ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of plastics on the environment and the need for integration amongst stakeholders. This research takes to task segregation as a much required human behavior for plastic waste management. It however begs the question, are residents motivated to participate in this impactful activity? With constantly changing innovations to meet our constantly changing needs and solving the world’s problems through practical solutions, the end of plastics is not in sight.
The design proposed for this study is hypothesis testing because it explains the nature of the relationships between the variables. Questionnaires and interviews are used to collect primary data while secondary data is gathered from perusing books, journals, working papers amongst other research documents. The area of study is Mainland in Lagos. It is served by a private waste management company called Taka Taka Solutions (TTS) who offer sustainable services.
The researcher arrived at the conclusion that reduction, reuse and recycling highly involve and depend on changes in human attitudes, behaviours and patterns. Lagos mainland residents were found knowledgeable of the problem of plastics and the existing linkages with the variables aforementioned. However, they have not shown their application of this knowledge in practical terms despite having access to resources. The analysis of the research questions shows that these residents are indifferent to the way and/or manner their behaviours impact plastic waste management. Recommendations and areas of further study to improve efficiency and effectiveness of waste management point to the need for structures that enable a circular economy.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of the study
Recycling: Cities are at the nexus of a further threat to the environment, namely the production of an increasing quantity and complexity of wastes. The estimated quantity of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated worldwide is 1.7 – 1.9 billion metric tons.2 In many cases, municipal wastes are not well managed in developing countries, as cities and municipalities cannot cope with the accelerated pace of waste production. Waste collection rates are often lower than 70 per cent in low-income countries. More than 50 per cent of the collected waste is often disposed of through uncontrolled landfilling and about 15 per cent is processed through unsafe and informal recycling.
Municipal Solid Waste Management 2 As a Mayor, you may have to face challenging waste management decisions addressing issues that require immediate attention as well as potential issues that require strategic and integrated planning and implementation. Establishing and improving facilities for collection, recycling, treatment and disposal for MSW management can be very costly. For example, building and operating sanitary landfills and incineration plants require huge investments and incur substantial operation and maintenance costs. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find suitable locations for waste treatment facilities due to the prevalence of the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) attitude amongst communities.
Meanwhile, if waste is growing at 3-5 per cent a year and rural-urban migration increases a city’s population at a similar rate, then a city’s waste generation will double every 10 years.4 Urban managers are therefore encouraged to pursue the paths of Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) and Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3Rs) that place highest priority on waste prevention, waste reduction, and waste recycling instead of just trying to cope with ever-increasing amounts of waste through treatment and disposal. Such efforts will help cities to reduce the financial burden on city authorities for waste management, as well as reduce the pressure on landfill requirements. We live in a world of increasing scarcity. Raw materials from natural resources are limited, financial resources are often insufficient, and securing land for final disposal is getting more difficult.
Clearly, city authorities should set policy directions aiming for resource efficient, recycle-based society if they are to provide a clean, healthy and pleasant living environment to its citizens for current and future generations. Although waste management responsibilities primarily lie with cities and municipalities, many of the successful cases in waste management involve a wide range of stakeholders in their implementation, as can be seen in the case studies cited here. This gives a clear message to cities and municipalities that they should not try to do everything by themselves. Rather, the key to success is to do what they are good at, and collaborate with other sectors in the society, such as private sector, communities and in some cases with the informal sector, in the interest of expanding waste management services and improving efficiency and effectiveness.
Recycling saves energy, reduces raw material extraction and combats climate change. The vast majority of studies have found that recycling our waste is better for the environment rather than incinerating or land filling , The use of plastics in packaging applications is growing steadily. Most industrialized countries have systems for the collection and recycling of plastic packaging waste, either implemented on a full scale or on trial. An important aspect of plastic packaging recycling is that the types of plastics used for most packaging applications are inexpensive commodity materials. The price of corresponding virgin resins determines the ceiling for the price at which recycled materials can be sold for reprocessing.
Engineering plastics used in durable products are generally more expensive than the most common packaging plastics. This relation promotes the recovery of scrapped engineering plastics. For common packaging plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene, all steps in the recovery and recycling process need to be highly cost-effective, unless sizeable subsidies are being paid [Bruder, 1997]. Techniques to facilitate the collection, sorting and reprocessing of plastic packaging waste are therefore urgently needed, as well as methods that can increase the value and the number of potential applications of the recovered materials. The price at which secondary material can be sold is related to the price of the corresponding virgin material. Price fluctuations therefore entail the need for an economic safety-margin (risk premium) in order to make investments in recycling facilities viable [Brandrup, 1997].
The generation and disposal of waste is an intrinsic part of any developing or industrial society. Waste, both from domestic and commercial sources has grown significantly in Nigeria over the past decade.
Recycling is one of the best ways for you to have a positive impact on the world in which we live. Recycling is important to both the natural environment and us. We must act fast as the amount of waste we create is increasing all the time.
The amount of rubbish we create is constantly increasing because:
Increasing wealth means that people are buying more products and ultimately creating more waste.
Increasing population means that there are more people on the planet to create waste.
New packaging and technological products are being developed, much of these products contain materials that are not biodegradable.
New lifestyle changes, such as eating fast food, means that we create additional waste that isn’t biodegradable.
Solid wastes comprise all the wastes arising from human and animal activities that are normally solid, discarded as useless or unwanted. Also included are by- products of process lines or materials that may be required by law to be disposed of (Okecha 2000).
The management of waste is a matter of national and international concern. The volume of waste does not actually constitute the problem but the ability or inability of governments, individuals and waste disposal firms to keep up with the task of managing waste and the environment. There is no doubt that a dirty environment affects the standard of living, aesthetic sensibilities, health of the people and thus the quality of their lives. The corollary is that improper disposal or storage of this waste can constitute hazards to the society through the pollution of air, land and especially water. In this research, our attention would be focused on domestic waste. We will highlight some of the problems which have attended the management of this category of waste in Nigeria today. It will be seen that Nigeria has not done well in the direction of tackling the menace of domestic waste. This is even in the face advanced management strategies existing today for domestic waste management which have been adopted in many places. We will proffer suggestions that may assist in addressing this issue that seems to be aborting most efforts of International organizations, the federal government, city authorities, states and professionals alike.
Recycling depends on waste materials which cannot be reused directly but can be converted to new product or raw material through the processes of transformation. For instance, used paper is recycled into files, envelops and cards. Energy is recovered through recycling through: pyrolysis (combustion of waste in the absence of oxygen to create gases, liquids and solid compounds), incineration (combustion in the presence of oxygen to produce oxidized compounds), anaerobic digestion, gasification and pelletization; as well as composting (biological and chemical degradation of organic waste in either large centralized, small enterprise, backyard or household basis). Together, the ‘3Rs’ aimed at achieving sustainable solid waste management; and, also relates to other global environmental challenges, particularly, climate change mitigation, specifically, the emission of greenhouse gases that could create sustainable development co-benefits and reduction in the emissions of methane (CH4), biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) from landfills. Technologies required to reduce or eliminate greenhouse gases emission, sustainable though, include composting of organic waste, high-tech incineration and expanded sanitation coverage, industrial co-combustion for waste-to-energy, landfill gas recovery as well as thermal processes for waste-to-energy. For example, in Europe landfill receives 66% of waste, incinerated (18%), composted (6%) and recycled (10%); in Eastern Europe, landfill takes 90% and recycled (10%). In the USA, recycling, for instance, takes care of cans, bottles, shipping cardboard, unsold food and scrap. In dealing with the cost of sustainable solid waste management, different principles have been developed: extended product responsibility in which waste disposal cost is inputted in the market price of the product and the polluter pays principle. Success story of sustainable solid waste management is reported in; a case study in Nepal with European Union funding; involving activities such as expansion of house-to-house waste collection, employment generation for community members for street sweeping, and, addition of 58 new dumpsters; installation of organic waste compost machine at Bhaktapur; creation of landfill at Katuwu Khola which replaces dumping of municipal waste at the river bank; and, public private partnership in waste management in Biratnagar with success in only one of the three companies. Expanding recycling programmes can help reduce solid waste pollution but the key to solving severe solid waste problems lies in reducing the amount of waste generated. It was noticed that only the landfill system of waste disposal is being generally adopted in Lagos State. Whereas in other places for example, there are several methods of waste disposal used to ameliorate and mitigate the issue of population effect on waste management Main benefits include sale of compost from recycled waste and employment sourced from the three waste management companies. In Hetauda, success is augmented by the involvement of CBOs and NGOs.
1.2 Statement Of Problem
Wastes pose serious environmental and health problems, promote insect vectors like mosquitoes and flies (Cairncross and Feachem 1993), rats and mice, cause fire hazards, flooding of streams, development of aquatic weeds, odor problems, nuisance, and so on. According to Pichtel (2005), the environmental impacts can be clustered into six categories which include: global warming, photochemical oxidant creation, abiotic resource depletion, acidification, and eutrophication. Some of these problems are related to their major constituents. It is on these premises that the researcher intends to investigate the impact of recycling in preserving the environments.
1.3 Research Objectives
The researcher aims to explore the reuse, recycling of plastics through hypothesis development and the following objectives:
1. To establish the nature of plastic (material and product) consumption patterns in Mainland.
2. To find out the extent to which Lagos mainland residents are aware of the need for reuse, recycling of plastics in their homes.
3. To establish the scale to which residents are informed of the relationship between plastic consumption patterns and their effect on the environment.
1.4 Hypothesis
This research takes to task motivation and participation of residents in segregation, a much required human behaviour. The researcher is keen on the role human behavior plays on plastic waste management and consequently develops the hypothesis stated below:
H1: Lagos mainland residents are indifferent to the way and/or manner their behaviours impact plastic waste management.
H0: Lagos mainland residents are not indifferent to the way and/or manner their behaviours impact plastic waste management.
1.5 Research Questions
1. What is the nature of plastic (material and product) consumption patterns in Mainland?
2. To what extent are Lagos mainland residents aware of the need for reuse, recycling of plastics in their homes?
3. To what scale are Lagos mainland residents informed of the relationship between plastic consumption patterns and their effect on the environment?
1.6 Significance of The Study
It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great importance to the federal ministry of environment, in addressing the challenges of recycling as a means of managing solid waste in the country, the findings will also be of great significance to the environmental management agency as the findings will aid them in developing a model to check and control solid waste management through the recycling process. The study will also be of importance to researchers who intend to embark on studies in similar area. Finally the study will be of great importance to academia’s as the study will add to the body of knowledge
1.7 Scope and Limitation Of The Study
The scope of the study covers the effect of reuse, recycling of plastic and essential to waste management in Nigeria. However in the course of the study, the researcher encounters some constrain which limited the scope of the study. Some of these constrain are:
(a) Availability of research material: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study.
(b) Time: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.
(c) Finance: The finance available for the research work does not allow for wider coverage as resources are very limited as the researcher has other academic bills to cover.
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