**4. Reasons for ineffective waste management practice in Nigeria**

There are several reasons for poor waste management in Nigeria, they include, lack of reliable research data on waste. There were limited data in the past, but of recent more scientist and waste management scholars had written their dissertations on waste management. However, the problem is that the results of these studies had not been adopted and implemented by the government; the researches only end up in the shelves of libraries in the various high institutions. For proper waste management, in Nigeria there should be a meeting point between theory and practice. Agencies should be set up to create a cross fertilization of ideas between higher institutions and government agencies. This will help in the implementation

*Municipal Solid Waste Disposal in Mangrove Forest: Environmental Implication… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83809* 

of recommendations from the different studies. This is because many of the studies had gone to great lengths to collect long term data, which if implemented will help government in planning for effective waste management system for the municipalities and entire region at large.

 Lack of sorting culture is also impeding the progress of waste management in the Niger Delta. People do not take it as a responsibility to separate their waste before disposal. They feel that it is a waste of time since the receivers of the waste do not care and will not sort the waste at their collection facility. Irregular collection and unhygienic disposal by private waste collectors are also some problems of ineffective waste management. Poverty is an overriding factor that had affected waste management. This is because even when rules of proper waste disposal are stipulated by the government many people do not follow such instructions because they lack the money to buy the waste containers for the collection of their waste. Government alone cannot be held responsible for poor waste management because many people exhibit poor attitude towards waste collection by not wanting to pay for waste management services. This may be attributed to lack of awareness on the dangers of improper waste management, and lack of community awareness of the economic value of waste recycling. There is also a craze for fashion which has made people to generate more waste than they can manage; especially women who adopt some fashion trend that is antagonistic to the local culture in terms of clothing and beautifying materials, which they later dispose into open dump or drain. A typical example is artificial hair, which in recent times had littered the streets of most cities. Similarly, make-up chemicals are flushed down the drain and can enter the river thus polluting the surface and ground water systems. This has a negative feedback because it can come back to humans through the food chain or drinking water causing health effects. Lastly, apart from the inaction of government and the poor attitude of citizens, there is also nonchalant attitude by industrialists and manufacturers, who are more interested in making profits than giving back to their host communities through the provision of social amenities such as waste bins and payment for waste evacuation.

## **5. Mangrove forest as refuse dump site**

Waste get into mangrove forests through two means: (1) through tidal flushing (**Figure 2b, c**) and (2) through disposal by humans (**Figure 2a**). Tide washes ashore buoyant debris from far and wide. The debris accumulates at the edges of the sea and inside mangrove forest. These kind of waste are usually materials picked by tides from elsewhere such as leaves, branches of trees, plastics, carcasses, etc. (**Figure 2c**) while waste dumped by humans are mainly municipal waste such as household and industrial items such as food, paper, clothes and plastics, industrial waste, agricultural waste and market or commercial waste, majority of which are made of organic products [20].

Mangrove forests are found at the interface between the land and the sea. They are thus recipients of waste from both the land and the sea. They are usually seen and considered as waste land because of activities that go on in the mangrove forest are often not supervised. People who dispose refuse or cut the trees are not punished making others to do the same. Mangrove forests serve as homes for many people who clear and erect their houses. Those who live close to or inside the mangrove forest dispose their waste right in the forest since waste management agents do not come to evacuate their waste. Since mangrove areas are not under the jurisdiction of waste management agents, the people manage their waste by throwing them wherever they want. Mangrove trees are also cut and used as firewood to generate energy [21] and their cuttings act as waste that litter the forest floors.
