Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Lusaka City, the capital of Zambia, has not been spared from the pervasive problem of managing municipal solid waste. Taking product life cycle approaches in the production and consumption of resources has been advanced as a panacea to closing resource loops through circular economic production systems in order to reduce the concept of waste. To this end, a case study involving four public and seven private sector players was conducted through in-depth interviews, field observations and content analysis to ascertain the feasibility of leveraging public policy and corporate social responsibility to stimulate a circular economy in order to abate the problem of garbage.

Going by the initiatives and measures being undertaken by the actors, where the respondents were selected, there seems to be positive prospects for a paradigm shift to embrace circular economic production approaches. The key specific measures are the integration of the Extended Produce Responsibility (EPR) in environmental regulations and the launch of a project, conceived and supported by one private sector player as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), to establish a waste value chain to close the resource loops. However, there are incoherencies between policies and institutional organisation. These incoherencies are in part explained by waste management policies that mainly focus on public health dimension of waste management which hinders other aspects to be considered for a closed resource loop system development.

Therefore, calibrating policies and institutional organisations to reflect the aspiration to grow a circular economy is required. Some form of nudging in the case of the private sector coupled with enhanced dialogue and partnerships would also be required for reaching the desired goal of reducing waste.