Daily Graphic, Pg 23, Monday, Oct 13/08
By Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
URBAN dwellers the world over are said to generate about 14 to 20 per cent of all world-wide waste. Much of the waste generated, that is 57 to 85 per cent, are primarily disposed off in landfills, including open and engineered sites.
In Africa, a total of 29.3 per cent of waste generated is dumped in landfill sites, 47 per cent dumped openly, 1.4 per cent incinerated, 9.2 burnt openly and 8.4 per cent disposed off in other unhygienic ways.
Africa recycles 3.9 per cent of solid waste generated on the continent as against 8.5 in Asia, 10.7 in Europe, 8.1 in Northern America and 3.2 in Latin America.
The issue of waste management has become complex across the globe as the volume of waste generated keeps increasing due to urbanisation. Also, the waste produced is more sluggish and inorganic, and worse of all, they are dumped together with hazardous materials.
The indiscriminate and improper dumping of solid waste, often mixed with hazardous untreated materials such as medical waste raises several serious environmental concerns, including loss of renewable resources such as metals, plastic, glass; loss of potential resources such as compost from organic waste, and energy from burnable waste.
Contamination of land and water bodies due to discharge of chemicals and other hazardous materials, and air pollution due to emissions from burning and release of methane from anaerobic decomposition also remain a concern to environmentalists.
Health concerns such as risks to human health leading to respiratory problems, skin and other diseases, and longer term impacts due to dioxins and spread of diseases by vectors in areas near landfill sites are critical issues which need to be addressed.
With the issue of climate change becoming more prominent, people cannot be less concerned about how their waste is disposed of since the way waste is handled today would determine the level to which our climate can be affected in future.
Handling waste properly can led to a reduction in the discharge of dangerous chemicals into our water bodies, soil and most of all, the atmosphere as this will help reduce the emission of carbon dioxide to help cut down on the depletion of the ozone layer.
The Berlin Experience:
With a total population of 3.4 million people, Berlin, the capital city of Germany generates 4,000 tons of waste daily. Half of the waste generated is household waste which is collected and incinerated by a municipal waste collection company known as the Beliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe (BSR).
Berlin banned the dumping of solid waste into landfill sites in June 2005 and since then waste generated is disposed of either through incineration or recycling.
The BSR facility, which will today cost one billion euro, was built in 1967 and it is a non-profit public company aiming to collect 50 per cent of Berlin’s household waste with the focus on achieving a balance between economic needs, environmental protection and good health.
The company with a total employment of 200 people at its site and about 2,000 on the field burns 170 tones of waste every hour.
Through the burning process, the plant is designed to eliminate and prevent dangerous gases such as sulphur from polluting the air and converts nitrogen dioxide (NO2), another dangerous substance into nitrogen (N2) which is harmless and dissolves in the environment.
The plant also separates scrap metals and sells it to steel companies while ashes generated are used as fillers at landfill sites or in the construction of roads. Some hazardous components which are difficult to deal with are also dumped underground, especially in mining sites.
The smoke which comes out during the incineration processes is also degassed to ensure that it meets environmental standards with the daily toxicity in the air which is measured to ensure that no oxygen is emitted into the environment.
Heat generated during the burning process is not wasted but sold into the municipal grid to warm households during the winter.
The work of the company is made easy in the first place as people are educated to separate their waste. A typical household in Berlin has about five waste containers performing different functions.
The waste is separated into residuals, papers, green glass, white glass and plastics. BSR’s duty is to collect the residual and this usually comes with cans and bottles as some people do not separate their waste properly. The company, however, does not sort the waste out but puts them in the incinerator which burns at 850 degrees.
Waste management in Accra
Accra, with an estimated population of about four million, generates about 2,000 tones of waste daily and all this waste is dumped in landfill sites. Most of the waste is generated in some major market areas such as Kaneshie, Agbogbloshie and Mallam Atta.
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), charged with the responsibility of ensuring that waste generated is collected and effectively disposed of, is often overwhelmed as the population of the capital keeps increasing by the day due to uncontrolled urbanisation.
The situation has led to large quantities of waste being generated daily in Accra, and this exerts much pressure on an over-strained solid waste management system.
One major factor that makes it impossible for the AMA to discharge its duty effectively is the unavailability of a high-tech dumping site, the closure of the Oblogo Landfill Site in April 2007 and the subsequent closure of a second site also situated at Oblogo.
Coupled with weak institutional capacity, and lack of resources, both human and capital, the city authorities face difficulties in ensuring that all the waste generated in the city is collected for disposal. Due to the AMA’s impossibility of collecting all the waste effectively, the collection of waste from homes has been limited to some privileged areas in the capital while other areas considered to be inhabited by the poor, especially the slums, are left to contend with the problem on their own. This leads to indiscriminate disposal of waste in surface drains, canals and streams, creating insanitary and unsightly environments in many parts of the city.
The discrimination in the collection of waste is said to have led to an estimated 80 per cent of households in the city not paying for the disposal of their waste and most of them dump their refuse directly at sanitary sites where they pay between a token GH20p and GH¢1 depending on the volume of the garbage.
Waste collection is sub-contracted to private companies such as ZoomLion, Yafuru, Meskworld and ABC wastes and they all charge different rates ranging from GH¢4 to GH¢15 a month depending on the area.
The AMA is said to be spending GH¢600,000 monthly to maintain refuse sites and GH¢240,000 on landfill sites and currently, it is said that 65 per cent of the assembly’s resources are spent on sanitation-related issues alone.
According to a recent Daily Graphic report, an expert on waste management warned that an explosion at the Oblogo site was imminent if the AMA did not take steps to degas the site.
Presently, the AMA is at a fix as to where to dump its waste as the chief of Oblogo has called for the closure of the present landfill site due to the danger posed to the lives of the people living around it.
Although the AMA is preparing a new damping site at Sampa near Weija, the question is will the site help solve the problems of the AMA on the issue of effectively collecting and disposing of solid waste in the capital? One may also want to ask how long the site at Sampa will be able to hold the waste generated in the capital city and what the next step will be when that place is also full.
It is about time that the city authorities and government came out with a more concrete plan on the disposal of solid waste in the capital. It is also time for the government to take steps to introduce modern technologies into the disposal of waste in the country.
This can be started through educating people on waste separation to ensure its easy disposal. The issue of waste separation is a foreign concept to Ghanaians as many people are not used to it. Although ZoomLion has introduced the system, not much education has been given to the populace on where to put particular waste except with the yellow and green colouring on the containers which to an educated person would seem suggestive but is meaningless to an illiterate.
Also although the containers have been designed for easy identification, most people ignore the symbols on them and dump their waste as and when they find them empty.
As a result of the problems associated with the improper disposal of waste in the capital city, there is a clear need for a multi-stakeholder partnership in proper and integrated waste management in all stages — collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal, but especially at the source where it is generated, and integration with policies that encourage waste reduction, reuse and recycle.
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