• The prevalence of waste adorning the landscape of the Nigerian State constitutes a nuisance as it takes up prime real estate.
  • Waste in its element presents challenges to the generators; as such waste burning becomes the order of the day, and environmental pollution prevails.
  • Given the uncanny resolve of a purpose-driven development, an opportunity to reduce - recycle – reuse waste provides an advantage in the quest for sustainable development.
  • The attributes of scalability, reliability and dependability associated with the growth potentials becomes the desired goal to achieve.
  • The effective collection of waste in the high density communities of Nigerian Metropolis is a fundamental problem of waste collection in the State and most communities in Nigeria.
  • The issues pertaining to sustainable waste management has a fundamental impact on the health and hygiene of communities. Where waste is not effectively disposed, the decomposition of waste saddles the communities with health challenges. WHO attributes the effective management of community health to the efficient and effective collection of wastes in the communities.
  • The problem of effective waste collection persists from two(2) fundamental perspectives:
    1. the high density communities are not designed to support the ease of access for waste trucks. So, waste collection is not designed to accommodate the fundamental issues with the spatial layout situation on ground.
    2. the residents of high density communities do not like to pay for waste collection service as they believe that such is the exclusive recluse of the rich. As such, residents of low income communities who ascribe poverty from low income to poverty of the mind indulge in not paying for waste collection. How can waste collection be effected therefore?

The Issue of Waste Collection

Background and Trends

  • Nigeria is home to 193,392,500 people (NBS 2016) and is one of the largest producers of solid waste in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Nigeria generates more than 32 million tons of solid waste annually, out of which only 20-30% is collected.
  • With waste generation expected to more than quadruple by 2050, it is alarming that waste is predominantly openly dumped.
  • The residents of the Nigerian States and metropolis generate 105,943 tons of waste daily while waste also accumulate from industries, markets, abattoirs, and farms. Consequently, it is noted that about 180,000 tons of waste is generated daily in Nigeria.

TONNAGE PER DAY IN NIGERIAN STATES1

1. CITY POPULATION – statistics, maps and charts: https://citypopulation.de/php/nigeria-admin.php?adm2id=NGA031006