Introduction
Solid waste management remain one of the most daunting environmental sanitation challenges facing the country today and it has continually remained at its lowest ebb despite huge investment in the sector. Currently, as a result of industrialization and rapid growth in population in many cities and towns, wastes are generated faster than they are collected, transported and disposed.
The growth of human population coupled with increased economic activities in towns and cities result in high rate of solid waste generation. A fundamental attribute of solid waste is that, it is inevitable as almost every human activities involves the generation of waste in solid, liquid or gaseous form. Social dynamics such as development influence waste generation. This calls for careful planning and adequate resources allocation to forestall a mismatch between the rates of waste generation, collection and disposal. The management of solid waste is far from being satisfactory in Nigeria; many parts of our cities and towns do not benefit from any organized waste management services and therefore waste are unattended to, buried, burn or disposed haphazardly.
The Federal Ministry of Environment (2005) mentioned that waste burden has indeed become critical with waste product often contain material that are toxic and not readily biodegradable, such materials include various types of industrial chemical waste, which can contaminate soil and underground water sources indefinitely if not properly disposed. Biomedical wastes from health care institutions also contain infectious/hazardous material that posed potential hazards to the environment and human health, when not properly disposed. The improper handling and disposal of medical waste is a major threat to refuse collectors and scavengers as they are exposed to contraction of some disease such as HIV/AIDS, tetanus, hepatitis which cause harm to human health.
Conceptual framework
According to Cointreau (2002), waste is a material, which is thrown away as worthless. The entire concept of waste is that it is known to be useless, rejected as spoiled, and no longer needed for its original purpose. Thus, waste is viewed as discarded materials, which has no consumer value to the people abandoning it.
In the view of Olojoba and Unuraye (2005), solid waste is an unwanted material generated in productions or consumption processes which are solid in form. And that solid waste management is the process of collection, storage, transportation and disposing off a refuse, sewage or other waste arising from human activities without creating a public nuisance in our environment.
Tchobanoglous (2001) stated that, when disposing off our wastes on land near urban centres as it cause serious threat to human health as a result of land, air and water pollution. Open dumping and improperly designed landfill can pollute land, air and water other effects include fire hazards, create unsightly nuisances and creating breeding ground for germs, insects and disease carrying rodents.
Types of solid waste
Bello-Iman (1998) in trying to draw line between types of waste said that, solid waste can be classified into different types depending on their source namely;
- Domestic solid waste
- Industrial solid waste
- Agricultural solid waste
- Hazardous solid waste
- Domestic solid waste: According to Olojoba and Unuraye (2005), domestic waste can also known as residential refuse through household activities and include garbage, rubbish, ashes, house sweeping and other bulky waste.
- Industrial solid waste: Olorunda (2007) stated that, there are waste from processing, non-processing industries and manufacturing facilities. E.g. products of the earth generated by extractive industries, from the basic industries like metal scrap and plastic materials and from the fabricating industries like broken glass and metal trimmings.
- Agricultural solid waste: In the view of Sada (1998), these are wastes generated from agricultural processes e.g. crops, animal manures, harvesting and slaughter house residue etc.
- Hazardous solid waste: Bello-Iman (1998) revealed that, industrial and hospital waste is considered hazardous as they contain toxic substances. Common types of household waste are also hazardous. Hazardous waste could be highly toxic to humans, animal and plant. They may be corrosive, highly inflammable, or explosive and react when exposed to certain conditions, e.g. gases.
Methods of solid waste management
Adams (2007) said that, the local governments are charged with statutory responsibility to collect and dispose solid waste generated in the various communities. The functional elements in a solid waste management method/processing include waste generation, storage, collection, transportation and final disposal.
Waste generation
Wastes are mainly generated from our industries, institutions, commercial centres, homes, hospitals, etc.
Waste storage
In Nigeria like any other developing countries of the world waste are mostly stored in a covered metal or plastic dustbins or any other acceptable container in individuals’ homes, which are later, dumped in the municipal dump sites for final collection by sanitary labourers, (Adeolu, 2006).
Collection and transportation
This system involves the removal of solid waste and transferring them from the municipal dump sites to the disposal sites or to the transfer stations from where they are finally transported to the disposal site (Malombe, 1993).
Final disposal
Wastes are usually generated from industries, homes, institution and public places. Generally, waste generation differs in the quantity, quality and characteristic of waste.
Hopkin (1995) highlighted methods of final disposal to be;
- Sanitary landfill or controlled tipping
- Incineration
- Composting
- Disposal at sea
- Hog feeding
- Reclamation, reuse, recycling etc.
Problems of solid waste management
Aibor and Olorunda (2007) identified some problems of waste management as population explosion, poor finance, inadequate facilities and equipment, lack of maintenance of the existing ones and insufficient personnel. Agunwamba (2001) identified the co-operative attitude of the public, and poor attitude to work by waste disposal workers as the major problem of waste management in Nigeria, and not merely the absence of equipment.
Gbana (2007) said that, the biggest problem identified in Nigeria in the area of waste management has been ignorance and lack of government plan towards approval and purchase of equipment and machineries needed for waste management. Ichide (2003) identified the problem of waste management in Nigeria to include poor management strategies, absence of sound policy on collection and disposal, ignorance and proper planning towards approval and purchase of equipment and machineries, uncooperative attitude of the public, and lack of coordinated policies on waste management.
Public health implication of poor solid waste management
The various phases of solid waste management which include collection, storage, transportation and final disposal demand hygienic and aesthetic care, The process of effecting management poses problems which have be overcome by developed countries but remain problematic in most developing countries, especially in Africa. The presence of overloaded uncared for and scattered solid waste is conspicuous in different corners in many cities. Some of the waste block drainage causes obstruction along major road and at times source of fire outbreak in nearby properties.
Akpovi (1982) revealed that solid waste left to decay in refuse depot result in land and water pollution in the immediate environment. He further said that, pests and animals are often attracted by the presence of an open refuse dump. It is known that flies from solid waste can transmit typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, intestinal hermits’ infection and many other diseases. Also, rats and mice around solid waste can spread diseases like plaque, food poisoning and trichinosis. Useless container that retain water provide breeding place for mosquitoes which spread malaria. Thus inadequate management of waste product in any community can cause ecological degradation as well as be a major factor contributing ill health among the people.
Solutions to problems of solid waste management
Newton (1998) was interested on the solutions to the problems of solid waste management. He suggests that the mass drift of people from the hinterland to the urban centres which cause over population in the urban centre should be discourage. According to him, this can be done by providing social amenities e.g. pipe-borne water, good road, electricity and health centres in the rural areas. He also said that, more trained refuse disposal personnel should be engage to cope with the enormous refuse generated.
Jimoh and Habiyi (2006) in his on refuse management in karmas pointed out that most site used for refuse dump are chosen without taking consideration the distance to be covered by residents. Thus he recommended that sanitary site should be cited close to waste generator. Hopkin (1995) also observed that, disposal site in Patani are situated quite the away from inhabitant or sellers. Thus, one cannot dispute the fact that long distance disposal site discourage inhabitant and sellers from making use of them, therefore resorting to littering their surroundings instead of going a long before disposing of their refuse. According to him, this may be one of the factors contributing to poor sanitation. He also argues that inhabitant or sellers, shoppers and industrialists disposal of waste on the street, into troughs, and at other unauthorized places. He attributes these unacceptable habits of indiscriminately disposing of waste to the public places to lack of waste disposal facilities as well as inadequacy of waste disposal awareness. This testified to the importance of attitude in waste management issues.
Mike (1992) observed that ignorance, negligence, lack of law to punish sanitary offender and low level of technology in waste management are the major cause of waste. He suggests that awareness should be created among residents to manage household refuse and educate them on the hazards that will dispose waste could pose to the environment and themselves.
WHO (1996) in pointing out the cause of poor waste management, highlighted factors such as cultural derivative, beliefs, perception and attitude of the people. It added that these set of factors can therefore be modified or change through education. Sule (1982) said that the main cause of the problem of solid waste management, is lack of seriousness in the enforcement of solid waste disposal law, solid waste problem will be eliminated in our environment if proper law are adequately enacted and enforced.
Newton (1998), observed that effective solution to solid waste management is based on a hierarchy of management options, the reduction of waste, it reuse wherever possible, recycling, composting, energy recovering and final disposal. Oreyomi (2002) stated that effective solid waste management is possible by developing policy guideline for efficient and sustainable solid waste management in Nigeria, also to promote effective stakeholders’ participation in solid waste management.
References
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