Bhutan is a country with 7, 78,106 as of 1st January 2016 (Bhutan Population 2016) population and advancement of the socio-economic development and changed in consumption pattern across the population, waste become one of the issue not only in the urban area but also in the rural area. Residential and Institutions are the general waste generation sources unlike the developed countries where the source of waste generation is more than residential and institutions like industrial, commercial, constructions and manufacturing.
The wastes generated from the residential and institutions are food wastes, paper, cardboard, plastics, textiles, leather, yard wastes, wood, glass, metals, consumer electronics, batteries, tires, slippers and sandal etc.
To mitigate and manage the waste, the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) Jigme Namgyel Engineering College is collaboratively working with Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative (SJI) in designing and developing the material recovery facility (MRF). The material recovery facility is where recyclable materials that are collected from households are sorted into different types (e.g. plastics, metals, glasses include beverages bottles, papers, wrappers) manually and will send to re-processors and manufacturers where they may be used to create new products.
One of its kinds, firstly designed and developed was a MRF built and commission at Orong Community under Samdrup Jongkhar funded by SJI on ….. 2016. It is important to have a MRF to sort mixed waste materials and to ensure that we can remove anything that is not recyclable from the source itself. This technology enables the user community to bulk up the separated waste and sends it back to manufacturing industries so that it can be recycled. The MRF features six rectangular compartments including the shed which are detachable and can easily shift from one location to another based on the need.