CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Literature Review
Solid waste management has become one of a major concern in environmental issues (Mazzanti
& Zoboli, 2008). This is particularly true to urban areas where population is rapidly growing and
amount of waste generated is increasing like never before (Kathiravale & Mohd Yunus, 2008).
The management of waste become complex and the facilities provided cannot cope with the
increasing demand and needs. Therefore, best approach need to be implemented immediately
while considering environmental, social and economic aspects (Aye & Widjaya, 2006). The
drivers of sustainable waste management were clarified by Agamuthu et al. (2009), which
include human, economic, institutional and environment aspect. The study suggests that each
driving group should be considered in local context as managing solid waste for a particular
society may differ from the others. As a result of the importance of clean and hygienic
environment to human well-being, a lot of work has been done in the area of solid waste
generation, collection, evaluation and deposition.
2.1.2 Material Waste Disposal Methods
The construction industry is faced with many challenges, among which is waste management.
Aside from the fact that wastage contributes to time and cost overrun, it also has environmental
implications in the form of pollution. However, the industry has the capacity to effectively
manage waste, from generation to disposal. All stages of the management process are important,
but scholars and governments have provided the final step, being disposal, unabated attention in
order to ensure effective management. Potential waste disposal methods, including incineration,
burning, landfilling, recycling, reuse, open dumping, pyrolysis, and shredding have emerged
from the literature around the globe. Despite various waste minimisation and sustainable disposal
options that are available, construction material waste is still increasing in Nigeria, while
disposal remains a major issue for firms and government. Therefore, this study assesses disposal
1
methods among residents of Bariga LCDA to determine whether there is a relationship between
their practices towards waste disposal.
2.1.3 Public Perception and Awareness of the Effect of Poor Solid Waste Disposal on the
Environment
The increasing growth of urban centres in most developing countries of the world in recent time
has resulted in increased consumption of resources to meet the growing demands of urban
populations and industry. This situation result in generation of large amounts of solid waste in
cities. All human activities generate one form of waste materials or the other which may not be
of immediate use and hence constitutes waste that is ultimately released into the environment.
Thus, waste is an inevitable byproduct of our daily activities. In the past, when human population
was relatively small, solid waste issues were not a serious problem. However, with urbanization
and growth of large conurbations, the challenges posed by solid waste are becoming enormous.
Solid wastes is made up of all the organic and inorganic waste materials that are usually non free
flowing that is produced as a result of human and animal activities which have lost their value to
the user and consequently discarded as useless or unwanted. Solid waste is one of the most
visible, immediate and serious environmental problems facing most municipal authorities in
developing countries. Consequently, this growing solid waste disposal challenges in developing
countries is gradually approaching crises level. This trend of indiscriminate waste disposal has
gone unchecked for so many years that the situation appears to be intractable. In Nigeria, solid
waste disposal problem is typified by overflowing dustbins, mountains of open refuse dumps at
virtually every street and corners of the town; with their attendant problems (especially where
burning occurs) and the existence of improperly operated landfills which are often rodent
infested, with potentials for surface and ground water pollution. The volume of solid waste
generated in any urban centre is often a reflection of the intensity of human activities such as
population, urbanization, social development, resource exploitation and unchecked technological
advances. All these activities generate one form of waste or the other. The implication of this is
that we have more solid waste to cope with than ever before. Poor disposal of solid waste has
adverse effect on the environment in general. The issue of solid waste generation and its likely
effects on the health, quality of environment and urban landscape has become burning national
issues in Nigeria today.
2
2.1.4 Impact of Flood on Waste Generation and Composition
Natural disaster is an event that usually occurs with varying degree of impacts; either they are
physical, economic or social impacts. Disaster, which does not come routinely, produced
situations that usually exceeded the expectations of the affected community to take action such
as saving lives, preserving property, and maintaining stability of the affected area.
After a disaster event, generation of disaster debris have become one of the major problems,
since the volume and types of waste generated are greatly different from normal waste,
depending on the nature and severity of the disaster. A study by (Reinhart and McCreanor) on
United States past disasters showed that the volume of debris generated from a single disaster
event is 5-15 times greater than the waste generated during normal days. Waste generation after
the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami also generated a similar ratio. The massive volumes of debris
and waste have exceeded the capacity of waste managers of the affected area in handling the
situation. Flood disaster is one of the natural disasters that generate huge amount of waste, and a
wide range of waste composition, depending on its severity. This is because flood caused severe
damage to infrastructures and properties, which resulted in the generation of tremendous amount
of waste. The type of waste generated during disaster event varies greatly, highly depending
upon the type of infrastructure impacted, whether most of the buildings and houses constructed
were using concrete or wood. Flood waste that is generated from the destruction of masonry
houses composed mainly of concrete, while in rural areas which mainly composed of wooden
houses, will generate more wooden waste. According to Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) of United States, typical waste type generated during flood disaster usually
composed of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, vegetative waste, household items,
white goods, soil and mud, and putrescent. Every waste category that is generated has its own
disposal challenges during normal condition. With the effect of disaster, these types usually
create new mixed categories that will increase the complexity to separate and dispose. This
resulting in economic and environmental burden to the victims and authorities involved in
reconstruction of the affected area as well as in management of municipal waste.
3
2.1.5 Municipal Solid Waste Management
In the past, waste was manageable largely because populations were not heavily concentrated or
remained nomadic in nature. The waste created by prehistoric man in ancient times, whose
survival was largely depended on hunting and gathering, was degradable. In recent times, waste
has become a major concern not only in the developing world but also among civilized societies.
As human population increased and became more sedentary, moving to settle in urban areas,
management of waste has become more difficult and complicated. Man is a proficient maker of
waste (Tchobanoglous, et. al., 1993; OtengAbabio). Apparently, one critical issue accompanying
global economic and social development is the substantial increase of the amount of waste being
generated.
The Global Waste Management Outlook (UNEP, 2015), has pegged global annual increasing
rate of Municipal solid Waste (MSW) at approximately 2 billion tons. Moreover, this explosive
growth in the weight and volume is making the management and composition of MSW
becoming more and more complex. It has been largely documented that both increased in
generation and composition complexity in MSW have created severe dereliction of air quality,
public health, water quality etc., which has eventually contributed to climate change. Effective
and efficient MSW management is, thus, one of the most important and challenging issues
throughout the world (Vergara and Tchobanoglous, 2012).
Often, MSW management is pushed beyond the scope of technology and requires the
involvement of all stakeholders such as product manufacturers, government institutions, private
businesses, householders etc. Thus, the success of an MSW management system depends not
only on technical innovation, but also considerably influenced by social, economic, and
psychological factors, such as public participation, policy, public attitude and behavior. Hence, it
is important for researchers to understand, design, and evaluate MSW management from all
dimensions.
In other nations, problems of urban degradation of solid waste generation often attract attention
of both the international bodies and non-governmental organization. To this end, the United
Nations declared 1980 and 1990 the international drinking water supply and sanitation decade.
4
With this declaration however, little or nothing has been achieved in the area of waste
management in the developing nations, especially in Nigeria.
Waste can be divided into different types. The most common methods of the classification are by
their physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Solid wastes are waste materials that
contain less than 70% water. This class includes materials such as household garbage, some
industrial wastes, some mining wastes, and oil field wastes such as drill cuttings. Liquid wastes
are usually waste water that contains less than 1% solids. Such waste may contain high
concentrations of dissolved salts and metals.
Household wastes are usually classified as Municipal waste.
Biomedical wastes are usually classified as Hospital waste.
Industrial wastes are usually classified as Hazardous waste.
Municipal Solid Waste: Municipal solid wastes generally can be classified in terms of three
major sources of generators: residential, commercial, and industrial. Sometimes, institutional
sources are separated from commercial sources and, thus a fourth source is referred to as
institutional. In the traditional scheme of classification, residential (domestic) solid waste
consists of household garbage and rubbish, or refuse. Municipal solid wastes (MSW) is often
described as the waste that is produced from residential and industrial (non-process wastes),
commercial and institutional sources with the exception of hazardous and universal wastes,
construction and demolition wastes, and liquid wastes (water, wastewater, industrial processes)
(Tchobanoglous & Kreith, 2002). In Nova Scotia, municipal solid waste is defined through the
Solid Waste-Resource Management Regulations (1996) which state that Municipal Solid Waste
“includes garbage, refuse, sludge, rubbish, tailings, debris, litter and other discarded materials
resulting from residential, commercial, institutional and industrial activities which are commonly
accepted at a municipal solid waste management facility, but excludes wastes from industrial
activities regulated by an approval issued under the Nova Scotia Environment Act” (SWRMR,
1996).
Solid Waste: Solid rubbish can include a variety of items found in your household along with
commercial and industrial locations.
5
Solid waste is commonly broken down into the following types:
Plastic waste – This consists of bags, containers, jars, bottles and many other products
that can be found in your household. Plastic is not biodegradable, but many types of
plastic can be recycled. Plastic should not be mix in with your regular waste, it should be
sorted and placed in your recycling bin.
Paper/card waste – This includes packaging materials, newspapers, cardboards and
other products. Paper can easily be recycled and reused so make sure to place them in
your recycling bin or take them to your closest Brisbane recycling depot.
Tins and metals – This can be found in various forms throughout your home. Most
metals can be recycled. Consider taking these items to a scrap yard or your closest
Brisbane recycling depot to dispose of this waste type properly.
Poor management of solid waste is critical to the health and well-being of urban residents. In
most developing cities, several tons of garbage is left uncollected on the streets each day, acting
as feeding ground for pests the spread disease, clogging of drainages and creating a myriad of
related health and infrastructural problems. The challenges to be faced in collecting solid waste
will drastically increase in the next 30years as a result of both the rapid growth of developing
cities and increase in per capita waste production.
In Nigeria, there are two broad systems of solid waste management namely; public and private.
Though, the former has being more conventional and traditional. In the public solid waste
management system, the waste disposal unit seems to have been the most common arrangement,
varieties of which have at different times been established in Ibadan (Onokerhoraye, 1977),
Benin City (Omuta, 1985), Enugu, Onitsha, Warri and Kaduna (FMHE, 1-83), among other
urban centers.
Hazardous Wastes: Hazardous wastes are those that may contain toxic substances generated
from industrial, hospital, some types of household wastes. These wastes could be corrosive,
inflammable, explosive, or react when exposed to other materials. Some hazardous wastes are
6
highly toxic to environment including humans, animals, and plants. Wastes are classified as
hazardous if they exhibit one or more of ignitability, corrosively, reactivity, or toxicity.
According to Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), hazardous wastes are defined
as any waste or combination of wastes which pose a substantial present or potential hazard to
human health or living organisms because such wastes are non‐degradable or persistent in nature
or because they can be biologically magnified, or because they can be lethal, or because they
may otherwise cause or tend to cause detrimental cumulative effects.
Volume of Waste in Lagos: Waste generation is a normal accomplishment of day-to-day living
household consumption of goods and services, and industrial production process produce wastes
which must be disposed of to pave the way for a repeat of the cycle. It has been estimated
according to Oyediran (2004), that about 20kg of refuse per capita per year is produced in
Nigeria cities. Given Nigeria’s 1989 estimated population of 110 million, it follows that about
2.3 million tons of wastes are generated each year in Nigeria cities.
According to the World Bank, the generation of solid waste is tied to population, income and
urbanization. If the report by this body which puts per capita waste generation rate at 1.2 kg per
person per day is anything to go by, waste generated in Lagos far outweighs the official figure of
13,000 tons per day. Also, the fact that the per capital waste generation has been projected to rise
to 1.42 kg in the next fifteen years presents a serious cause for concern.
This concern is succinctly put by Prasad Modak in the Shangai Manual when he avers that: cities
are at the nexus of a further threat to the environment, namely the production of an increasing
quantity and complexity of wastes. The estimated quantity of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
generated worldwide is 1.7 – 1.9 billion metric tons. In many cases, municipal wastes are not
well managed in developing countries, as cities and municipalities cannot cope with the
accelerated pace of waste production. Waste collection rates are often lower than 70 per cent in
low-income countries. More than 50 per cent of the collected waste is often disposed of through
uncontrolled land filling and about 15 per cent is processed through unsafe and informal
recycling.
7
Increasing with the population of the state is not just the waste generated but the cost of handling
it and this underscores the need for more efficient and enduring system of solid waste
management. While they might have served their purposes, the PSP operators leave a yawning
gap in the effort to keep Lagos Streets free of refuse as experience has shown that they lack both
the financial and technological capacity to cope with the waste challenge in the nearest future.
The import of the foregoing is that the system of solid waste management that yields to
inadequacies in the collection, transportation and disposal services is not sustainable and cannot
on the long run support the vision of a clean, secure and more prosperous Lagos State. Hence,
the emergence of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative as a new model to address the observed
shortcomings in the state’s solid waste management sector is welcome.
2.1.6 The major effects of waste management on the quality of life
Environmental effects: The major environmental effects include air pollution, which includes
odor, smoke, noise, dust, etc. Waste pollution: pollution from disposal site via flooding because
of blocked drains and land degradation.
Health effects: This includes: flies which carry germs on their bodies and legs and also excrete
them; mosquitoes breed in stagnant water in blocked drains in favourable location in cans, tyres
etc. that collects rain water; Rats: rat’s spreads typlius, salmonella, leptospirosis and other
diseases they cause injuries by biting and spoil millions of tons of food. The refuse workers also
faces some hazards which includes: parasite infection and infected cuts resulting from skin
contact with refuse, other includes hazards on disposal sites; are injuries from glass, razor blades,
syringes, tissue damage or infection through respiration, ingestion or skin contact.
2.1.7 Waste Disposal methods
In general, waste should undergo material recycling or thermal treatment. If this is not possible
for technical reasons, or it is not economically viable, the waste is deposited in a landfill
following suitable treatment. The standard waste disposal methods used are defined and
described below:
8
Recycling
Recycling refers to both the direct reuse of used products (e.g. used clothing and functioning
parts removed from used vehicles) and material recycling, that is the recovery of raw materials
from waste (e.g. production of new glass from fragments, the melting of scrap iron and the
production of recycled building materials from construction waste). Down cycling refers to the
transformation of waste to materials of lower quality than the initially used material.
Incineration
Combustible waste from households and waste wood that is not suitable for recycling undergoes
thermal treatment in waste incineration plants or waste wood furnaces. The heat released in the
process is used to generate electricity and heat buildings. Waste with a high calorific value and
low level of pollutant contamination can be used in industrial plants, e.g. cement plants, as an
alternative to fossil fuels. Waste that is contaminated with organic pollutants undergoes separate
thermal treatment (e.g. in hazardous waste incineration plants). Incinerators must have a flue gas
treatment system. The requirements for flue gas treatment and the incineration system are based
on the nature of the waste. Specialized waste disposal companies treat the waste in accordance
with the requirements of the incineration plant. This guarantees that the fuel will be of a high
quality and reduces the accident risk. The companies ensure, for example, that no undesirable
reactions occur when liquids are mixed. Waste materials that are used as substitute fuels in
cement plants must be crushed in advance and set at a constant calorific value.
Chemical-physical and biological treatment
The objective of both chemical-physical and biological treatment is to enable the removal of
pollutants from waste or its safe landfilling. Wastewater and polluted excavated material are
typical of the types of waste that are managed in this way. Following chemical-physical
treatment, the pollutants can be disposed of in concentrated form in facilities suitable for this
purpose.
9
Landfills
Residues from waste incineration or waste that is not suitable for material recycling or thermal
treatment are deposited in landfills that are compliant with the legal requirements. If the waste
does not fulfill the requirements for landfilling, it must be pre-treated.
Collection and logistics
The waste management sector involves many different specialized actors. Their tasks include the
collection of waste at source (industry, commerce and households) in suitable transport
containers, its intermediate storage and handover to waste disposal operations. The treatment of
waste is often based on a cascade of specialized plants. In all cases, smooth logistics are a
precondition for the efficient management of waste. In the case of hazardous waste, in
accordance with the Ordinance on Movements of Waste, the handover must be documented.
On-Site Disposal
According to Botkin and Keller (1997), a common on-site disposal method in urban areas is the
mechanical grinding of kitchen food waste. Garbage disposal devices are installed in the waste
water pipe system at the kitchen sink, and the garbage is ground and flushed into the sewer
system. This effectively reduces the amount of handling and quickly removes food wastes. Final
disposal is transferred to sewage treatment plants, where solids remaining as sewage sludge must
be disposed of.
Open Dumps
Botkin and Keller (1997), in the past, solid waste was usually accumulated in open dumps, where
the refuse was piled up without being covered or otherwise protected. Although open dumps are
now considered obsolete and are being closed, many are still being used worldwide, dumps have
been located wherever land is available, without regards to safety, health hazards and aesthetic
degradation.
10
2.1.8 Waste Evaluation Methods and Models
The decision makers are always under pressure from different stakeholder groups that ask for
more sustainability, new technologies, or for cheaper waste management (Wilson et al., (2007).
While these same decision makers are confronted with methodological dilemma in the choice of
the evaluation tool to assess present and new waste management systems. This situation is
compounded because of diverse approaches that promise support for strategic or policy decisions
for waste management planning, and for waste management optimization at all levels such as
companies, municipalities, and governments (Finnveden et al., 2007).
The earliest decision support models which were applied to waste management can be traced to
late 1960s (Karmperiset al., 2013). These approaches primarily focused on individual functional
elements such as collection routes or facility locations (Tanskanen, 2000), which span through to
the 1980s. Computer-aided decision support models began in the 1980s (Banar et al., 2009).
Concerning the economic impacts of waste services, a rapid development and increasing number
of publications reached the peak in 2000 (Simões and Marques, 2012).
Apparently, many published assessment methods for waste management systems are quite
advanced and sophisticated because waste management is considered a strategic sector of public
service (Coelho et al., 2012).
The goal of governments in the developing countries to tackle waste in an integrated approach,
call for an efficient evaluation on effects of waste management which require the consideration
of all the processes involved (Diaz and Warith, 2006).
The evaluation methods and models themes identified in the literature includes: Life-Cycle
Assessment (LCA) (41%), Benchmarking (14%), Cost and Benefit Analyses (CBA) (12%) and
Multi Criteria Decision Making model (16%), Risk Assessment (10%) and Environmental
Impact Assessment (7%).
11
2.2 Conceptual Framework
2.2.1 Importance of Municipal Solid Waste Management
Waste management is a major responsibility of local governments, it is typically consuming
between 20% and 50% of municipal budgets in developing countries. It is a complex task which
depends as much upon organization and cooperation between households, communities, private
enterprises and municipal authorities as it does upon the selection and application of appropriate
technical solutions for waste collection, transfer, recycling and disposal. Furthermore, waste
management is an essential task which has important consequences for public health and well-
being, the quality and sustainability of the urban environment and the efficiency and productivity
of the urban economy. In most cities of developing countries, waste management is inadequate: a
significant portion of the population does not have access to a waste collection service and only a
fraction of the generated waste is actually collected. Systems for transfer, recycling and/or
disposal of solid waste are unsatisfactory from the environmental, economic and financial points
of view.
2.2.2 Goals and Principles of Waste Management
The first goal of Waste Management is to protect the health of the urban population, particularly
that of low-income groups who suffer most from poor waste management. Secondly, Waste
Management aims to promote environmental conditions by controlling pollution (including
water, air, soil and cross media pollution) and ensuring the sustainability of ecosystems in the
urban region. Thirdly, Waste Management supports urban economic development by providing
demanded waste management services and ensuring the efficient use and conservation of
valuable materials and resources. Fourthly, Waste Management aims to generate employment
and incomes in the sector itself.
The goals of Waste Management are:
To protect environmental health,
To promote the quality of the urban environment
To support the efficiency and productivity of the economy
To generate employment and income.
12
To achieve the above goals, it is necessary to establish sustainable systems of solid waste
management which meet the needs of the entire urban population, including the poor. The
essential condition of sustainability implies that waste management systems must be absorbed
and carried by the society and its local communities. These systems must, in other words, be
appropriate to the particular circumstances and problems of the city and locality, employing and
developing the capacities of all stakeholders, including the households and communities
requiring service, private sector enterprises and workers (both formal and informal), and
government agencies at the local, regional and national levels. Waste management should be
approached from the perspective of the entire cycle of material use, which includes production,
distribution and consumption as well as waste collection and disposal. Whilst immediate priority
must be given to effective collection and disposal, waste reduction and recycling should be
pursued as equally important, longer-term objectives. The principles of sustainable waste
management strategies are thus to:
Minimize waste generation
Maximize waste recycling and reuse, and
Ensure the safe and environmentally sound disposal of waste.
Waste management goals cannot be achieved through isolated or sectoral approaches.
Sustainable waste management depends on the overall effectiveness and efficiency of urban
management, and the capacity of responsible municipal authorities.
2.2.3 Waste Generation and Disposal Patterns
The waste generated by a population is primarily a function of the people’s consumption
patterns and, thus, of their socio-economic characteristics. At the same time, waste generation is
conditioned to an important degree by people’s attitudes towards waste: their patterns of material
use and waste handling, their interest in waste reduction and minimization, the degree to which
they separate wastes and the extent to which they refrain from indiscriminate dumping and
littering. People’s attitudes influence not only the characteristics of waste generation, but also the
effective demand for waste collection services, in other words, their interest in and willingness to
pay for collection services. Attitudes may be positively influenced through awareness-building
campaigns and educational measures on the negative impacts of inadequate waste collection with
13
regard to public health and environmental conditions, and the value of effective disposal. Such
campaigns should also inform people of their responsibilities as waste generators and of their
rights as citizens to waste management services.
Similarly, people’s waste generation and disposal patterns are influenced by those of their
neighbors. A collective logic is involved, because improved waste handling practices will only
yield significant environmental impacts if most households in an area participate in the
improvement. Thus, besides general awareness, improved local waste management depends
upon the availability of practical options for waste collection and a consensus among neighbors
that improvements are both important and possible.
Fig 2: Overview of the Conceptual Framework for Municipal Solid Waste Management
14
2.2.4 Households, Communities and other Service Users
Residential households are mainly interested in receiving effective and dependable waste
collection service at a reasonably low price. Disposal is not normally a priority demand of
service users, so long as the quality of their own living environment is not affected by dump
sites. Only as informed and aware citizens do people become concerned with the broader
objective of environmentally sound waste disposal. In low-income residential areas where most
services are unsatisfactory, residents normally give priority to water supply, electricity, roads,
drains and sanitary services. Solid waste is commonly dumped onto nearby open sites, along
main roads or railroad tracks, or into drains and waterways. Pressure to improve solid waste
collection arises as other services become available and awareness mounts regarding the
environmental and health impacts of poor waste collection service. Poorly served residents often
form community-based organizations (CBO) to upgrade local environmental conditions, improve
services and/or petition the government for service improvements. CBOs which may arise in
middle and upper income neighborhoods as well as in low-income areas may become valuable
partners of the government in local waste management. When sufficiently organized, community
groups have considerable potential for managing and financing local collection services and
operating waste recovery and composting activities.
Fig 3: State or government run recovery system model.
15
Fig 4: Conceptual framework for waste minimization methods.
Source: modified from Canada (2013), Begum et al. (2007), and Halim and Srinivasan (2002)
16
