Solid waste charcterization and its management system in dukem town, eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Solid waste, which is a result of day-to-day activity of human being and animal that are normally solid and discarded as useless or unwanted, needs to be handling carefully. Dukem town, like other towns, in the country challenged with poorly managed solid waste activities. The aims of this study deals with analysis of the existing municipal solid waste management system, characterizing the physical and chemical composition of commercial and residential solid wastes, determination of the generation rate and disposal facility and other possible alternatives of waste management methods. The survey was conducted in Dukem town, Oromia region near Addis Ababa on randomly selected 111 sample households. A systematic random sampling was used to select the study subjects. The solid waste generation rate of the town in low families was 0.09 kg/cap/day whereas middle and high-income families generated 0.24 and 0.45 kg solid waste per capita per day respectively. The existing solid waste management experience in the town is investigated and it is found to be not environmentally friendly as the solid waste is disposed indiscriminately on open field and roadside. The major sanitation problems in Dukem town are basically related to the lack of proper collection and disposal system of solid wastes in the town. Family size, income and educational status were found to be strongly associated with solid waste generation at household level (P<0.05). The result of this study will provide the documentation of baseline data of the solid waste generation rate of the town, which is prerequisite for further design of proper solid waste disposal system