Recyclable resources from municipal solid waste: Assessment of its energy, economic and environmental benefits in Nigeria

Abstract

In this paper, the potential of recyclable municipal solid waste in each of the six geographical zones in Nigeria is presented with the aim of evaluating its energy saving potentials, economic and environmental benefits. The amount of recyclable materials in a stream of municipal solid waste is evaluated based on population model spanning from 2017–2036, waste generation model and recycling collection rate gathered from local literature, reports and publication from relevant institutions. The environmental advantage from recyclable municipal solid waste is conducted based on evaluation of its greenhouse gas emission potentials while the economic potential is estimated using cost adjustment factor method. Some of the results indicate that plastic is the most prominent recyclable waste in all the cities in the South-East, South-South and all the Northern parts of Nigeria. However, paper is the most available recyclable material in the waste stream of the cities in the South-West. The results also reveal that a total of 89.99 toe (1046.43 GW h) of energy could be saved per annum by recycling the recyclable waste materials rather than producing new products from the virgin materials. The saving in electricity could provide electrical power for about 9.8 million people based on available statistics of average electricity generation of 29,697,360.1 MW h and per capita electricity consumption of 107 kW h in Nigeria. Furthermore, a total of 11.71 million USD economic benefits could be realized which equivalent to about 16,562 jobs annually. The environmental assessment result indicates that a total of 307.364 ktons CO2eq of GHG emission reduction could be achieved annually.