Advances in Asian Social Science (AASS) 695 Vol. 3, No. 3, 2012, ISSN 2167-6429 Copyright © World Science Publisher, United States www.worldsciencepublisher.org Municipal solid waste management of Mongolia: Analysis on the solid waste treatment of Ulaanbaatar city 1 Dashnyam Altantuya, 2 Zhongrui Zhang, 3 Haomiao Li 1 Business School, University of Shanghai for Science &Technology, Shanghai, China 2 Business School, University of Shanghai for Science &Technology, Shanghai, China 3 Business School, University of Shanghai for Science &Technology, Shanghai, China Email: da_altan@yahoo.com Abstract –This paper focuses on the solid waste management of Ulaanbaatar city by analyzing its current situation, major challenges as well as concerning implemented actions based on the researches of international joint projects. The main goal of this analysis is to identify the complex problems facing with the city administration to handle the solid waste properly while seeking possible solutions to make recommendations for further improvement of waste management. Keywords –City administration, solid waste, proper management, policy reform 1. Introduction Waste has not been considered a serious issue for Ulaanbaatar, 1,359 km2 divided into 9 districts, until its population has boost into total of one million /one third of the total population/. Due to the economical development and continuing transference of market economy Ulaanbaatar became a center of science, culture, trade, services, industry and business of the country. As a result, the municipal planning policy gets lost its way to handling environmental issues. At present, Ulaanbaatar has severe pollution of both soil and air generated from the wastes which were improperly disposed. Most of the solid waste is usually delivered to the disposal areas without any elementary classification. According to the JICA research team 150 thousand ton solid wastes have produced annually in Ulaanbaatar city, mostly composed with plastics, glass, organic, paper, metal and inorganic wastes. In the meantime the research carried out by the Municipal Governor’s office concludes that 700-750 ton daily and 260-280 thousand solid waste produced annually in Ulaanbaatar by households, enterprises and industries. According WHO survey results, it was established that one citizen of a city produces 0,354- 0,535 kg waste a day. 75% of total waste is collected by city waste maintenance organizations and 15% is transported by the organizations with their own trucks and 5-10% of waste is left without being transported. Currently there are 173 trucks registered for solid waste transportation in Ulaanbaatar city, however over 30 percent is old trucks with outdated use. Also the statistics show that only one third of the Ulaanbaatar population live in apartment buildings and two third are living in the house region or traditional dwelling GER district where the illegal dumping has out of control and left without any charges. On the other hand waste collection fees are not very high in those areas due to their low income and scarce social education which makes many problems for authorities to handle their huge amount of waste with that tight budget. Generally, the Municipal Governor’s Office is in charge of waste treatment along with its executive agencies including environmental protection authority and district maintenance companies. But there is a lack of potential policies, techniques, financial resources and human resources. At a national level, government policies are mostly delayed and public organizations, NGOs and civil group’s participation has being so poor while implementing a number of foreign projects’ comparatively low efficiencies than other Asian countries. 2．Major challenges However, there are many requirements can be named under this issue; the major decisive challenges can be divided into 3 levels including three parts’ participation. First of all, in national level government has to upgrade its legal system as well as reform methods of controlling and implementing them with high consideration of future changes, Secondly, in local administrative level the city authorities has to research possibility to recycle and reuse by constructing related infrastructures, as well as reform