With the waste management problem getting out of hand, the government is considering privatising waste management in the country instead of overloading itself. At the end of the three-day conference on solid waste management on August 20, one of the recommendations was to privatise the management of the ever mounting waste problem. Some private businesses have already submitted proposals to the government. The works and human settlement minister, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba, said that, if the private sector came up with a good proposal to take up waste management, the government would be happy to lend its support. "Privatisation is not the solution for the problem but considering the quality the private sector can provide, efficiency is expected to improve.' A construction businessman said that waste could be a potential source of income for many and also create employment opportunities. He added that it would be difficult to start a big company on waste recycling because of huge investment involved. "But I feel, starting up a small scale industry will not be much of a problem,' he said. Participants at the conference recommended that developing public-private partnership at all levels in order to manage waste could be one of the solutions. "There are many businesses we can do out of waste,' said one interested businessman who runs a consultancy firm. He said that, with the amount of waste generated, there are prospects to start industries like paper recycling plant, plastic recycling plant, scrap dealers and recycling e-waste. The participants also raised the question of how much the government could subsidise private industries. An interested entrepreneur said that, if the private sector is to take up the waste management project, government agencies should help them through subsidies, incentives, soft loan provision, tax holiday or by buying their recycled products. Some of the other recommendations were to implement the action plans of the national waste strategy as a matter of priority and closely examine Bhutan's rural habits to solve urban waste problems. By Tandin Wangchuk