Municipal Solid Waste Minimisation through Household Waste Segregation In Bantama, Kumasi

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
2013-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Solid waste management costs large amounts of money in many countries for its collection, transfer and disposal. Garbage elimination without separation creates increased difficulty in the disposal process in landfills, as well as dissipation of potential reusable and recyclable components. This study examined the implementation of source waste separation, reuse and recycling at the household level as a means of managing municipal solid waste. Data were collected through field observations, questionnaire, interviews and actual measurement of masses of segregated household wastes. The results indicated that the low income residents produced the highest fraction of organic waste of 84.4%, whilst those of the lower middle and upper middle were 81.0% and 53 .0% respectively. Recyclable waste produced were 4% for low, 17% for lower middle and 32% for the upper middle group. For non recyclable waste, the three income residents produced 12%, 3.3% and 8.2% respectively. The results also indicated that the bulk of household wastes in the community Bantama was organic, which was almost 80% of the total waste. This amount of waste can effectively be used to make good compost that householders can use as manure for backyard gardening. It was also observed that the residents were willing, and would be able to practice segregation at the household level when educated, encouraged and motivated. Yet these wastes were left on the streets and in drains to cause health and environmental problems. It is therefore recommended that householders should be educated, encouraged and motivated to do waste segregation in order to reduce the amount of wastes that go to our limited landfills.
Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, In Partial Fulfilment for the Degree of Master of Science in Environmental Science,
Keywords
Citation