Municipal Solid Waste Management in Growing Urban Areas in Africa; Current Production and Practices in Jimma, Ethiopia

1. Municipal Solid Waste Management in Growing Urban Areas in Africa: Current Production and Practices in Jimma, Ethiopia • Tadesse Getahun1,2, Embiale Mengistie1,2 , Alemayehu Haddis1,2, Fantahun Wasie1, Tafere Addis1, Esayas Alemayehu1, Amana Jemal1, Desalegn Dadi1, Tom Van Gerven2, Bart Van der Bruggen2* • Jimma University Department of Environmental Health-P. O. Box 378, Jimma, Ethiopia. tadesse.getahun@ju.edu.et, tel. +251 471116141 Mob. +251 917804089 • K. U. Leuven Department of Chemical Engineering, Division Applied Physical Chemistry and Environmental Technology, W. de Croylaan 46, B-3001, Leuven, Belgium.Bart.VanderBruggen@cit.kuleuven.be, • Tel. +32 16322726, Fax: +32 16322991. Municipal Solid Waste Management in Growing Urban Areas in Africa; Current Production and Practices in Jimma, Ethiopia Introduction Materials and Methods Objectives • MSW in developing countries includes: paper, kitchen waste, plastics, metals, textiles, rubber and glass. • In countries like USA it includes: • food scraps and grass clippings to old sofas, tires, computers and refrigerators . • The high proportion of waste produced in developing countries is biodegradable which is similar to what is observed in Jimma. • WHO s/w data collection & analysis procedure was used. • Data were collected 3 times for a week at different Seasons. • Source, rate of generation, composition determined. • Lab. analysis for waste properties made To evaluate the quantity, composition, sources of the waste generated and their disposal practices To present recommendations for sustainable management system. Result Fig.3: Rate of waste generation at different seasons in Jimma Fig.1: Family size and rate of waste generation in Jimma Fig.2: Educ. status of household & rate of waste generation in Jimma Discussion and Conclusion In average, 87703 kg of S/W is generated per day of which only 25% is collected by Jimma municipality. 87% of the waste was produced by households, 13% by commercial and other institutions while a negligible fraction (0.1%) was generated by street sweepings. The rate of waste generation was observed to be 40% higher during the rainy season compared with the dry season because of the increased production of food peelings and vegetable/putrescibles. The biodegradable waste constitutes 54% by weight with an average moisture content of 60% which falls within the required limits for composting (Tiquia et al., 1997). Non-biodegradable organic and miscellaneous wastes are 34.4% and 11.4% respectively. Therefore, composting is the most recommendable management system in combination with other methods such as incineration, land filling, recycling and reuse. Acknowledgement To: IUC –JU for funding the study Promoters: Prof. Van der Bruggen Prof. Tom Van Gerven