Current Levels and Management of Solid Wastes in Nigeria

Solid waste is of serious concern in developing countries because of its high rate of generation and the low‐end quality of its management. Inefficient handling of solid wastes may result in deterioration of environmental quality, but it can also result in loss of potential resources. This study reviews current solid waste generation and management in Nigeria and the need for an effective collection, recovery, and recycling policy. Our review is based on literature searches and personal field surveys. Observations showed that uncontrolled electronic waste (e‐waste), agricultural‐waste (agro‐waste), scrap metals, waste polymers, and waste from the transportation sector are prevalent in Nigeria. Recent collection rates were less than 50% of the total solid waste generated (i.e., approximately 40% was collected). With an effective collection system and appropriate policies, the abundance of solid waste in the country could present material recovery and recycling opportunities that would boost the economy and move Nigeria closer to sustainable resource management.     

Motives as Predictors of the Public's Attitudes Toward Solid Waste Issues

/ Surveys focusing on solid-waste-related issues, conducted over a period of several years, provided data from independent samples of residents of a Midwestern, USA, community. The collection of these data yielded useful information about the relationship between residents' recycling motives and their attitudes toward solid waste management in light of several changes in the solid waste infrastructure of the community over that time. The initial survey assessed baseline beliefs and attitudes, while later surveys were conducted after the implementation of a community educational program and a curbside recycling program. The findings indicated that for recyclers and nonrecyclers, different motives predicted endorsement of solid waste programs and policies. Although a similar percentage of recyclers and nonrecyclers were in support of various proposed programs and policies, concern for the environment was found to be positively related to nonrecyclers' support of proposed programs, particularly before these programs were implemented. Prior to program implementation, motives other than environmental altruism were found to be related to recyclers' support of the programs. Additional findings support the idea that educational programs and increased accessibility to recycling opportunities affect the relationship between people's attitudes toward solid waste management and their recycling motives.     

Inclusive municipal solid waste management policy in Nigeria: engaging the informal economy in post-2015 development agenda

The problem of municipal solid waste has remained intractable in Nigeria despite the state’s central role in municipal solid waste management (MSWM). Policy and reforms of the MSWM system have invariably excluded the informal economy, with this exclusion frequently reinforced by uncritical implementation of neo-liberal development policies. Yet, the informal economy fortuitously remains active in solid waste collection, recycling, and disposal. This article is the aggregate outcome of an 8-year multi-stakeholder engagement in MSWM in Nigerian cities. It draws on insights from first-hand qualitative engagement with informal waste workers, interviews with key stakeholders, policy documents, and relevant literature to situate the Nigerian informal waste economy within current international development discourse. While highlighting the implications of social acceptance and inclusion of the waste economy in post-2015 MSWM and development policy, the study notes the lack of an articulate policy on MSWM in Nigeria and canvasses a specific policy to integrate the ubiquitous informal waste economy in MSWM. The paper suggests that inclusion per sé is central to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and argues that an inclusive MSWM policy in Nigeria is desirable as it maps onto the SDGs which aim to improve lives in the post-2015 development era.     

Environmental Management of Quarries as Waste Disposal Facilities

Problems associated with the disposal of municipal solid waste have become a source of public concern worldwide as awareness of potential adverse environmental impacts and health threats from solid waste has increased. Communities are concerned about the generation and management of solid waste to the extent of refusing to allow new disposal facilities near their homes, often after witnessing the legacy of existing facilities. Under these conditions, the development of national policies for the management of solid waste becomes highly political, all while requiring appropriate technical solutions that ensure environmental protection and proper management plans that support an acceptable solution for the disposal of municipal solid waste. In some locations, the conversion of old quarries into well-engineered and controlled landfills appears as a promising solution to a continuously increasing problem, at least for many decades to come. This paper describes the environmental impacts associated with solid waste disposal in a converted quarry site and the mitigation measures that can be adopted to alleviate potential adverse impacts. Environmental management and monitoring plans are also discussed in the context of ensuring adequate environmental protection during and after the conversion process.     

基于共词分析的城市生活垃圾治理公共政策变迁量化分析

以1979—2020年我国中央政府颁发的411份城市生活垃圾治理政策文本作为研究对象,运用共词与聚类分析方法研究了我国不同时期城市生活垃圾治理公共政策焦点的演变规律。结果发现:纵观我国城市生活垃圾治理公共政策焦点的演变轨迹,在"技术路线"、"垃圾属性"、"管理手段"、"治理结构"和"保障机制"方面发生了显著的政策主题变迁,呈现出垃圾治理朝更加绿色、更加经济方向发展的趋势。未来,应从监管体系、资源评估、财政补贴、空间布局4个方面保障生活垃圾零污染、高价值资源化治理。     

Indigenous Waste Management Practices among the Ngwa of Southeastern Nigeria: Some Lessons and Policy Implications

Despite large investments that have gone into meeting the challenges of effective waste management in urban Nigeria, there is little evidence that such efforts are having their expected impacts. Consequently, much attention has been drawn to the need to evolve more sustainable waste management strategies. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews among the Ngwa of southeastern Nigeria, some useful indigenous solid and liquid waste management techniques, in the search for solutions to the current waste management crisis in urban Nigeria, have become evident. These indigenous techniques and practices, which include ingenious and careful waste segregation and sorting, selective burning and burying, composting and conversion, etc., offer scope for meeting the challenges and addressing the limitations of current waste management in urban areas, especially if they are supported by appropriate inputs from modern technology.     

Inexact fuzzy-stochastic mixed integer programming approach for long-term planning of waste management–––Part B: Case study

In this study, a solid waste decision-support system was developed for the long-term planning of waste management in the City of Regina, Canada. Interactions among various system components, objectives, and constraints will be analyzed. Issues concerning planning for cost-effective diversion and prolongation of the landfill will be addressed. Decisions of system-capacity expansion and waste allocation within a multi-facility, multi-option, and multi-period context will be obtained. The obtained results would provide useful information and decision-support for the City's solid waste management and planning. In the application, four scenarios are considered. Through the above scenario analyses under different waste-management policies, useful decision support for the City's solid waste managers and decision makers was generated. Analyses for the effects of varied policies (for allowable waste flows to different facilities) under 35 and 50% diversion goals were also undertaken. Tradeoffs among system cost and constraint-violation risk were analyzed.Generally, a policy with lower allowable waste-flow levels corresponded to a lower system cost under advantageous conditions but, at the same time, a higher penalty when such allowances were violated. A policy with higher allowable flow levels corresponded to a higher cost under disadvantageous conditions. The modeling results were useful for (i) scheduling adequate time and capacity for long-term planning of the facility development and/or expansion in the city's waste management system, (ii) adjusting of the existing waste flow allocation patterns to satisfy the city's diversion goal, and (iii) generating of desired policies for managing the city's waste generation, collection and disposal.     

Public participation in municipal solid waste source-separated collection in Guilin,China: status and influencing factors

Currently, China is facing critical problems regarding the management of municipal solid waste (MSW). The failure of existing pilot programs in implementing MSW source-separated collection highlights the need to analyze the factors significantly influencing public participation in this activity. To this end, a comprehensive analysis of MSW source-separated collection in Guilin, which is representative of wider areas located in inland China and with a GDP around the national average, was conducted. The research consisted of in-person interviews involving a questionnaire and theoretical analyses in terms of public perception, public awareness, public attitude, and willingness to pay. The analytical results identify the status of waste source-separated collection and influencing factors in implementation, and provides exercisable suggestions for decision makers in both China and more generally in industrializing countries to design promotion programs and education campaigns.     

Land use and solid waste generation in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

Solid waste collection services in Ilorin, Nigeria are shown to be unsatisfactory. The poor service is related to rapid population growth, insufficient data and inconsistent government policies. Surveys have been conducted to assess the quantities and types of solid waste and to show how these, in part, vary according to the nature of the land use and the properties being served. Suggestions for an improved service are offered.     

Energy recovery from municipal solid waste in Nigeria and its economic and environmental implications

An assessment of potential biomass resources in Nigeria for the production of methane and power generation is presented in this paper. Nigeria, as an underdeveloped and populous country, needs an uninterrupted source of energy. The country's energy problems have crippled large sectors of the economy. The percentage of people connected to the national grid is 40%. These 40% experience electricity supply failure on average 10–12 hours daily. Energy generation from municipal solid waste (MSW) is an effective MSW management strategy. Yearly waste generation has increased from 6,471 gigagrams (Gg) in 1959 to 26,600 Gg in 2015. This amount is projected to reach 36,250 Gg per year by 2030. Methane emission for 2015 was 491 Gg, and it is projected to reach 669 Gg in 2030. These values translate to 3.48 × 10⁹ kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity for 2015, with a projected 4.74 × 10⁹ kWh by 2030. The revenue to be derived from the electricity that is generated could have been US$365.04 × 10⁶ for 2015, and it is estimated that it will reach US$473.82 × 10⁶ by 2030. It was found that methane emissions from MSW increased with time, and capturing this gas for energy production will lead to a sustainable waste management.     

Overview of household solid waste recycling policy status and challenges in Malaysia

With the annual increase in waste generation and heavy reliance on landfilling as disposal, method in Malaysia, it is just a matter of time before significant problems of space limitations, health, and environmental issues hit the nation severely. This paper attempts to develop an overview on solid, waste recycling in Malaysia at the most basic level of a community or nation which is the household, unit. Households are the main primary source of municipal solid waste in Malaysia, consisting of, recyclable materials at most 70% to 80% of the total waste composition as found placed in the, landfills. Overview on the existing household solid waste recycling policy and program status in, Malaysia is relevant in enhancing solid waste management measure from recycling perspective. Despite the high potential and opportunities for solid waste recycling, wastes are still simply being, dumped in an open area of ground without any attempt for recovery and recycling. Comparing to, recycling rates of neighboring countries, Malaysia is falling back at merely 5% which proves how, uncommon recycling practice is. The government is committed to significantly improve the national's, solid waste management services especially in waste minimization. Fortunately the emphasis on, recycling as a sustainable waste management strategy has taken a shift in paradigm as wastes, separation and recycling are part of the major changes in the current policy implementation. With, issues and challenges in recycling practice that were highlighted in this context especially from the, aspects of information availability and other loopholes within solid waste management policies and, related recycling program within the community, the question on whether the goals in 2020 can be, met remains unsure of but there is a possibility for a successful implementation of sustainable solid, waste management particularly in recycling.     

Quality of Water from Hand Dug Wells in Onitsha Metropolitan Areas of Nigeria

Summary Wide Range of human and anthropogenic activities impinges on the urban environment in most cities in Nigeria, to degrade the quality of water resources. Some of these activities (daily discharge of solid and liquid waste, industrial effluent, and physo-chemical weathering processes) are discharged directly on sources of water supply to the populace of Onitsha. Based on this problem, this paper examines the quality of water from hand-dug wells in Onitsha. 15 wells water samples were collected during the month of January, July, and August with the aid of sterilized containers. And sent to the laboratory for analyses, results showed that wells that are located close to dumpsites are more polluted in terms of turbidity, TSS, CaCo₂ conductivity salinity acidity, Pb, Fe and bacteriological quality of the well water. Also most of the hand-dug well water qualities are unsafe for human consumption, because they are generally above the WHO maximum acceptable threshold. Since this source of water form one of the major source of water to the inhabitants, there is need for purification proper disposal of waste, public education of the health implication of waste/impure water and other management measures.     

Advisory Committee: A Powerful Tool for Helping Decision Makers in Environmental Issues

/ It has been suggested that the general public should be moreinvolved in environmental policy and decision making. It is important forthem to realize that they will have to live with the consequences ofenvironmental policies and decisions. Consequently, policy makers shouldconsider the concerns and opinions of the general public before makingdecisions on environmental issues. This raises questions such as: How can weintegrate the perceptions and reactions of the general population inenvironmental decisions? What kind of public participation should weconsider? In the present study, using a new regional ecosystem model, weattempted to integrate these aspects in its decision making model byincluding the formation of an advisory committee to resolve problems relatedto waste management. The advisory committee requested the activeparticipation of representatives from all levels of the community: economic,municipal, and governmental intervenors; environmental groups; and citizens.Their mandates were to examine different management strategies available inthe region, considering all the interdisciplinary aspects of each strategy,elaborate recommendations concerning the management strategies that are mostsuitable for all, and collaborate in communication of the information to thegeneral population. The results showed that at least in small municipalitiessuch an advisory committee can be a powerful tool in environmental decisionmaking. Conditions required for a successful consultation process, such aseveryday lay language and the presence of a facilitator other than ascientific expert, are discussed.KEY WORDS: Public consultation; Environmental policies;Interdisciplinary aspects; Municipal sewage sludge management; Generalpopulation; Decision-making process     

A comparison of two models for dealing with urban solid waste: Management by contract and management by public–private partnership

In work, we compared two models for dealing with urban solid waste in Brazil, namely, management by contract and management by public–private partnership. Management by contract, which is widely used by the public sector (municipalities) for urban solid waste collection and disposal and for acquiring goods and services for periods not greater than 60 months, is governed by Federal Law 8.666/93. Management by public–private partnership is governed by Federal Law 11.079/04 for contracts worth more than US$11,000,000 and involves costs for the private partner and public partner. The financial return for the private partner must be clearly delineated and the contract should last from 5 to 35 years. Management by public–private partnership that involves the management of municipal solid waste is very recent in Brazil. For this reason, the comparison between the two forms of management of municipal solid waste (management by contract and management by public–private partnership) described in this work is unprecedented in this country. Both of these models are used in the municipality of São Bernardo do Campo in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. For this study, information was gathered through semi-structured interviews with public works managers in São Bernardo do Campo, with members of an Association of Recyclable Material Collectors and with managers of a company contracted by the São Bernardo do Campo city hall, and also by researching public documents provided by the city hall. The interviews with the managers of the municipality of São Bernardo do Campo, the Association and the company were held in the headquarters of each institution. The documents analyzed, such as the plan for dealing with municipal solid waste, contracts and bids were made available electronically. Analysis of the results indicated that management by a public–private partnership was more advantageous for dealing with urban solid waste than management by contract since the former provided a strong selective collection program, reduced the amount of solid waste sent to sanitary embankments, led to the recovery an area of land previously degraded by the incorrect disposal of urban solid waste and stimulated the installation of an energy recovery unit.     

Solid waste management and a new environmental edict: a case study from Ilorin,Kwara State,Nigeria

Summary The Government of Nigeria is increasingly aware of problems emanating from poor environmental sanitation. This awareness has led to various edicts both at the national and state levels on environmental sanitation with particular reference to solid waste management. Such an edict was critically examined for the Kwara State of Nigeria. At a glance, the edict looks impressive and timely, but a closer study reveals many loopholes some of which are outlined. Most important of these, is a failure to consider adequately the full requirements of the population. Many of the facilities needed for effective implementation are also grossly inadequate. Suggestions are made to make the campaign for increased environmental sanitation in the nation more successful.This paper further elaborates a theme first partially developed by Dr Adedibu inThe Environmentalist, Vol. 5, pp. 123–127.     

Sustainable recycling model: A comparative analysis between India and Tanzania

Higher economic growth in developing countries has caused higher amounts of wastes. Local government authorities in these countries usually fail to provide adequate services to dispose the increasing amounts of waste, resulting in threats for both the population and environment health. There is therefore an urgent need for recycling as a form of waste management in order to stop the devastating effects of solid waste in developing countries. Using a qualitative method of analysis, this study presents a model to measure and rank the sustainability of recycling programs in India and Tanzania. The model consists of six main constructs including “production, economic, governmental, social, technological, and international factors”. The results showed that India outperforms Tanzania in sustainable recycling programs: per capita waste generated per day in Delhi is higher than in Dar es Salaam; the government of India focuses more on developing recycling plans and techniques as compared to the government of Tanzania where the country is not actively involved in the recycling process; and the solid waste management planning in India is being performed better than Tanzania.     

Health is wealth: Concern for households’ solid waste self‐disposal practices

This study examines the challenges posed by solid waste by assessing the disposal methods practiced by residents in the Ijebu‐Ode Local Government Area (LGA) in Ogun State, Nigeria. Primary data were obtained through questionnaire administration. One out of every 10 houses was selected for sampling in six randomly selected wards of Ijebu‐Ode LGA. Three hundred and twelve questionnaires were administered on heads of households. Information elicited from the respondents covered solid waste disposal practices, the rationales behind those practices, and the respondents’ perceptions of environmental problems, including environmental health problems that could emanate from such practices. Data on environmental problems and environmental health problems measured on a 5‐point Likert scale were analyzed using Aggregate Weighted Mean Index. The computed Environmental Problem Indices (EPIs) and Environmental Health Problem Indices (EHPIs) were used to determine the severity of the respective challenges. The results established that blockage of drains with an EPI of 4.15 was a very severe environmental problem and flood hazard with an EPI of 3.55 was a severe environmental problem resulting from solid waste disposal practices. Incidence of malaria and cholera, with EHPIs of 2.85 and 2.56, respectively, were however ranked as not severe environmental health problems. The study concluded that solid waste disposal practices in Ijebu‐Ode LGA were unhygienic and unsafe, hence the need for government intervention to ensure the adoption of the necessary measures toward a safe and healthy environment.     

Public–Private Partnerships for Solid Waste Management Services

The increasing cost of municipal solid waste (MSW) management has led local governments in numerous countries to examine if this service is best provided by the public sector or can better be provided by the private sector. Public–private partnerships have emerged as a promising alternative to improve MSW management performance with privately owned enterprises often outperforming publicly owned ones. In Lebanon, several municipalities are transforming waste management services from a public service publicly provided into a public service privately contracted. In this context, a regulated private market for MSW management services is essential. The present study examines a recent experience of the private sector participation in MSW management in the Greater Beirut Area. The results of a field survey concerning public perception of solid waste management are presented. Analysis of alternatives for private sector involvement in waste management is considered and management approaches are outlined.     

The impacts of road transport on air quality in the Greater Manchester region, UK: policies towards a sustainable transport system

The transport-induced air quality problems of the Greater Manchester region are examined. The problems are defined in terms of economic and social factors leading to the development of a car-based economy. The impacts of transport emissions on the natural and built environment and human health are discussed. The administrative, legislative and pollution control responses to the problem are examined. The nature of future air quality problems will require an integration of traffic management, land use, public transport and pollution control policies if they are to be satisfactorily addressed. A series of policy recommendations towards this end are included.     

生产者责任延伸制与电子废弃物管理——环境法规

日益增加的固体废弃物和工业废弃物已成为主要的社会问题。回收服务相对来说还很不足,导致很多废弃物只能进行简单的填埋、焚烧处理。这将导致严重的环境污染。借鉴国外一些发达国家废物管理领域的政策趋势,我国近年来出台了一系列关于电子废弃物管理的政策法规,但也暴露出正规的废物处理企业无法取得规模收益,入不敷出,电子废弃物处理基金的征收及补贴对象不明确等诸多问题。引入生产者责任延伸制将外部影响内部化,在理念和功能等方面适应了电子废弃物管理的需要。