Chemical properties of urban waste ash produced by open burning on the Jos Plateau: implications for agriculture

Abstract

Urban centres produce most of the world's waste and between a third and a half goes uncollected. The answer to the problem of waste disposal lies partly in agriculture, as waste can be extremely nutrient-rich. In the last decade there has been a tremendous increase in the developing world in total city area under informal food production and there are many examples of waste recycling onto the urban or peri-urban plots. Farmers on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria, have developed a successful soil fertility management strategy based on the combination of inorganic fertilisers, manure and urban waste ash. This study sought to provide some preliminary data on urban waste ash produced by open burning and used in farming in a developing country. Ash samples were collected from different locations around Jos and tested for C, N, pH, P, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd and Pb. It was found that ash is an effective liming material (because of the high pH, and high Ca, Mg and K contents), and has the potential to contribute significant quantities of micro-nutrients such as Mn, Zn and Cu. Ash, however, is far from being a homogenous material and its variability means that its fertilising potential will vary between batches and that, even if mean and median levels are low, there is the risk of the formation of localised areas of soil with excessive heavy metal contents (this is particularly the case with Pb). Further research is required to determine the plant-availability of these elements in the ash and to assess the wider environmental and health implications of uncontrolled, open burning of waste as a means of producing ash for agricultural purposes.