**2. Municipal solid waste generation in Nigeria**

 Generation of MSW in Nigeria is a daily occurrence, arising from diverse and varied human activities; hence the character of solid waste generated is never homogenous (**Plate 1a**–**k**). The differences can be a function of several indicators which include but not limited to originating tasks, income bracket, location, population density, population characteristics, culture, consumption pattern and seasons [6]. The quantity of MSW generated across cities in Nigeria is closely associated with population, economic, political and commercial activities. All these variables are however tied to the human element, as the driver of these changes. Changes in population pattern have been closely associated with changes in waste generation, even in the presence of optimally articulated management approaches. **Table 1** presented the close relationship between population and waste generation for the world's regions. It is noteworthy that regions with increasing or high per capita for MSW are the regions with high income. Nigeria had a population increase of between 2.6 and 2.7% annually between 2010 and 2018 and oscillated around 2% since 1965 [7]. The per capita income also increases steadily [1] which translated to increased purchasing power and consumptions of more products, with attendant waste generation. However, apart from Lagos State, waste generation data are not readily available or limited in coverage. The MSW per capita per day for different Nigerian cities is presented in **Table 2**, while **Figure 2** showed MSW per capita for low- (Agric), middle- (Bariga and Ojodu) and high-income (Lagos Island) locations in Lagos State over a period of 30 days. These values are comparable to the suggested per capita for the African region (**Table 1**).The data presented further extended the suggestion of a direct relationship between economic success and waste generation.

Accordingly, solid waste can be classified into four different types [13] depending on their source, which include:

a.Household waste, generally classified as municipal waste.

b.Industrial waste, as hazardous waste.


#### **Plate 1.**

*Selected sources and disposal of municipal solid wastes in Nigeria. (a) Waste paper, (b) Cassava peels and chaff, (c) mixed wastes, (d) waste labels, (e) waste bottles, (f) sorted wastes, (g) dumpsite in Sango-Ota(Ogun State), (h) dumpsite in Benin (Edo State), (i) Kara abattoir (Ogun State), (j) Ona River (Oyo State), (k) Mile 2 canal (Lagos State), and (l) Ikpoba River (Edo State).* 

*Municipal Solid Waste Management and the Inland Water Bodies: Nigerian Perspectives DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84921* 


*Source: World Bank Group [1].* 

*AFR, Africa Region; EAP, East Asia and Pacific Region; ECA, Europe and Central Asian Region; LCR, Latin America and Caribbean Region; MENA, Middle East and North Africa Region; OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; SAR, South Asia Region.* 

#### **Table 1.**

*Current and projected generation pattern for different regions of the world.* 



#### **Table 2.**

*Per capita wastes for Nigerian cities.* 

**Figure 2.** 

*Daily per capita waste generation of different incomes and densities from Lagos State, Nigeria. Modified from [12].* 

 It is important to mention that until recently in Nigeria, MSW disposal methods (**Table 3**) received very little attention because wastes were considered an entity with homogenous properties [26, 27] or largely dominated by organic/decomposable wastes. Previous reports [28, 29] clearly supported this position and also suggested that study of wastes in Nigeria started in the 1970s. The components of MSW from different parts of Nigeria are presented in **Tables 4**–**8**, which showed that MSW are still largely dominated by organic/decomposable components. Shift in waste characteristics is however gradually becoming apparent reflecting changes from previously ignored traditional household electronic wastes to high-profile ubiquitous wastes of a technology-driven economy, in the form of heterogeneous components, popularly referred to as electronic wastes (e-wastes) and related components. The wastes from traditional household electronics have also increased with better purchasing power over time.

 E-wastes were largely unacknowledged in Nigeria and considered part of MSW until the Koko waste incidence of 1988. This led to the separation of discarded household, ICT and personal electronic devices as e-wastes [48, 49]. The availability of cheaper versions of everyday ICT and personal electronic devices now provides additional source of consistent waste volume arising from short life cycle of substandard products. The volume and characteristics of MSW showing

*Municipal Solid Waste Management and the Inland Water Bodies: Nigerian Perspectives DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84921* 


**Table 3.**  *MSW disposal methods from different Nigeria cities.* 


#### **Table 4.**

*Waste components from Nigerian cities. I.* 



*Municipal Solid Waste Management and the Inland Water Bodies: Nigerian Perspectives DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84921* 

#### **Table 5.**

*Waste components from Nigerian cities. II.* 


### **Table 6.**

*Waste components from Abuja.* 


#### **Table 7.**

*Waste components from Lagos State.* 


#### **Table 8.**

*Waste components from Port Harcourt.* 

e-waste proportion from dumpsites or landfills were absent from available studies. The isolation of e-waste as a unique recent component, activities of scavengers or pickers, electronic market dumpsites and dedicated studies to e-wastes probably contributed to the lack of such data.

*Municipal Solid Waste Management and the Inland Water Bodies: Nigerian Perspectives DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84921* 
