Abstract

Be it food packets, toys, storage packing, furniture or electronic items, plastics are so widely used that imagining our lives without it is impossible. It is one of the best substitutes for wood, thus reducing the cutting of trees and helping the environment. On the other hand, sometimes it poses problems too, for example: when it comes to their disposal. Upon usage, artifacts made from plastic sustain wear and tear and become brittle, so it is necessary to dispose of. For e.g. a plastic chair being used for five years cannot be used further or a plastic sachet containing shampoo cannot be reused to store shampoo again.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION 

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.

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 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to ascertain the effect of reuse, recycling of plastic and essential to waste management in Nigeria; but for the purpose of the study, the researcher intends to achieve the following objective:

1. To examine the effect of reuse, recycling of plastic and essential to waste management in Nigeria
2. To ascertain the effect of solid waste management practice in Nigeria

• To evaluate the role of government in waste management in Nigeria

1. To investigate the environmental effect of solid waste management in Nigeria.
2. To evaluate the relationship between solid waste management and environmental pollution.

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

For the successful completion of the study; the following research hypotheses were formulated;

H0: recycling of plastics does not have a significant essential to waste management in Nigeria.

H1: recycling of plastics has a significant to waste management in Nigeria.

H02: there is no relationship between waste management and environmental pollution

H2: there is a relationship between waste management and environmental pollution

1.5 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

1.6 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.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Recycling

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects.

Waste

Waste and wastes are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance which is discarded after primary use, or it is worthless, defective and of no use.

Solid waste

Solid waste means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded materials

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that causes adverse change.