Hållbara lösningar för hantering av plastavfall i Bhutan
(2025) FMIM01 20242Environmental and Energy Systems Studies
- Abstract
- Plastic material poses significant threats to the environment, both due to their fossil-based origins and contribution to littering the environment. This master's thesis conducts a thorough investigation into Bhutan's waste management system, with a focus on plastics, aiming to find the most promising alternatives to improve the handling of waste for decreasing environmental issues and creating a more circular economy. The study evaluates the situation today through a literature study, showing big gaps in plastic waste systems and facilities. Through interviews with stakeholders across Bhutan key issues were identified; lack of road infrastructure, old traditions and community attitudes, uncertainties of sold waste through scrap dealers to... (More)
- Plastic material poses significant threats to the environment, both due to their fossil-based origins and contribution to littering the environment. This master's thesis conducts a thorough investigation into Bhutan's waste management system, with a focus on plastics, aiming to find the most promising alternatives to improve the handling of waste for decreasing environmental issues and creating a more circular economy. The study evaluates the situation today through a literature study, showing big gaps in plastic waste systems and facilities. Through interviews with stakeholders across Bhutan key issues were identified; lack of road infrastructure, old traditions and community attitudes, uncertainties of sold waste through scrap dealers to other countries such as India, limited budgets, no access to clean water consequently causing plastic waste from single-use water bottles and lastly gaps in data making it difficult to get adequate information about waste management. These challenges are all discussed in the analysis, where potential solutions are proposed for Bhutan to better handle their plastic waste in the future. These include putting a ban on single-use plastics, increasing access to clean drinking water by implementing an integrated water resource management approach, replacing synthetic religious offerings with organic ones, selling waste to other countries, introducing local recycling facilities, using plastic waste in road construction and incineration of plastic waste through energy recovery. The potential solutions are evaluated against four parameters; their feasibility, scalability, contribution to an effective plastic waste management system and how much they align with the European Union's Waste Framework Directive and Circular Economy Action Plan. The thesis presents integrated water resource management and recycling of plastic waste as the two most promising alternatives to contribute to an effective plastic waste management system. However, replacing religious offerings is highlighted as the most scalable measure to implement in Bhutan. Incineration is discussed as the least feasible alternative as it requires large investments for the country, and selling of plastic waste as the alternative that would contribute the least to an effective plastic waste management system. Furthermore selling plastic waste lacks alignment with the EU's Waste Framework Directive and Circular Economy Action Plan. These findings contribute to the advance of the green transition by offering sustainable and feasible solutions for large-scale plastic waste management in Bhutan, leading to the conclusion that, together with more future research, it is possible for Bhutan to improve their management of plastic waste. (Less)
- Popular Abstract (Swedish)
- Plastmaterial utgör ett betydande hot mot miljön, både på grund av sitt fossilbaserade ursprung och sitt bidrag till nedskräpningen av miljön. Detta examensarbete genomför en grundlig undersökning av Bhutans avfallshanteringssystem, med fokus på plast, i syfte att hitta de mest lovande alternativen för att förbättra hanteringen av avfall för att minska miljöproblemen och skapa en mer cirkulär ekonomi. Studien utvärderar situationen idag genom en litteraturstudie som visar stora luckor i system och anläggningar för plastavfall. Genom intervjuer med berörda parter i Bhutan identifierades viktiga frågor såsom brist på väginfrastruktur, gamla traditioner och samhällsattityder, osäkerhet om sålt avfall genom skrothandlare till andra länder som... (More)
- Plastmaterial utgör ett betydande hot mot miljön, både på grund av sitt fossilbaserade ursprung och sitt bidrag till nedskräpningen av miljön. Detta examensarbete genomför en grundlig undersökning av Bhutans avfallshanteringssystem, med fokus på plast, i syfte att hitta de mest lovande alternativen för att förbättra hanteringen av avfall för att minska miljöproblemen och skapa en mer cirkulär ekonomi. Studien utvärderar situationen idag genom en litteraturstudie som visar stora luckor i system och anläggningar för plastavfall. Genom intervjuer med berörda parter i Bhutan identifierades viktiga frågor såsom brist på väginfrastruktur, gamla traditioner och samhällsattityder, osäkerhet om sålt avfall genom skrothandlare till andra länder som Indien, begränsade budgetar, ingen tillgång till rent vatten, vilket följaktligen orsakar plastavfall från engångsvattenflaskor och slutligen luckor i data som gör det svårt att få tillräcklig information om avfallshantering. Dessa utmaningar diskuteras i analysen, där potentiella lösningar föreslås för att Bhutan bättre ska kunna hantera sitt plastavfall i framtiden. Det handlar bland annat om att förbjuda plast för engångsbruk, öka tillgången till rent dricksvatten genom att införa en integrerad strategi för vattenresursförvaltning, ersätta syntetiska religiösa erbjudanden med ekologiska, sälja avfall till andra länder, införa lokala återvinningsanläggningar, använda plastavfall vid vägbyggen och förbränna plastavfall genom energiåtervinning. De potentiella lösningarna utvärderas mot fyra parametrar: deras genomförbarhet, skalbarhet, bidrag till ett effektivt system för hantering av plastavfall och i vilken utsträckning de är förenliga med Europeiska unionens avfallsdirektiv och handlingsplan för cirkulär ekonomi. Avhandlingen presenterar integrerad vattenresurshantering och återvinning av plastavfall som de två mest lovande alternativen för att bidra till ett effektivt system för hantering av plastavfall. Att ersätta religiösa offergåvor lyfts dock fram som den mest skalbara åtgärden att genomföra i Bhutan. Förbränning diskuteras som det minst genomförbara alternativet eftersom det kräver stora investeringar för landet och försäljning av plastavfall som det alternativ som skulle bidra minst till ett effektivt system för hantering av plastavfall. Dessutom är försäljningen av plastavfall inte anpassad till EU:s avfalssdirektiv och handlingsplan för en cirkulär ekonomi. Dessa resultat bidrar till att främja den gröna omställningen genom att erbjuda hållbara och genomförbara lösningar för storskalig hantering av plastavfall i Bhutan, vilket leder till slutsatsen att det tillsammans med mer framtida forskning är möjligt för Bhutan att förbättra sin hantering av plastavfall. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9181543
- author
- Palm Nettelbladt, Alva LU and Andersson, Julia
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- Sustainable Solutions for Plastic Waste Management in Bhutan
- course
- FMIM01 20242
- year
- 2025
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- Bhutan, plastic waste management (PWM), sustainable strategies, circular economy, stakeholder engagement, waste management practices, environmental impact, recycling, reuse, quantitative analysis, policy changes, community attitudes, waste generation, data gaps, eco-friendly alternatives Bhutan, plastavfallshantering, hållbara strategier, cirkulär ekonomi, intressentengagemang, avfallshantering, miljöpåverkan, återvinning, återanvändning, kvantitativ analys, policyförändringar, samhällets attityder, avfallsgenerering, dataluckor, miljövänliga alternativ
- report number
- ISRN LUTFD2/TFEM—25/5220–SE + (1-79)
- ISSN
- 1102-3651
- language
- English
- id
- 9181543
- date added to LUP
- 2025-01-20 07:34:59
- date last changed
- 2025-01-20 07:34:59
@misc{9181543,
abstract = {{Plastic material poses significant threats to the environment, both due to their fossil-based origins and contribution to littering the environment. This master's thesis conducts a thorough investigation into Bhutan's waste management system, with a focus on plastics, aiming to find the most promising alternatives to improve the handling of waste for decreasing environmental issues and creating a more circular economy. The study evaluates the situation today through a literature study, showing big gaps in plastic waste systems and facilities. Through interviews with stakeholders across Bhutan key issues were identified; lack of road infrastructure, old traditions and community attitudes, uncertainties of sold waste through scrap dealers to other countries such as India, limited budgets, no access to clean water consequently causing plastic waste from single-use water bottles and lastly gaps in data making it difficult to get adequate information about waste management. These challenges are all discussed in the analysis, where potential solutions are proposed for Bhutan to better handle their plastic waste in the future. These include putting a ban on single-use plastics, increasing access to clean drinking water by implementing an integrated water resource management approach, replacing synthetic religious offerings with organic ones, selling waste to other countries, introducing local recycling facilities, using plastic waste in road construction and incineration of plastic waste through energy recovery. The potential solutions are evaluated against four parameters; their feasibility, scalability, contribution to an effective plastic waste management system and how much they align with the European Union's Waste Framework Directive and Circular Economy Action Plan. The thesis presents integrated water resource management and recycling of plastic waste as the two most promising alternatives to contribute to an effective plastic waste management system. However, replacing religious offerings is highlighted as the most scalable measure to implement in Bhutan. Incineration is discussed as the least feasible alternative as it requires large investments for the country, and selling of plastic waste as the alternative that would contribute the least to an effective plastic waste management system. Furthermore selling plastic waste lacks alignment with the EU's Waste Framework Directive and Circular Economy Action Plan. These findings contribute to the advance of the green transition by offering sustainable and feasible solutions for large-scale plastic waste management in Bhutan, leading to the conclusion that, together with more future research, it is possible for Bhutan to improve their management of plastic waste.}},
author = {{Palm Nettelbladt, Alva and Andersson, Julia}},
issn = {{1102-3651}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Hållbara lösningar för hantering av plastavfall i Bhutan}},
year = {{2025}},
}