1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Human society makes a living by extracting environmental resources for food,

shelter, and clothing, using tools he conceives, fabricates and develops over time. His

ingenuity at making tools perfects his power to obtain and utilize the available resources

sometimes with impunity. Such technological sophistication termed civilization facilitates

faster acquisition and utilization of environmental resources. The consumption of these

resources tends to generate waste or unwanted materials that must be discarded. These

wastes vary from gaseous, liquid and solid substances, generated as a result of human

activities (Peter, Karl, and Jurg, 1996).

According to Ezema (2009), wastes are useless, unwanted and discarded materials.

Douglas (2004) corroborates Ezema‟s stance and argues that waste is material which

arises from animal and human life and activities and is discarded as useless and unwanted

items. Solid waste can also be referred to as wastes from households, municipal services,

construction debris and agricultural activities (Amalu and Ajake, 2014). Odacha (1994)

considered wastes as material which though may no longer be needed here become feed

stock or materials elsewhere. In fact, he defines waste as those materials which are

generated as a result of normal operations over which we have control in terms of their

production, disposal, and discharge.

Human society at every stage of civilization generates wastes, however, the rate of

generation and methods of disposal vary from the individual to nation depending on the

level of the technological development. One of the challenges of the 21st century is how to

14

achieve cost-effective and environmentally sound strategies to deal with the global waste

crisis confronting humanity in both developed and developing countries. The crisis has

threatened the carrying capacity of the life support systems. Waste generation and disposal

has in time past caused environmental pollution with disastrous health consequences

(Ayuba, 2005). Srinivas (2002) reported that at least 60% of the countries that submitted

the national report to the United Nations in advance of the 1992 UN Earth Summit said that

solid waste disposal was among their biggest environmental concern, while the United

Nation Centre for Human Settlement report that only between 25% and 55% of all waste

generated in large cities are collected by municipal authorities.

The United Nation Development Program (UNDP, 2009) estimated that more than

five million people die each year from disease related to inadequate waste disposal system.

Most cities in Africa are with fast expansion of urban areas and are characterized by lack of

resources, institutional organization and the capacity to provide basic infrastructure, which

will in turn cause increased problem concerning the management of solid waste. Moreover,

the lack of proper land use planning has resulted in the creation of informal settlement, with

narrow streets and makes it difficult for collection trucks to reach many areas in the cities.

Solid waste management could be defined as the discipline associated with the

control of generation, storage, collection, transfer and transport, processing and disposal of

solid waste in a manner that is in accord with the best principles of public health, economic,

engineering, conservation, aesthetics and other environment consideration that is also

responsive to public attitudes (Tchobanoglous et al 1993). Municipal solid waste

management is an important part of urban infrastructure that ensures the protection of the

environment and human health (Aliyu, 2010).

15

The current capacity of most solid waste management system in Africa is