After being in operation for almost two years, land issues have halted activities for Eco Waste Solutions, a waste management company in Wangdue.

Dhan Kumar Shyangden with his friends had formed the company to generate income, inspire more entrepreneurs and to manage waste in June 2016. The company’s activities are divided into the four Rs- Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Recover. In its effort to reduce waste, the company organises cleaning campaigns and creates awareness.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dhan Kumar Shyangden, said that the lack of land especially to build a material recovery centre or facility has halted the company from moving on to its second phase of reuse and recover.

He said that although the company has been trying to get suitable land for lease for almost a year, it has not been successful due to lack of good landscape, location and obtaining of public clearance.

While recycling, segregation is able to recover only 10 percent of the waste going to the landfills.  “Although 70 to 80 of the valuable waste can be recovered, right now 90 percent of the waste goes to the landfills,” he said.

The company plans to use the centre to make products out of waste as well as teach people on how to recover and reuse waste effectively.

Today, the company acts as a middleman – collecting, segregating and transporting recyclable waste to waste recycle centres such as green roads, Bhutan alternatives and Indian counterparts. It collects and segregates waste from Wangdue, Punakha, and Gasa dzongkhags where the municipal is unable to reach.

Dhan Kumar said that the team initially used to collect waste from Gasa every three months but it has not been able to go to Gasa due to the long distance and limited resources.

The company collects 6.7 tonnes of dry and wet waste a day from Bajo, military centres and Punatsangchu in Wangdue and almost three tonnes from Punakha everyday. He said, 62 percent of the waste was organic during summer.

Dhan Kumar said that due to lack of capital and human resources, the company is unable to provide good service to clients in terms of collection and transportation of waste.

He said that even with the team of about 13 segregating waste for almost 12 hours a day, they are unable to segregate about 20 percent of the waste.

Karma Cheki | Wangdue