Solid waste quantification and characterization in university of Nigeria, Nsukka campus, and recommendations for sustainable management

Abstract

Quantification and characterization of municipal solid waste are the bases for a proper solid waste management planning but the needed collection, transportation, characterization and disposal are grossly under-investigated and scarcely implemented in Nigerian Universities. This study, therefore, quantified and characterized the waste generated in the university of Nigeria, Nsukka campus using ASTM D5231-92 method, and recommended possible integrated solid waste management strategies for a sustainable management of the waste. The average daily solid waste generation in the university was estimated to be 2,218.66kg during the 6-month study period from 24th February to 18th August in 2017/2018 academic session with organic and polythene representing the largest portion at 32.36% and 34.29%, respectively. Glass/bottle, textiles/leather, rubber, wood, e-waste, sanitary, medical, polystyrene food pack and metal wastes represented 0.97%, 2.69%, 0.28%, 0.82%, 0.98%, 2.16%, 0.16%, 1.04% and 1.67%, respectively. The campus has a per capita solid waste generation rate of about 0.06kg/day. About 96.58% of the total waste is recyclable, and has about 51.85% biomass potential. Analysis of variance showed that differently dominated areas of the campus have different quantities and compositions of wastes mainly due to significant variation of organic and polythene components across the differently dominated areas. The barriers against effective solid waste management and recommendations for integrated solid waste management strategies were made to include solid waste generation reduction, re-usage, recycling, composting, and proper training and provision of incentive and other fiscal policies.