19^th International CODATA Conference
Category: Economic Development

Comparative Analysis of Household Waste in the Cities of Stuttgart and Kumasi - Options for Waste Recycling and Treatment in Kumasi

E. Ketibuah, Universität Stuttgart, M.Sc Progarmme : Air Quality Control, Solid Waste and Wastewater Process Engineering (WASTE), Germany
K. Fischer, Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Siedlungswasserbau, Germany
M. Mensah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, School of Engineering - Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Kumasi, Ghana

Sanitation and solid waste management are urgent health concerns worldwide especially in third world and developing countries. The rapid growth of cities in developing countries coupled with lack of infrastructure and services means that waste accumulates in large quantities, particularly in poor neighbourhoods. The repercussions are poor health, diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, upper respiratory tract infections cholera etc.

The situation is the direct opposite in cities in developed countries like Stuttgart, where waste is properly collected, thus avoiding littering and indiscriminate dumping. Infrastructure for waste treatment is advanced, this means waste is better treated.

Solid waste management in the city of Kumasi like in most cities in developing and third world countries are beset with problems of collection, technical know-how of treatment and the efficiency of the local authorities in handling and managing solid waste. The city currently accommodates about 1 million people (Post,1999) and about 860 tonnes of solid waste is generated per day (internet).

The collection, treatment and disposal of this waste is an enormous problem to the city's Waste Management Development (WMD) which collects only about 40% of the household waste generated daily (Post, 1999). The rest is dumped indiscriminately into natural drains and public spaces.

Pilot activities in the sanitation sector have been undertaken to contain these problems. Beginning in 1997 solid waste collection and haulage was privatised and contracted to companies. There is an on-going Urban Environmental Sanitation Project (UESP) which seems to address the sanitation and solid waste management needs of a section of the city along the lines of the inclusion of landfill and other disposal facilities (ICLEI website). Under this programme, there is the distribution of waste collection bins to collect household wastes. There is however no separate collection system, as yet, for biodegradable and non degradable waste.

Preliminary studies conducted by Boafor et al (unpublished results) indicate that waste from Bantama, a sub-metropolitan area in Kumasi, typically, comprises about 61.6% organic waste and 13.3% recyclable wastes comprising rubber/plastic, paper/cardboard, metal and glass. With these results at hand, stake holders (WMD, Metropolitan assemblies, NGOs working on environmental issues, the general public etc) would have access to information about the possibility of waste recycling.

The aim of this study is to characterise household waste in the Kumasi area and compare it to household waste generated in Stuttgart, and compare possible treatment options in both cities, emphasising on the importance of waste recycling and environmentally friendly treatment of biodegradable waste to encourage the public to appreciate the usefulness of the everyday waste they generate. Since the greatest portion of household waste in the Kumasi area is biodegradable, this could be composted to provide compost for the surrounding farming communities or land filled to produce biogas for sale to interested persons and companies. Non- biodegradable waste could be recycled.

The experiences gained in handling household waste in Stuttgart would play a vital role in determining treatment paths for household waste in Kumasi.

This awareness would educate the public on the potential worth of household waste, the importance to separately collect waste to make collection and treatment easier and to curb the indiscriminate disposal of solid waste.

REFERENCES
1. Boafor T. F., Essilfie, S., Kasim, A.R., Koranteng, D.D., Sulemana, Y., Thompson M. (unpublished results) Waste Characterisation in the Bantama sub- Metro and options of Waste Treatment
2. Post, J. (1999), The problems and potentials of privatising Solid Waste management in Kumasi, Ghana. Habitat International. (23)2 , 201 -205
http://www-as.phy.ohiou.edu/Departments/Geography/geog456/lect6.pdf
3. African Sustainable Cities Network. Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Kumasi, Ghana - http://www3.iclei.org/la21/ascn/member.cfm?city=19
4. Co-composting of faecal sludge and Solid waste for Urban Agriculture - http://www.sandec.ch/SolidWaste/Pages/co-composting-Kumasi.htm