders and everything beyond that was not included. It can however,
be difficult to exclude everything else as waste can be transported from waste generators outside
the borders and into collection points within the borders and thus influence the WMS within the
borders.
Definition of waste
The definition of waste in this report is based on the definition in ISWM from (Klundert, 2001, P. 10):
Waste can generally be defined as something unwanted for one person discarding it, because it no
longer has a value for this person. But the same waste could have a value for another person in different
circumstances or a different culture. Hence, “waste is regarded both as a negative and a useful
material providing a potential source of income” in the context of ISWM. This is underlined by the
fact that huge informal sectors that live from waste collection and recovery are apparent in many
low- and middle income countries in the South. Some waste is though not seen as a resource, as e.g.
hazardous or toxic waste cannot be recycled or re-used.
Waste types
Waste can be divided into two different main categories; solid and liquid waste. In this report only
municipal solid waste is included, which broke down contains household, commercial, institutional
and industrial waste. Furthermore, smaller fractions of medical and special waste, construction and
demolition waste, and waste from electronic and electrical equipment can come into play. Whenever
the term waste is used during this report, it should be understood in accordance with this description.
Liquid waste, often consisting of sludge, drainage clean-outs, latrine waste and contaminated water,
is therefore not included in this study since this study focuses on solid waste.
In the present report waste has been divided into five different waste fractions, in order to discuss
them individually. The fractions are organic, plastic, glass, metal, others (e-waste, hazardous, etc.).
The fractions are hence not defined according to their chemical structure, but rather on behalf of
their treatment methods and role in the WMS.
Informal sector
The informal sector is described throughout the report, but different definitions and interpretations
about this sector exist and therefore it is relevant to define the understanding of it in this report. The
definition of informal sector is based on the definition used by The international Labour Organization
(ILO, 1993, Paragraph 5).
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“The informal sector may be broadly characterised as consisting of units engaged in
the production of goods or services with the primary objective of generating employment and incomes
to the persons concerned”. They most often operate on a low level of organisation where labour
relations, if existing, are based on casual employment, kinship, or personal and social relations
rather than contractual arrangements with formal guarantees. The production units are based on
household enterprises, and cannot as such enter into contracts with other units.
Main points for informal sector definition:
●
●
●
Generation of employment and income primarily to the persons involved
Low level of organisation
Casual employment, kinship or personal and social relations
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APPENDIX D: TABLE OF ISSUES
Environmental
Issue To whom Chapter
Burying of organic waste causes anaerobic digestion
and therefore GHG emissions
Description of WSE
Residents resent the smell that is spread by waste HH Stakeholder analysis
Waste can cause water contamination through
leachates and pollution
Waste flow analysis
Social
Issue To whom Chapter
Burning of waste causes toxic emissions and therefore
respiratory problems
Citizens
Description of WSE
Health hazards related to waste involvement without
proper protective gear
Municipality
Stakeholder analysis
Medical centres dispose medical waste in skips,
thus posing health hazards
Changing the attitudes of the people is required →
education
Many households have little knowledge about appropriate
practices to handle waste (→ education)
too little community feeling that should make people
refrain from open dumping
No data available around diseases caused by waste
in hospital
Health inspector
Father Peter
Father Peter,
Job
HH
Hospital
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
78

Economic
Issue To whom Chapter
Long repair time for waste trucks Municipality Stakeholder analysis
Insufficient funds for WMS
Lack of market and thus economic valuation for
products resulting from waste treatment
Municipality,
Okot-Okumu
Municipality
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
New technologies in relation to waste management
should be “saving money” → less cost as possible
Compost plant funds are partly determined by the
carbon credits it generates
Principal
health inspector/municipali
ty.
Stakeholder analysis
Description of WSE
Structural (organisational/political/institutional)
Issue To whom Chapter
No clear ownership of development/aid projects
leading to collapse over time
Mayor
Stakeholder analysis
No or limited linkages and connections between
formal and informal waste path
Waste flow diagram
Lack of community participation in WMS
Community needs to organise themselves more at
community level
Municipality
actors
HH
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Lack of local ownership of the current WMS
Challenge posed by a rapidly increasing population,
which will create more waste
Deputy Town
Clerk
Municipality
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
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The desire is to create a clean city Mayor, HH Stakeholder analysis
Budget already determined due to a large extent of
conditional grants from national government →
lock-in of funding
Suggested the leaders were lazy → people saw only
little happening on the terrain
Municipality,
Okot-Okumu
HH
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Although the law comprises that “It is every person's
duty to take care of the environment and
inform the local authorities about activities that
may affect the environment significantly”, there
are no signs of its enforcement in Kasese.
Weak institutional framework for WMS and poor
enforcement of laws
Financial responsibility over collection is divided
between municipality and divisions (difference in
wealth between divisions creates differences in
frequency of waste collection)
Suspension of Graduated Tax created less funding
for WMS
Health inspector,
Okot-
Okumu
Health inspector
Law mechanisms
Policies mechanisms
Financial mechanisms
Financial mechanisms
WMS in general
Issue To whom Chapter
Households not satisfied with existing WMS (9 of
15)
Waste is flowing out of the skips and spread
through the town and too much waste destroys the
community
The existing WMS is a very open cycle consuming
many resources
Lack of proper waste management among households
Although the law comprises that “the local environment
committee shall monitor activities so that
Households
HH
Municipality
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Material balance analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Law mechanisms
80

they do not impact the environment”, there is no
evidence that this is enforced.
Shops want to keep their premises clean Small shops Stakeholder analysis
Generation
Issue To whom Chapter
Lack of data as a basis for decisions, because waste
generation patterns are complex
Description of WSE
Dominance of the organic waste fraction (94% of
the waste stream)
Material balance analysis
Even though plastic waste represents only a minor
fraction in the total waste, it creates treatment
difficulties
Limited information about the waste generated by
industries
Material balance analysis,
Description of WSE
Material balance analysis
Collection
Issue To whom Chapter
No sorting at household level
Dust bins provided by the KMC get dismantled
Mayor (stakeholder
meeting)
and
health inspector
Description of WSE
Description of WSE
Infrequent collection of skips HH Stakeholder analysis
For some households, the distance to the skip prevents
regular disposal
Skips are mostly fully loaded
HH
Stakeholder analysis
Description of WSE
81

Children have problems to reach the edge of the
skips
Children (and
others?)
Description of WSE
Too few waste trucks available to collect the waste HH Stakeholder analysis
In some neighbourhoods the skips are located too
far away from location of generation
HH
Stakeholder analysis
Collection could be more efficient One shop Stakeholder analysis
Waste bin provided to a more remote operating
stakeholder has never been collected
Little interest in separating their waste for recycling
amongst shops
Sorting of waste types as best as possible is done at
hospital to make a clean hospital ground
One hotel
Small shops
Hospital
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis
In more remote areas it is rare to have organised
collection points (mountain division) and they are
not connected to the formal collection scheme
Description of WSE, stakeholder
analysis
People are not at home while the collection times
for the relais scheme
Several waste fractions get mixed together and
makes the treatment complicated
Description of WSE
Material balance analysis
Transport
Issue To whom Chapter
Outskirts commercial services had to transport
their waste themselves to a nearby skip
Transport of waste regarded as labour for children
The transport phase of the WMS is relying on few
stakeholders
High variation in the collected volume of MSW
Trucks for the waste transport often break down
One hotel
Municipality
(mayor)
Stakeholder analysis
Law mechanisms
Integration of stakeholders
and WSE
Description of WSE
Description of WSE
82

Treatment/disposal
Issue To whom Chapter
Poor waste management seen as a problem that
should be solved by the authorities
People need to become more aware of possibilities
for more efficient use of waste as a resource and of
waste reduction
Demand for buying crushed plastic materials is
varying, making a business case difficult
Municipality
perceives as by
citizens
Municipality,
Father Peter
Recycling plant
(businesses)
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis, Description
of WSE
Stakeholder analysis
Waste can be used for something more beneficial Prison Stakeholder analysis
Illegal dumping or burning of waste in backyards or
ditches behind houses or at spots known to the
local community
Inorganic fractions are dumped in pits next to the
compost plant and not properly treated
The compost is piled up next to the plant instead of
being used for its original purpose
No measures have been identified or installed,
which aim at preventing waste
Prevention/reduction, re-use and recycling of
waste is not widespread in Kasese
Recycling and re-use is only carried out in the informal
waste path
Recovery is the only step of the 3Rs really carried
out
Uncollected waste remains largely untreated,
therefore posing potential health and environmental
impacts
Compost plant
Identified as
an option by
Deputy Town
Clerk
Description of WSE
Description of WSE
Description of WSE
Description of WSE, integration
of stakeholders and
WSE
Description of WSE, integration
of stakeholders and
WSE
Waste flow analysis
Description of WSE
Waste flow analysis
The “distance” from generation to informal treat- Waste flow analysis
83

ment is shorter than from generation to formal
treatment, i.e. has to undergo fewer phases
Individual treatment forms the backbone of the
total waste treatment
Although the law comprises that “It is every person's
duty to manage waste generated by themselves”
there is no evidence that this is enforced.
Although the law comprises that “Every waste generator
shall employ measures to minimize waste
through treatment, reclamation and recycling.”
there is no evidence that this is enforced.
Although the law comprises that “Facility or premise
owners has to conduct cleaner production
methods (conserving raw materials and energy;
eliminating the use of toxic raw materials; reducing
toxic emissions and wastes)” there is no evidence
that this is enforced.
Although the law comprises that “All waste generated
by industries has to be treated in a treatment
facility” there is no evidence that this is enforced.
Although the law comprises that “Not all persons
who discharges waste onto a site or plant has
gained a license” there is no evidence that this is
enforced.
Although the law comprises that “Operators of
waste treatment plants and disposal sites are required
to consider and prevent pollution from their
facilities” there is no evidence that this is enforced.
Material balance analysis
Law mechanisms
Law mechanisms
Law mechanisms
Law mechanisms
Law mechanisms
Law mechanisms
Ranking criteria
In order to rate the key issues according to their relevance for Kasese’s waste system a ranking
methodology has been applied. The criteria for this multicriteria ranking are selected by the report
authors in order to identify the issues with the highest impact. The ranking is carried out with scoring
each criteria within each issue with a 0,1 or 2 and then adding up the total scores. The ranking is
done individually by the report authors. The criterias are:
●
how strong does it affect the social systems
84

This criteria serves to assess how strong the issue is linked to local social systems in Kasese, interaction
within the community and on the peoples well-being, including health.
● how strong does it affect the environment
This criteria serves to assess how strong the issue is impacting on local environmental systems. This
can be either linked to all sorts of pollution (water, air, land), environmental degradation (such as
deforestation) as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
● how strong does it affect/is it affected by economical issues
This criteria serves to assess how strong the issue is linked to problems of economic systems. The
effects can both be in regards to socio-economy, community/city economy and finances, and/or individual
economy and finances.
● time dimension: does it appear all the time, sometimes, only once.
This criteria serves to assess how strong the issue is impacting over time. Impacts can be temporary,
in a medium perspective or permanent, and happen all the time, sometimes or only once.
● geographical dimension: does it appear everywhere, at some places, only at one place
This criteria serves to assess how large a geographical area the issue is impacting. The issue can impact
everywhere, some places or only at one place.
● how strong is the impact on the WMS / how critical is it for the whole WMS
This criteria serves to assess how strong an impact the issue is having on the entire system of waste
management. This can both be in regards to technical implications, investments and requirement for
involving new stakeholders.
FIGURE 6: RANKING MATRIX (FRAGMENT)
85

APPENDIX E: SCHEDULE OF FIELD TRIP
86

BI BLI OGRAPHY MOVE
(Anschütz, IJgosse, and Scheinberg 2004; D ulac 2001)
(Anschütz et al. 2004)
(Aryagaruka, Otim, and Wilbroa d 2007)
(Aryagaruka et al. 2007)
(Kyambadde, Hawumba, and Nyanzi 2006)
(Kyambadde et al. 2006)
(Google Maps 2013)
(Bryma n 201 2)
(Diaz and others 1996)
(Diaz et al. 1996)
(Uganda Burea u of Statistics (UBOS ) 2002)
(Uganda Burea u of Statistics 2002)
(National E nvironment Manage me nt Authority 1995; National Environment Manage ment Authority 1999)
(NEMA 199 5; NEMA 1 999 )
(National E nvironment Manage me nt Authority 2011)
(NEMA 201 1)
(Kritika, Sohini, and Pooja 2010)
(Kritika et al. 2010)
(WWF Uga nda 20 12)
(Basaliza 2012 )
(Danish Energy Agency 2012)
(Central Intellige nce Agency 2012)
(Kase se District Infor mation Portal 2011)
(Goretti and Et 2010)
(Steiner 2007)
(Rural Ele ctrification Agency 2006)
(Klundert, Anschüt z, and Scheinberg 2001)
(International Labour Orga nization 1993, Paragraph 5+6)
87

POTENTIAL PATHWAYS
FOR THE WASTE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM OF KASESE
- Process evaluation report
Josefine Vanhille, Andreas Wolf, Kenneth Hansen, David Drysdale
P1 Semester project, Sustainable Cities, Aalborg University Copenhagen
January 2013

Study programme: Sustainable Cities
Degree: Master of Science in Engineering
Group members: Josefine Vanhille; Andreas Wolf; Kenneth Hansen; David
Drysdale
Supervisors: Stig Hirsbak; David Christensen (co-supervisor)
January 2013
Aalborg University - Copenhagen

CONTENTS
1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1
2 Gaining knowledge ...................................................................................... 2
3 Project management ................................................................................... 3
4 Group work/group collaboration ................................................................ 3
5 Supervisor relation/supervisor collaboration .............................................. 4
6 Learning processes ...................................................................................... 4
7 Evaluation of semester programme ............................................................ 5
8 Learning for future research ....................................................................... 7
9 References .................................................................................................. 8

1 INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the process evaluation report is to reflect and analyze the learnings and processes
that the project group have undertaken throughout the P1-project period. In this report less
emphasis is put on the description, but rather on reflections and analysis concerning the process.
From the process evaluation report it should be clear what the project group determines is feasible
to bring forward for future research projects.
The project was carried out for the Sustainable Cities Master Programme at Aalborg University
Copenhagen and resulted in a P1 semester report entitled “At the junction – Potential pathways for
waste management systems in Kasese .
The semester theme for the P1 project was:
“The Role of Organisations and Business in Sustainable Urban Development and has the theme:
Path dependency and sustainable urban development: Creating niches for radical transformation”
(Driscoll and Mathiesen, 2012, 11)
The P1 semester period lasted from the 10th of October 2012 till the 11th of January 2013, where
hand-in of this process evaluation report and the semester report was due.
The project consisted of four group members, Josefine Vanhille, David Drysdale, Andreas Wolf and
Kenneth Hansen and was supervised by main supervisor associate professor Stig Hirsbak and cosupervisor
Ph.D. student David Christensen, both affiliated with the Department of Development and
Planning, Aalborg University Copenhagen.
The process evaluation report is structured with reflections and learnings within several topics; first
the process of gaining knowledge, next how the project was managed, followed by reflections
concerning the way in which the group collaborated. Subsequently, the learnings regarding
supervisor collaboration is described followed by the learning processes of the group, while potential
improvements for the semester programme is discussed in the last chapter.
1

2 GAINING KNOWLEDGE
This chapter revolves around the processes the project group undertook in order to gain knowledge
and how theories affected the project learnings.
The project case was laid out from the beginning of the semester, as the Kasese case was proposed
by stakeholders involved with the project. This meant that the group was formed based on project
interests and that other aspects like time consumption, work habits, etc., had to be agreed upon
afterwards. Because the case was determined at an early stage it allowed the group to define the
overarching theoretical approach (ISWM) early on in the project period. This meant that it was
possible to go more into depth with this specific theory. In this way the theory laid out a path or
guideline that could be followed for the data collection and analysis processes and that a working
plan for the project could be derived from. On the other hand the fixed methodology also made the
project group locked-in to a certain theory, meaning that the focus on additional or complementary
theories was not part of the project for the majority of the project, except from in the finalizing
stage. This meant that the extent of knowledge developed in the project was not as much as it could
have been. In the future, a broader range of theories should be investigated first.
The project process was structured so that theoretical (desktop) knowledge was obtained in the
initial phase of the project to lay out the future work and for developing a schedule for the upcoming
field trip. The next step was then to carry out the field trip, where the majority of the data was
collected, and to experience the problems, related to the project case, ourselves. The final step was
again comprised of desktop work conducting and finalizing analysis and findings regarding the
project case. This working process allowed the group to test their expectations and hypotheses about
the existing WMS (developed on beforehand, largely on the basis of assumptions) to the experience
of carrying out research in the field. As this experience turned out to be very different than expected,
the methods were adjusted to what the field trip allowed for.
Another reflection that can be drawn based on the project process is regarding the project group’s
involvement as a stakeholder in the project case, as the group several times was identified as a
contributor to the forward process by other stakeholders. An example is at a municipal stakeholder
meeting, where several actors, including the mayor of the city, pointed the group out as a
contributor of knowledge to the future process in order to improve the WMS. This meant that the
project group was an integral part of the case process and that the findings could be used in a reallife
project after being finished. For the research group this was unexpected but exciting since it gave
the project some life and edge. It put extra pressure on the group to perform and this pressure was a
powerful motivator for the remainder of the project.
2

3 PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Managing the project and the time period available can also be a challenge that needs to be
experienced in order to gain learning. In the project several tools were applied, such as milestones to
set up intermediate deadlines, journals for each day to sum up main outcomes of the day, weekly
group meetings to ensure forward progress and various project tools for managing files (google
document service and dropbox) and references (RefWorks). The tools were integrated in the project
based on previous experiences from projects as they were found feasible for the managing of the
project. The project tools did contribute to manage especially files and knowledge sharing, but the
main share of the tools (milestones, journals, week meetings) were phased out halfway through the
project period. This was not done on intention by the group members, but just happened without
anyone questioning this. Although the group members agreed that it would have been more ideal if
these practices would have been continued, as it certainly had beneficial effects on keeping track and
focus, it can also be interpreted as a sign that the group had arrived at a stage where the use of
formal tools had decreased, as the project progresses that these managing processes aim to bring
about have become implicitly integrated in the group, i.e. it was no longer necessary to discuss file
sharing and whether the project is making progress as this instead was discussed when relevant,
instead of at fixed meetings. As the time that was worked on the project intensified to more than
full-time, the group had at some point developed a common understanding of how the project
should be managed and the need for discussing it formally was no longer required.
4 GROUP WORK/GROUP COLLABORATION
Projects carried out at Aalborg University is based on problem based learning (PBL) and group work,
which also affected the work processes and group collaboration in this project. Some experience
with working in groups using the PBL approach was present in the group and these experiences were
implemented in this project.
Important group collaboration issues concerns knowledge sharing, planning ahead, generating ideas
and division of labour, which will be discussed below.
Achieving a high level of knowledge sharing was taken as a key challenge from carrying out the P0
project during the month of September. Therefore, the group discussed this explicitly in the
beginning of the project period in order to ensure that the group members did not work in “silos”.
The idea for sharing of obtained knowledge throughout the period was developed, consisting of work
in small groups within the group, conducting collective brainstorms, discussing and sharing
viewpoints and learnings, and from time-to-time having short sum-ups of what we have learned so
far (a tool for this was summaries of literature).
Previous experiences on what did work well were also drawn upon. These experiences included file
sharing methods in practice (different tools), creating an overview of the research that was about to
be carry out through short-term plans and agendas, and collective discussions regarding important
matters of the project. Also the way in which division of labour was decided upon affected the
sharing of knowledge and the way the group work was conducted. The division was based on
different principles, such as interest, competences and where most learnings could be achieved, i.e.
group members could work in research areas they are not used to or not usually interested in.
3

These principles meant that the learning became more spread out from the competences that the
group members already were in possession of, but also that the efficiency of some of the work was
decreased, as new knowledge and methods had to be learned before the research could be
conducted. This experience was valuable to the group as it enrolled deeper understanding of other
research areas than what could have been achieved through only working with areas in which the
group members already had a deep understanding.
All these methods for knowledge sharing and group collaboration relied on the option of physically
meeting somewhere where discussions could be done in person, which in the case of this project was
conducted at the university group rooms. The idea was to meet up as often as possible as earlier
experiences and experiences early in this project indicated that the learnings were increased when
sitting next to each other. In a coming project, consisting of the same type of personalities, the
experience is therefore that the learning environment is improved when sharing the same physical
facilities to be able to share viewpoints, curiosities, doubts, etc.
5 SUPERVISOR RELATION/SUPERVISOR COLLABORATION
A crucial part of the project work and the learning is the collaboration and supervision from and with
project supervisors. Hence, it is also relevant to reflect upon the methods and learnings in regards to
supervision and how this collaboration was carried out.
In this project several tools were applied in order to increase the outcome of collaboration and
meetings with supervisors, including preparation of meetings by establishing a work base for
meetings, and evaluating the discussions from supervisor meetings afterwards. These tools enabled
the project group to lead the meetings in the direction desired and feasible for the project, while
evaluations contributed to integrate the learnings into the project in practice.
Sometimes it can be necessary to develop a supervisor contract to lay out expectations between
project group and supervisor(s), but this was not found necessary in this project. The reason for this
might be that group members already were familiar with the supervisor and thus knew what to
expect and whether any potential problems could be expected.
Another note regarding this project is that the co-supervisor, in short periods, almost became part of
the group during the field trip as both parts wanted to carry out the same data collection methods,
as it could benefit to both the project group and the network in which the co-supervisor was
involved. This collaboration was beneficial for both parts as both knowledge and resources therefore
could be combined to achieve a greater output and common understanding of the data, i.e. from
interviews and other qualitative data. It also made the project group even closer attached to the
project case felling that it was part of the “real-life” research that could be used for beneficial
purposes.
6 LEARNING PROCESSES
In previous chapters reflections regarding the learning processes have already been discussed, but in
this chapter they are all merged together and elaborated upon.
4

The group member backgrounds in terms of cultural and academic understandings and knowledge
were different, which enabled the group to put this knowledge together and complement each
other. The PBL method is relevant for doing this as it induces discussions and forces the group to get
a common understanding of how the project should be carried out. Additional learnings from the PBL
model was experiences in regards to giving and receiving critique as this is a necessary part of a
project lasting more than three months. Also the PBL model develops competences about making
compromises as different viewpoints and understandings often have to be combined.
Another issue that was challenging the project group was concerning communication of the research
conducted, in order to make it clear what the purpose of the research is, how is it put into practice
and what are the findings. As there also was a limit on the page numbers in the report it forced the
group members to cut out sections that were not relevant, or less important for the reader to know.
Another learning regarding communicating the research was related to the way different people
experience different kinds of data and results, also experienced in the project group, as some gains a
better understanding through visualizations while others prefer reading the findings in text. This was
applied in the report as different readers prefer different ways of understanding the outcome of the
project.
Finally, the project group experienced that the context in which a project is carried out, influences
the way a project is conducted. In this project the research was carried out in a developing country
context, meaning that other stakeholders were involved, another kind of data was available and
other problem areas were issues, than what the group members had experienced in developed
country contexts.
7 EVALUATION OF SEMESTER PROGRAMME
Also the semester programme was reflected upon in order to provide proposals for potential
improvements for future semesters.
First, the courses that were part of the semester had an impact on the project as it determined the
time available for group work and the knowledge that could be applied in the projects. The courses
linked, to a large degree, to the semester and project theme regarding path dependencies and lockins
and provided valuable knowledge that could be integrated in the projects. Moreover, exercises in
the courses helped moving the project forward as the exercises forced the group to consider several
relevant aspects for the project that were necessary to consider regarding methodology, theories,
etc. The courses however were focused on projects and methods for, the majority part, developed
countries, meaning that the problems for developing countries were almost not introduced. The
knowledge required for carrying out a project in a developed and a developing country might vary a
lot and hence, this knowledge had to obtained throughout the project period as the courses did not
support this.
The courses presented certain theories and methods for the project regarding paradigms and the
“schools” you apply for your theories, but the courses in themselves were also based on certain
schools. Hence, the theories and methods from courses that were adapted in the project are using a
specific lense to view upon the world and are at the same time not introducing alternative lenses
5

that could have been applied. This means that the project group’s focus and theories are influenced
by the courses and the way research was presented.
The semester timing influenced the project period as courses was prioritized in the initial half of the
semester period, while the remaining half of the period was dedicated to project work. However,
three exams was also intertwined in the project period, which meant that the focus was changed, to
a large extent, from project work to focus on exams. This slowed down the project work
substantially. At the same time the data collection methods in this report were just carried out in the
beginning of December (just a little more than one month before hand-in and immediately after
exams), meaning that the project work time were reduced to less than what was planned to be the
dedicated project working period.
Also the hand-in date of the process evaluation report (this report) gave rise to reflections, as the big
focus on the project report put less focus on the process evaluation report. Therefore the outcome
of the process evaluation report might have been affected, compared to if the process evaluation
report hand-in date was pushed to a few days after the project report hand-in date. In this way there
would be a greater opportunity to focus on the process evaluation report and more time to reflect
upon the learnings.
In the study guideline for the semester the learning goals was described so that the project group
members were aware of what they were responsible for learning through courses and projects. The
learning goals were discussed several times and reflected upon over the project period to make sure
that the learnings of the project matched with the study guideline. This exercise provided effective
grounds for discussions about how to gain different kinds of learnings and competences,etc.
In the project group also another theory, called Bloom’s Taxonomy, was applied to integrated several
levels of learning, from the lowest level of knowledge and remembering to the level of creation
(University of West Florida, 2012). The taxonomy was found very useful and valuable for the project
group to combine with the project and to make sure that the analysis, discussions, etc., were
enabling the group to gain learnings at different levels. A suggestion could be to integrate the theory
about Bloom’s Taxonomy to the study guideline to induce thinking about learnings in different levels.
Finally, the semester guideline also caused confusion and doubts, especially, in regards to the “roles
of organisations and business” that should be implemented in the projects (Driscoll and Mathiesen,
2012, p.11). It was discussed multiple times whether the project was acting on an “organisational
level”, as the exact understanding and definition of this term was not very clear from the semester
guidelines.
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8 LEARNING FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
This chapter serves as a summary of the reflections in the previous chapters in order to know what
learnings can be brought forward to future projects. The main learnings are:
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Different methods (desktop study vs. field trip) allows for different findings
Project tools can be useful, especially in the first half of the project
Knowledge sharing between group members is important (several methods exist to
ensure this)
Sharing the same physical space might induce increased learning
Preparation and evaluation of supervisor meetings (and collaboration) provides
valuable learning and knowledge
Becoming part of a “real-life” project induces more interest and willingness to
commit to the project work
The PBL model creates several project competences (giving and receiving critique,
making compromises, communicating research, etc.)
The context in which a project is carried out affects the project (data collection
methods, problem areas, etc.)
Programme courses can provide valuable knowledge that can be integrated in the
projects
Different levels of learning has to be integrated in the projects
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9 REFERENCES
Driscoll and Mathiesen (2012): Sustainable Cities: Master of Science (Eng.) in Sustainable
Cities. 1st Semester Study Guidelines. Autumn 2012. Aalborg University, Copenhagen.
University of West Florida (2012): Assessment of student learning: Introduction to Bloom's
Taxonomy. Sourced from http://uwf.edu/cutla/assessstudent.cfm on December 2012.
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