Waste entrepreneurs say retaining employees in their firms is challenging due to lack of respect for the work in the community. They say it is also difficult to recruit new employees.
The entrepreneurs said because of it they are not able to carry out their works efficiently.
This was shared at first national waste entrepreneurs’ conference held in Wangdue Phodrang recently. About eight waste entrepreneurs from the various regions attended the meeting.
“Most of the employees are youth and they feel uncomfortable working with wastes. They are scared of getting diseases and there is no health safety equipment too. Waste management firms are faced with lack of funds too, they don’t have mortgages and to finance their projects,” Dhan Kumar from Eco Waste Solution of Wangdue Phodrang, said.
“We are not getting employees to do wastes works. Our younger generations are not so keen to work in the waste management company,” Tsheltrim Penden from We Care Waste Management of Monggar, said.
“People are reluctant to do the wastes works, as there are some people, who do not even allow our workers to get inside their premises to collect wastes saying they stink,” Ugyen Dorji from Druk Waste Management in Paro, said.
“Similarly, the public too are reluctant to segregate their degradable and non-degradable wastes by themselves.”
In the conference, the social wastes managers also discussed how to enhance their services in future.
They decided to submit some of the recommendations to the government and relevant agencies for better sustainable waste management in the country.
Representatives of wastes management club from training institutes, College of Natural Resources and schools from Punakha and Wangdue Phodrang also took part in the conference.
The conference is organized by a private project, Coffee Connection. There are plans to organise the conference annually to strengthen and improve the waste management system in the country.
At present, there are about 19 social waste entrepreneurs in the country.
