Municipal solid waste management in Ethiopia; the gaps and ways for improvement
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REVIEW
Municipal solid waste management in Ethiopia; the gaps and ways for improvement Fiseha Bekele Teshome1 Received: 30 November 2019 / Accepted: 30 August 2020 © Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study aimed at examining solid waste management systems in Ethiopia, identifying the gaps, and exploring ways for improvement. Expansive literature surveys of journal articles, official reports, state-issued pamphlets, critical review of laws and policies were used to elicit information. Case studies provided insight into challenges while investigations into the waste management system of countries with a better system were made to draw comparisons and pinpoint areas of improvement. The average waste generation (0.32 kg/capita/day) was found to be within the limit of waste generation for low-income countries: however, there is an annual increase in waste generation by 5%. The waste is dominated by organic biodegradables which accounted for 67.4%. Crude open dumping without pre-treatment and traditional open burning of wastes are common practices. only 5% of waste is recycled in an unsafe informal way. The current waste management system can be described by 3 I’s (Irregular, inadequate, and inefficient) which denote sporadic and inconsistent collection, low coverage, technical frailties, and lack of enforcement of laws, respectively. Hence, implementing the new system proposed in this study should be a priority. Political will, institutional reform, finance, and most importantly change in behavior are necessary to ensure sustainable waste management. Keywords Municipal solid waste · Waste management · Challenges · Recommendations
Introduction Relevance and state of knowledge Solid waste in developing nations is referred to as the everyday items used and discarded as garbage [8]. In the Ethiopian context, we refer to solid waste as items used and thrown away by individuals, households, hotels, small businesses, and institutions. These include: garbage (paper, packaging plastic bottles, furniture) food scraps, clothing, manure, batteries, appliances and paints. Economic development, urbanization and population growth have led to an increase in the quantity and complexity of generated waste, especially in developing countries [41, 29]. Regardless of the rise in the volume of waste generated, the performance of the solid waste management system is very poor in Ethiopia. * Fiseha Bekele Teshome [email protected] 1
Department of Environmental Science, Hawassa University Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources, 128, Shashemene, Ethiopia
Ngoc and Schnitzer [35] anticipated that, in an attempt to speed up the pace of development, emerging nations may not pay adequate emphasis to solid waste management. This is exactly what happened in Ethiopia, while everybody is busy preaching about industrial development, solid waste management issue has not been given adequate attention. The entire solid waste management system comprises: waste generation, segregation, storage, collection,
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