Millions of dollars a year are made in collecting, sorting, and recycling waste across Pakistan. But this sector remains largely informal, leading to a whole host of issues, including the use of child labor, sexual abuse and exploitation, and criminality. Ahmad Shabbar is someone who has been on a mission to change the way the system works in Karachi. He is the Founder and CEO of GarbageCAN, an organization providing comprehensive waste management to several schools, festivals, and businesses; recycling management to established restaurants; and enable to households to recycle via our door-to-door program. We have also introduced an Adopt-A-Spot Program via, which groups or individuals can adopt areas they want to be cleaned for a specified period of time.

Uzair spoke to Ahmad about this sector, how the system currently functions, and why a city like Karachi does not have a robust solid waste management program. You can read the World Bank report Ahmad referred to using the link below:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2018/09/20/what-a-waste-an-updated-look-into-the-future-of-solid-waste-management