Struggling for years with waste management, the border town of Phuentshogling is now turning this major challenge into an opportunity. An ambitious recycling project, currently in its pilot phase, aims to keep plastic waste out of the city’s landfill by transforming it into useful, locally made products.
Garbage trucks that once drove straight to the landfill now make a stop at the recycling plant. Outsourced to a private company called Druk Trash Solution, the team segregates the waste collected from across the town.
Plastics are washed, cleaned and shredded into small flakes, which are then left to dry.
The plastics are transformed into plastic pellets, which serve as raw materials for manufacturing paver blocks, bricks, garden pipes, tarpaulins, and black PVC pipes.
Even broken vehicle windshields and glass are recycled and incorporated into products such as paver blocks.
The primary goal of the initiative is to significantly reduce the volume of waste, especially plastic, being sent to the landfill.
“We need to use the landfill very carefully because finding land for a new landfill is extremely difficult. Plastics form the bulk of the waste go into the landfill. While items like bottles can be recycled and sold, plastics have no market. That is why our focus is on plastics, to extend the lifespan of the landfill. Our ultimate goal is zero plastic waste entering the landfill,” said Jamtsho Drukpa, CEO, Druk Trash Solution, Phuentshogling.
The project is expected not only to ease the town’s waste problem but also to boost local production and manufacturing. Recyclable materials that were earlier sold outside the country will now be processed and used locally.
Wet waste, meanwhile, is converted into manure. However, workers at the facility said poor waste segregation at sourcer emains a major challenge.
“One of the main challenges that we face is the lack of waste segregation at source. People dump the dry and wet waste together, making it difficult for us to segregate. This also hampers the work environment,” said Jamtsho Drukpa, CEO, Druk Trash Solution, Phuentshogling.
The initiative has been able to greatly reduce waste going to the landfill. Of the 20 garbage trucks of waste brought to the facility in the last week, only one truckload went to the landfill.
With sustained public cooperation, the initiative is expected to play a key role in steering Phuentshogling toward a cleaner and more sustainable future.
Kinley Dem, Phuentshogling
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
