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

Abstract

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.