Household Solid Waste Management in La-Nkwantanang-Madina Municipality of the Greater Accra Region, Ghana

Document Type : High quality original papers

Authors

1 Zoomlion Limited, Accra, Ghana.

2 CSIR-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, Agriculture, Accra, Ghana.

3 CSIR-Institute of Industrial Research, Materials and Manufacturing Division, Accra, Ghana.

4 Faculty of Agriculture and Agribusiness, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana.

Abstract

Increased population, rapid urbanization and improved lifestyle have resulted in a rise in municipal solid waste generation that are difficult to manage. This paper explores the composition of household waste, the separation mechanisms, storage, and disposal methods. These were investigated as a way of identifying the different types of existing waste management practices and associated challenges through a survey of 196 households. The results suggested that the community of study was youthful, had a high literate population and therefore had the tendency to generate more waste through various economic activities in the community. The results showed that more than two-fifth of the waste generated in the communities of study constituted biodegradable organic waste. The door-todoor mechanism of waste collection was found to be the most employed in the communities. The data showed that, most of the households used dustbins in waste collection, nonetheless, limited access to the dustbins was observed as one of the major challenges of the community. Additionally, the respondents experienced irregular collection of the wastes, lack of dumping sites, and inadequate information on source segregation in the handling of generated wastes. Therefore, the study suggests the implementation of interventions, such as the supply of free dustbins to homes and the education of waste generators on source separation to enhance the effective management of the solid wastes in households.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics