Literature Review On Solid Waste Management

Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 Waste management in developing countries: The Integrated Sustainable Solid Waste Management (ISWM)
Cities and towns in developing countries have for several decades been faced with a challenge of handling and managing solid waste adequately. The main reasons associated with these challenges have been mentioned as rapid urbanisation and growing populations in towns and cities which consequently led to increased generation of waste (Guerrero et al, 2013). The management of this solid waste by municipalities grew as a budget burden for each municipality due to the associated high management costs, lack of understanding of the diverse factors that affect waste management at different stages and the linkages that

Industrial and capital hubs in developing countries are similarly characterized by multiple urban sprawls, informal settlements and overcrowding. The local governments or municipalities in many developing countries are highly challenged by mainly poor or weak policy and legislative provisions to regulate and enforce waste management guidelines. They also lack adequate funding and the correct capacity in terms of waste management personnel. All these challenges lead to situations where these local authorities are failing to take effective decisions with regards to solid waste management. It is worth noting that the decisions which municipalities are facing in terms of managing solid waste are not only difficult and capital intensive but they impact greatly on the natural environment as well as on social lives of people, therefore solutions to this issue are a matter of

MSWM services in this country have been deteriorating over the past two decades. The problem in this country has been reported to be dire in such a way that the private sector waste management had to be called in to assist the government. The Nairobi City which is the biggest in that country has one open dumpsite. Maniafu & Otiato (2010) states that the city’s dumpsite was reportedly filled up to nearly 1.3 million cubic meters of waste in 1998. Since that year reports have been that the Nairobi dumpsite could not handle more waste from the city, however an alternative was never provided. This then meant that the increasing volumes of generated waste have been inadequately handled from that period. Njoroge et al. (2014) states that despite the problem of improper waste collection and disposal facilities in Kenya, the composition of different types of solid waste in the City of Nairobi has been growing in the past couple of decades. They state that domestic kind of waste comprised of mainly plastics, paper and other types of solid waste have been on the increase while other kinds of waste such as organic types was decreasing. This was linked to the improved lifestyle patterns that started developing in that country due to urbanization which saw the increasing packaging trends and hence the increase in this type of