Description
ABSTRACT
The informal sector plays numerous roles in waste management in Nigeria and other developing countries. This research examined how informal sector players contribute to waste management, waste recycling and waste to wealth activities in Lagos State, Nigeria. Field observations, interviews and well–structured questionnaires were employed to collect data from participants of the informal sector in municipal waste managements in sixteen Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Lagos State, Nigeria. Landfills/dump sites within the studied Local Government Ares were visited in the course of this research. Date collected were analyzed and discussed. Scavengers at the dump sites and the residents around the dump sites were interviewed. The results/findings showed that waste collectors and scavengers earn income from waste management and they do not take safety measures into consideration in their waste collection, waste management and scavenging activities. The study recommends that the informal sector participants be recognized as stakeholders in the waste management since they contribute significantly to resource recovery and waste reduction. Government at all levels, professional bodies and relevant stake holders should organizes regular enlightenment campaigns for the informal sector payers on the need to adhere to safety measures in the course of their activities.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Solid waste management (SWM) is a major challenge facing urban areas in developing countries like Nigeria (Nwosu and Chukwueloka, 2020). Rapid population growth, urbanization, economic development and changing consumption patterns have led to increased municipal solid waste generation in cities across Nigeria (Ezeudu et al., 2021). However, the capacity to provide adequate SWM services has not kept pace with waste generation rates. This has created a huge gap in waste collection, transportation and disposal in many cities.
Ado Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State, faces similar challenges. According to Khan et al., (2022), the city generates over 300 tons of municipal solid waste daily but only 20-30% is collected by municipal authorities. Uncollected waste is dumped in open spaces, drainage channels and streets. This results in environmental pollution and public health hazards like flooding, groundwater contamination and disease outbreaks (Andrade et al., 2018).
Faced with inadequate formal SWM services, the informal recycling and waste collection sector has emerged as a major player in Ado Ekiti (Alabi and Wohlmuth, 2019). The informal sector refers to individuals, families or small enterprises engaged in municipal solid waste management activities like scavenging, collection, recycling and disposal outside of formal systems (Ogbonna and Mikailu, 2019). The informal sector helps recover recyclables, provide waste collection services and dispose of portions of waste that are uncollected by the municipal authorities.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Despite the contributions of the informal sector, SWM remains inadequate in Ado Ekiti. The informal sector recovers only a fraction of the waste stream while the rest is dumped haphazardly across the city. There is also lack of recognition and integration of the informal sector in the municipal SWM system. This has led to overlaps and conflicts with municipal authorities. There is need to improve understanding of the informal sector, address the challenges and explore models for greater integration with the formal municipal SWM system.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The study aims to provide insights into maximizing the role of the informal sector in bridging the SWM gap in Ado Ekiti.
The objectives of this study are:
- To examine the activities and scope of the informal SWM sector in Ado Ekiti
- To assess the role and contribution of the informal sector to overall SWM
- To identify key challenges faced by the informal SWM sector
- To determine potential models and interventions for integration of the informal sector into the municipal SWM system.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This study aims to provide in-depth understanding of the current role and potential of the informal sector in addressing solid waste management challenges in Ado Ekiti. Gaining insights into the activities, operations and contributions of informal waste workers like scavengers, collectors and recyclers is crucial, especially given the inability of municipal authorities to effectively manage solid waste in the city. The study findings can inform policy interventions to address specific constraints facing the informal waste sector, as well as provide models for better integration of these workers into the city’s waste management system. This has the potential to significantly improve the overall efficiency, inclusiveness and sustainability of solid waste management in Ado Ekiti.
An enhanced understanding of the informal waste sector will also add to the limited academic literature on the subject, particularly in the Nigerian context. The dynamics, complexities and importance of the informal waste economy are often overlooked. This study can generate empirical evidence to guide further research, advocacy and policymaking aimed at maximizing the role of marginalized informal waste workers in Nigerian cities. The insights from Ado Ekiti can potentially be expanded through comparative case studies of other Nigerian cities grappling with similar solid waste management challenges and reliance on the informal sector. Overall, this study serves to fill an important knowledge gap and provide recommendations to boost the contribution of the informal sector towards more effective and inclusive waste management systems.
1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study
The study will focus on the informal solid waste sector within Ado Ekiti City. It will involve key stakeholders in the informal sector like scavengers, itinerant waste buyers and recyclers. The study will specifically assess their activities, contributions, challenges and integration into the municipal waste management system.
The study will be limited to the informal solid waste sector and not cover liquid or hazardous waste streams. It will rely extensively on self-reported data from stakeholders which may present some response and recall biases. Despite these limitations, the study will provide in-depth insights into the informal solid waste sector in Ado Ekiti.
1.6 Definition of Terms
Informal sector – The part of an economy that is not taxed, monitored by any form of government or included in any gross national product (GNP), unlike the formal economy (Khuong et al., 2021). In this study, it refers specifically to individuals, groups or enterprises engaged in waste management activities like collection, recycling, scavenging, outside of formally recognized systems.
Municipal solid waste – All solid waste generated from households, commercial establishments, streets, public places, and other activities within a municipality (Singh, 2021). It excludes industrial hazardous waste and sewage waste.
Scavenging – The manual sorting and picking of recyclable or reusable material from mixed waste streams. Scavengers operate informally often in streets, dumps and landfills (Al-Khatib et al., 2020).
Recycling – The process of converting waste materials into new usable products. It prevents waste of potentially useful materials, reduces use of raw materials, and lowers pollution levels (Awogbemi et al., 2022).
Waste Collection – Gathering and hauling of waste from various sources like households, businesses, public bins for transportation to treatment or disposal sites (Olukanni et al., 2016).
Waste Disposal – The final deposit of waste in landfills or dumping sites after treatment or recycling processes (Artiola, 2019).
Landfill – A designated waste disposal site used for controlled deposit of residual solid waste into the ground (Nanda and Berruti, 2021).
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In conclusion, the results show that the strategies employed by actors in solid waste management have an outcome on their livelihoods. The strategies used are dependent on the availability of the waste materials and the value attached to waste end product. Reuse of waste has greater recovery potentials and reduces substantially the amount of waste to be disposed. Recycling as a waste management strategies provides employments opportunities and with the increasing cost of raw materials, recycling provides a cheaper source of raw materials for manufacturing industries.
Field visits to selected dump sites/landfills and the interviews conducted at the dump sites established that there are intense scavenging for recyclable and reusable waste at the dump sites. Search for valuables, recyclables and reusable at dump sites has always been driven by poverty and desire to earn a living, but the emergence of recycling industries and waste resource merchants have enhanced the search for recyclable, and reusable materials in the dump sites as a ready market for the materials exists, making it a popular municipal waste management strategy for the informal sector in Lagos State Nigeria and thereby contribute significantly in reducing the waste that is scattered all over Lagos State.
The study also concludes that the actors of the informal sector in municipal waste management have been working in conditions that put their health, which is an important asset to them at risk for not undertaking safety preventions. This research also concludes that in spite of scavenging provides a means of livelihoods to major players in the informal solid waste management in Lagos State, it also substantially reduces the final waste that needs to be disposed in the dump sites. This constitutes both financial and environmental benefits.
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations were made at the end of this study.
# This research work established that there is a ready and profitable market for reusable and recyclable municipal waste materials in Lagos State, Nigeria. Therefore there is an urgent need for Lagos State Government to create a sustainable environment and legislation of the informal sector participation in municipal solid waste management. There is also
need for the Lagos State Government and the bank of industry to grant soft loans to waste recycling industries operating in Lagos State.
# Government should harness the abundant manpower of the cart pushers, scavengers, the waste resource merchants, the recyclers and all actors of the informal sector in waste management by advocating and enforcing the use and application of safety measurement in their activities. This will make the working environment safer and encouraging for the participation of youth thereby creating employment.
# The role of the informal sector in municipal solid waste management and in the reduction of waste in dump sites should and must be captured in the analysis, planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of sustainable municipal solid waste management in Lagos State, Nigeria.
# This research found out that the activities of the informal sectors in municipal solid waste management pose great occupational health risks and hazards to them. Therefore efforts should be made to encourage them to undergo routine medical checkup at affordable price.
# Further research on the impact of municipal solid waste management on the health of the informal sector players should be conducted as a case study to establish its effort on the healthy life of an individual actor and to establish the major ailments encountered by the individual actors as a result of their roles in the municipal solid waste management.
# The research also recommends the urgent need to carry out an investigation into the extent of pollution of grand water within the vicinities of the municipal solid waste dump sites to safeguard the lives of the residents of the municipality particularly those who live within the vicinities of the dump sites.
# Lagos State Government and the National Orientation Agency in partnership with the relevant professional bodies should organize regular enlightenment campaigns for the informal sector players on the need to adhere to safety measures in the course of their activates.
In conclusion, the results show that the strategies employed by actors in solid waste management have an outcome on their livelihoods. The strategies used are dependent on the availability of the waste materials and the value attached to waste end product. Reuse of waste has greater recovery potentials and reduces substantially the amount of waste to be disposed. Recycling as a waste management strategies provides employments opportunities and with the increasing cost of raw materials, recycling provides a cheaper source of raw materials for manufacturing industries.
Field visits to selected dump sites/landfills and the interviews conducted at the dump sites established that there are intense scavenging for recyclable and reusable waste at the dump sites. Search for valuables, recyclables and reusable at dump sites has always been driven by poverty and desire to earn a living, but the emergence of recycling industries and waste resource merchants have enhanced the search for recyclable, and reusable materials in the dump sites as a ready market for the materials exists, making it a popular municipal waste management strategy for the informal sector in Lagos State Nigeria and thereby contribute significantly in reducing the waste that is scattered all over Lagos State.
The study also concludes that the actors of the informal sector in municipal waste management have been working in conditions that put their health, which is an important asset to them at risk for not undertaking safety preventions. This research also concludes that in spite of scavenging provides a means of livelihoods to major players in the informal solid waste management in Lagos State, it also substantially reduces the final waste that needs to be disposed in the dump sites. This constitutes both financial and environmental benefits.
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations were made at the end of this study.
# This research work established that there is a ready and profitable market for reusable and recyclable municipal waste materials in Lagos State, Nigeria. Therefore there is an urgent need for Lagos State Government to create a sustainable environment and legislation of the informal sector participation in municipal solid waste management. There is also
need for the Lagos State Government and the bank of industry to grant soft loans to waste recycling industries operating in Lagos State.
# Government should harness the abundant manpower of the cart pushers, scavengers, the waste resource merchants, the recyclers and all actors of the informal sector in waste management by advocating and enforcing the use and application of safety measurement in their activities. This will make the working environment safer and encouraging for the participation of youth thereby creating employment.
# The role of the informal sector in municipal solid waste management and in the reduction of waste in dump sites should and must be captured in the analysis, planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of sustainable municipal solid waste management in Lagos State, Nigeria.
# This research found out that the activities of the informal sectors in municipal solid waste management pose great occupational health risks and hazards to them. Therefore efforts should be made to encourage them to undergo routine medical checkup at affordable price.
# Further research on the impact of municipal solid waste management on the health of the informal sector players should be conducted as a case study to establish its effort on the healthy life of an individual actor and to establish the major ailments encountered by the individual actors as a result of their roles in the municipal solid waste management.
# The research also recommends the urgent need to carry out an investigation into the extent of pollution of grand water within the vicinities of the municipal solid waste dump sites to safeguard the lives of the residents of the municipality particularly those who live within the vicinities of the dump sites.
# Lagos State Government and the National Orientation Agency in partnership with the relevant professional bodies should organize regular enlightenment campaigns for the informal sector players on the need to adhere to safety measures in the course of their activates.
