CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Waste management is the process of collecting, transporting, processing or disposing, managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. The major focus of this research is on waste management practices as obtains in the urban developing nations. Waste includes all items that people no longer have any use for, which they either intend to get rid of or have already discarded and these include: packing items garden waste, old paints containers, vegetables, metals etc. Poor waste management has been a major problem to human health and existence, affecting both rural and urban areas. A clean environment influences good health and good health further affects the productivity of man. Therefore, it can be said that a good and clean environment invariably affects the wealth and economic status of the nation.
There are various methods of waste disposal including: land filling: which involves burying the waste in abandoned or unused quarries, mining voids or burrow pits and covering it with layers of soil; incineration: involves subjection of solid organic wastes to combustion at a very high temperature of about 10,000 so as to convert them into residue or gaseous products; open dumping: whereby dumping can be done on open land or sea; composting: this is an aerobic, biological process of degradation of biodegradable organic matter; hog feeding: this involves feeding animals like pigs with left over materials of waste; mechanical destructor: this involves the use of machines to destroy waste materials. Recycling of waste which means taking waste materials and transforming them into raw products, results in saving natural resources, saving energy, reducing disposal costs, reducing harmful emission to air and water, saving money and creating jobs.
Awareness and knowledge of waste disposal is influenced by many factors as pointed out in a work done by Margaret Banga on household knowledge, attitudes and practices in solid waste segregation and recycling in urban Kampala. It indicated that the participation in solid waste separation activities depended on the level of awareness of recycling activities in the area, household income, educational level and gender. Ayodeji Ifegbesan studied the waste management awareness knowledge and practices of secondary school teachers in Ogun state and it showed that teachers were aware and knowledgeable about waste management even though they possessed negative waste management practices. There seems to be appreciable awareness and know- ledge about waste disposal among people in Nigeria but most of them are only aware of the crude and traditional methods and are oblivious of the modern methods such as incineration and recycling. The attitude of people towards waste management can be affected by their level of knowledge and awareness of waste management and it has been reported that homes with waste bins engage more in proper way of storing waste than homes without waste bins. A Nigerian study about attitude towards recycling and waste management showed no significant effect of gender, employment and educational statuses, on willingness to recycle.
Human wastes are great contributors of environmental health hazards. Poor waste practices lead to contamination of edible products thereby increasing the burden of infection and diseases among the citizens. About 1.3 billion tons of waste are generated globally, 0.035% being generated by Nigeria. About 85.8% of Nigerian waste is generated by households. It is estimated that an average Nigerian in the urban or rural areas generates about 0.49 kg of solid waste per day with household and commercial centres contributing almost 10% of total urban waste burden. Of this about two thirds of wastes are dumped indiscriminately on the streets and in the drains thus posing serious environmental health hazards.