Opening of World’s First Carbon Trading Based Composting Project From Organic Waste of Dhaka City

On the 25th of November 2008 the inauguration was held of World's First Compost Plant commissioned under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The project is located at Bulta, Narayangonj in the capital city of Dhaka, Bangladesh.


After more than 6 years of hard work and believing in a common goal, WWR made it possible that the worlds first composting facility under CDM was registrated on May 18th 2006 under project number 0169 and constructed in 2008. The project is a joint effort of Waste Concern (WC) from Bangladesh and World Wide Recycling (WWR) from the Netherlands. WWR is linked to VAR, a well established Recycling Company in the Netherlands (www.var.nl). WWR BV brought technical expertise and brought investments with help of the Dutch finance cooperation FMO and Triodos bank. Waste Concern, our local partner in the project, is responsible for all the clearances and local activities in Bangladesh to make sure this project would be a success.

The objective is to implement and operate a municipal organic waste-to-bio fertilizer plant in the capital Dhaka of Bangladesh. A key objective is to seek economical sustainability. In order to make the activity economical sustainable, WWR and WC successfully introduced the activity under the CDM, using the possibility created under the Kyoto Protocol to earn so called Certified Emission Rights (CER).

The project is instrumental in resolving the waste problem of Dhaka city in a socially and environmentally but also economically sustainable way where organic waste is converted into compost – a much needed product in a country like Bangladesh.

Initially the bio fertilizer plant will receive organic waste from local markets under a concession contract with the local municipality, the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), and through a collection system of local waste pickers. Later organic waste will be collected from domestic sources. The organic waste will be converted into compost, part of which will be enriched with nutrients resulting in enriched compost. The compost – crude and enriched - will be marketed through present (fertilizer) distributors for agricultural use. The first facility will have a 130t/d input capacity. When proven successful the capacity will be increased to 700t/d in 2 or 3 stages.

The opening was celebrated on the 25th of November this year together with people from Bangladeshi Government as well as the Dutch Embassy. For the opening Mrs. Bea ten Tusscher Ambassador Dutch Embassy, Dr.CS Karim (Advisor for Ministries of Environment and Forests), Dr. Mahfuzal Haque (Ministry Labour and Employment) and Dr.Khandaker Rashedul Haque (Department of Environment) were invited and held a speech together with Jan Boone from World Wide Recycling B.V. and Maqsood Sinha and Iftekhar Enayetullah from Waste Concern. Also invited were the local governments and people from around Dhaka.