Dhaka's household waste collection industry — officially a municipal service — has quietly evolved into a Tk 317 crore annual parallel economy, sustained by political patronage and enforced through intimidation, according to a detailed investigation published by Bangladesh's Bengali daily Prothom Alo on Thursday, 14 May 2025. The report reveals how control over garbage contracts in the capital shifts hands with every regime change, leaving small entrepreneurs squeezed out while politically connected operators pocket outsized profits.

How the waste economy works

Dhaka South City Corporation manages 75 wards, each of which assigns garbage collection to private contractors through a tender process. Officially, the non-refundable deposit to secure a ward contract ranges between Tk 15 lakh and Tk 17 lakh, depending on ward size. In practice, however, the report found that contracts are not awarded on merit — they are controlled by local political leaders who extract a share of the profits in exchange for access.

City regulations cap household waste-collection fees at Tk 100 per flat per month. Yet residents across Dhaka reportedly pay between Tk 120 and Tk 1,000, depending on locality and the perceived wealth of the household or business. City officials, when pressed, acknowledged the existence of political patronage but insisted they are cracking down — promising licence revocations for contractors who exceed the prescribed rate. Residents remain sceptical.

Small entrepreneurs caught in the crossfire

Shahabuddin Ali, a former scrap iron dealer from Old Dhaka, described how the system consumed his savings. He invested Tk 12 lakh as a non-refundable deposit to secure the waste-collection contract for Ward 38 of Dhaka South City Corporation. He hired 24 workers and purchased vans, expecting steady returns. He reportedly secured the contract through an influential contact during the interim government period.

Within two months of an elected government taking over, local Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) activists allegedly seized control of his operations. 'They threatened to beat me up and took away my job,' Ali told Prothom Alo, adding that appeals to influential leaders went unanswered. His savings dried up as he struggled to support his family on the income from a small inherited shop.

A similar case involved a businesswoman who received a waste-removal contract in Ward 58 of Dhaka South City in September 2024. Local BNP leaders and activists allegedly blocked her from working, claiming she had ties to the now-banned Jubo Mohila League.

The profit arithmetic

The report's financial breakdown illustrates why the trade attracts political interest. Even at the official Tk 100 rate, a single ward can generate a monthly profit of approximately Tk 3 lakh after expenses. At inflated rates of Tk 150–200, that figure rises to Tk 4–5 lakh per ward. Across all 75 wards, this amounts to roughly Tk 3 crore per month, or Tk 36 crore per year.

Urban planners cited in the report put the real figure considerably higher. Based on 293,881 registered holdings in Dhaka South alone, an average collection of Tk 150 per flat yields Tk 26 crore monthly — translating to more than Tk 317 crore annually. This figure reportedly dwarfs the city's official sanitation budget, underscoring the scale of the parallel economy that has taken root.

A pattern across regimes

The report noted that Dhaka's two city corporation areas have had no elected mayors or councillors for the past two years, creating a governance vacuum that political operatives have moved to fill. This is not a new phenomenon. According to Prothom Alo, even under the previous Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, party councillors and activists dominated the garbage trade. Following the party's ouster in August 2024, BNP leaders and affiliates reportedly moved in to take control — suggesting the patronage structure survives regime change intact, merely swapping one set of political beneficiaries for another.

Residents who spoke to the newspaper described feeling 'held hostage' by waste collectors, with no effective recourse to city authorities. As Dhaka awaits restored elected local governance, the waste economy — and the political machinery behind it — shows little sign of retreating.