Baseline Study for Waste Pickers and Waste Generators Swiss Contact

Baseline Study for Waste Pickers and Waste Generators of the Waste to Value Project, Lao PDR.

Client

Swiss Contact

Location

Chanthaboury and Saysettha Districts in Vientiane Capital, and VangVieng District in Vientiane Province.

Project Duration

December 2020 – August 2021

Background

Swisscontact has funded the Waste to Value (W2V) to improve the environmental performance of the service sector in Lao PDR. This can be achieved through improving waste management practices in service sector SMEs (i.e., hotels, restaurants, cafes, and minimarts) by supporting enterprises to adopt ‘green’ business practices. This will contribute to the achievement of national and municipal government strategies. The W2V project will seek to benefit waste generators in the service sector (restaurants, hotels, cafes, and mini-marts), and informal mobile waste pickers prevalent in commercial areas – Chanthabouly and Saysettha Districts in Vientiane Capital, and Vang Vieng District in Vientiane province.

Services Provided

ESL Sole Co., Ltd. (ESL) has been engaged in conducting the baseline study (waste pickers and waste generators) for the W2V project in commercial areas – Chanthabouly and Saysettha Districts in Vientiane Capital, and Vang Vieng District in Vientiane province during January to March 2021.

ESL team conducted an initial survey to look for the scrap shop around the target districts to identify the points for conducting the survey. It was assumed that the scrap shops are the main consideration points to find the waste pickers. However, the waste pickers were also randomly found in the community zone along the roads. The village authorities were also asked for the information about waste pickers in the target areas.