**2.5 Poor recycling culture**

 There are a lot of people who do not understand the principle of recycling, and do not care to know its importance. Rather local people are more interested on how to survive the difficult times. Some people think recycling is to pile up unused goods in their store house rather than giving it out to a recycling agency for the manufacture of new goods. Recycling is the re-use of waste for other beneficial products (**Figure 3c, d**). Recycling is beneficial in several ways: (i) it provides jobs, (ii) reduces waste volume for disposal, (iii) extends the life span of a land fill and (iv) used to manufacture new products. People do not have the habit of recycling goods because of their belief in conservatism in the ownership and use of goods. This means they buy only what they need, which help to prevent wastage of resources. They therefore buy goods they can consume without much left over. The method of gathering and disposing waste also makes it extremely difficult to recycle the waste. It is very difficult to sort and re-use a combination of liquid and dry waste in a dump site. Most refuse dump sites are made up of all waste types, i.e., type 0–type 6 wastes, which include a combination of paper, broken bottles, metal, wood, food items, hospital waste, kitchen waste, etc. The mixing of the waste at the beginning and the combined disposal of the waste had made the sorting process to be very difficult. This overwhelms the waste agents who have no option than to process the waste as it is, using bulldozers rather than carrying out a recovery operation for the purpose of recycling [19]. In the Niger Delta, the major recycled waste is plastics (**Figure 2d**). This is common because of the monetary value attached for its recovery, and a major driving force is poverty. This is because people that are well to do not scavenge for plastics products for financial gain. Rather many jobless individuals had made it their job by searching for plastics in every conceivable place such as drainage, river, swamp and refuse dump sites. They take great risk to collect plastic products and send them to the manufacturing companies who use them for producing plastic products for pecuniary gains. These groups of scavengers are sometimes destitute who have no home but sleep on the streets. They take great risk to their health and lives to recover the plastics and sometimes bottle products by using their bare hands or iron rod to rummage through the piles of refuse at the dump sites.

### **2.6 Lack of technology**

 The problem of third world nations is technology, which affects the pace of development in all fields of life, and waste management is not an exception. The ancient method of waste disposal being open dump is still practiced in many places in the region. In this methods open trucks are still used to evacuate waste from the streets. The disadvantage of this method is that it leads to the scattering of waste materials along the streets of the city. This occurs when open trucks are used to

 convey waste to waste collection facility. The trucks are often overloaded leading to some of the waste being blown away by wind thereby littering the streets. It is also unhygienic for motorists who are made to endure the stench when the truck comes closer to them. The modern method of using home garbage receptacle such as trash chutes, (**Figure 3b**) silo bins (**Figure 3a, c**) and silo disposal trucks is not used due to paucity of funds to acquire them for use in the municipality. This method was used in the past, but because of lack of maintenance culture and continuity in governance has made the whole equipment that was initially acquired by previous governments amounting to millions of dollars to go moribund after its abandonment. Presently there are constructions of concrete waste disposal sites around the cities where people go to dump their waste. This method is also problematic because it is still an open dump, which reduces the esthetic value of the city. Waste materials can also be carried away by wind and water especially during heavy rainfall leading to flooding. It discourages waste sorting because the different wastes are mixed up before their deposition at the dump site (**Figure 2a**).
