Characterization and Management of Solid Waste Generated in Nasarawa LGA, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Solid wastes constitute a significant amount to environmental hazard in the society. The need to characterize solid wastes as an initial step to proffer solution to the problem of solid waste management cannot be over emphasized. In Nasarawa local government area (LGA) in Nasarawa state, the solid waste materials are characterized into six (6) different materials type which includes paper/cardboard, plastic food pack/plastic bottles, metal cans, food waste, polythene bags/polystyrene food pack and other combustible miscellaneous waste material. The waste characterization shows that Polythene bags/polystyrene food packs constitute the highest waste of 141.09 kg/day collected during the study period. This is followed by food waste with 130.37 kg/day. Plastic food pack/plastic bottles, metal cans, paper/cardboard and others has 64.64 kg/day, 59.39 kg/day, 53.51 kg/day and 29.15 kg/day respectively. The non-biodegradable wastes such as polythene bags/polystyrene food pack, plastic food pack/plastic bottles and metal cans constitute about 56 % (257 Kg/day) of the total waste collected during the study period. It is recommended that Nasarawa state waste management scheme should include the adoption of 3R’s methods scheme for reducing the biodegradable waste components and also employed for reducing the non-biodegradable waste components.