A WELL FACTSHEET

Waste disposal in developing countries

Author: Mansoor Ali, Andrew Cotton and Ken Westlake, June 2005
Quality assurance: Sandy Cairncross
Edited and produced as a PDF document: May 2020

Waste disposal is a neglected area in many low income countries, and a major environmental
health hazard. Increasing quantities of waste and their changing composition are a major challenge
for municipal governments. The cost of disposal of large quantities of waste is often beyond their
financial capacity. There is also poor institutional capacity and political will to address the problem.
The Millennium Development Goals set targets for Environmental Sustainability and Access to
Environmental Sanitation, but safe disposal of solid waste still seems beyond the capacity of many
countries. This fact sheet presents some basic issues and solutions on municipal waste disposal.

Introduction
The Millennium Declaration in September 2000 leads to the 8 MDGs that provide the framework
for a new international commitment to address poverty eradication. The goal most relevant to this
fact sheet is Goal 7, “Ensure environmental sustainability” and in particular Target 9, “Integrate the
principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of
environmental resources”. In addition, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) 2002
set the targets for access to water and environmental sanitation. Proper solid waste disposal is an
important component of environmental sanitation and sustainability. A sustainable environment and
improved waste management offer opportunities for income generation, health improvements and
reduced vulnerability.

Waste quantities are increasing at an alarming rate. By the year 2010 the 7 billion people in the
world will be producing more than 2.5 billion tonnes of waste annually Low income countries will be
contributing more than 50% of this, but their share will increase with economic growth. Countries
with rapid economic growth and large cities such as China and India are already struggling with the
proper disposal of large quantities of solid waste. Currently, the major expenditure is on collection
and transportation but with more mechanisation and with the need for proper disposal the share of
disposal cost will rise. Many low income countries lack the facilities for safe disposal. The current
practice in most of the low income countries is uncontrolled dumping and it might take more
than 20 years to provide sanitary disposal of municipal solid waste. With the growth of trade and
industries the proportion of hazardous industrial waste and its impact will also increase.

This fact sheet discusses some of the issues of waste disposal and provides basic knowledge on
improved disposal practices.

Stages in SWM
Municipal solid waste management comprises various stages from the generation of waste to its
final disposal. Planning for proper management must consider all these stages. For a complete
system of solid waste, all the stages need to be in place. The group of stakeholders around each
Waste disposal in developing countries 2

of these stages could differ. For example, at the stage of generation and household storage the
households and community groups are more important as compared to final disposal where
municipal agencies and local authorities are the key players.

Final disposal is the last stage in the waste management stream. This is the stage when all the
collected waste requires a safe disposal. Despite all the efforts to reduce, recycle and reuse the
waste, there are always certain quantities of waste requiring final disposal. At the final disposal
stage we need to deal with the larger and accumulated quantities of waste. For example, for a city of
5 million people with a collection rate of 70%, the quantity of waste requiring final disposal could be
3000 tonnes/day. This is equivalent to 500 truck loads of waste. The environmental impact of such a
large quantity of waste could be very significant. Some common methods of final disposal of waste
are landfilling, incineration and composting of the organic portion.

There are many reasons why safe disposal is rarely practised in low income countries; Box 1
identifies some of the key issues. Improvements to waste disposal practices depend largely on
overcoming these constraints gradually.

Box 1. Key issues in solid waste disposal

Municipal capacity
The scale of the task can be enormous. Most municipalities have no experience of controlled disposal.
They may identify disposal sites but few actively manage them. Contracting out waste services has
been suggested as a solution to low municipal capacity, but there are many uncertainties surrounding
the issue: in what manner should the service be privatised? Should a large or small contractor be
used? Does the municipality have the required capacity to adequately regulate the contract?

Political commitment
Solid waste management is much more than a technical issue; it has implications for local taxation,
employment, regulation, and any changes need political support to be effective. Unfortunately, it is
rarely a priority for political leaders unless there is strong and active public interest. Thus there is little
incentive to invest in disposal or to control unofficial practices.
Many people rely on waste picking for their income and a controlled disposal operation could be
seriously disrupted if the practice were allowed to continue. Banning picking, however, requires strong
management and political commitment.

There are many unofficial practices (such as fuel theft) which would be threatened by the introduction
of a controlled operation, making staff unwilling to co-operate.

Finance and cost recovery

Development of a sanitary landfill site represents a major investment and it may be difficult to give it
priority over other resource demands.
The need for funding can make municipalities dependent on donors or loan agencies that apply
pressure to reach high, possibly unachievable, standards of disposal.
Finance may be available in the short term for establishment of a disposal site, but reliable revenue
is needed for long-term recurrent costs. This is very hard to provide if residents are unwilling to pay
taxes for waste disposal.

con/t
Waste disposal in developing countries 3

Technical guidelines
Standards from high income countries may be inappropriate in low income countries due to
differences in climate, resources, institutions etc. However, relatively little appropriate guidance is
available for low income countries.

A lack of accurate data – or the means of getting it - compounds planning problems. For example, it
may not be possible to undertake a geophysical survey of a disposal site or even make an accurate
estimate of the total daily generation of domestic waste.

Due to these uncertainties, officials find themselves ill-equipped to plan a disposal operation which
is both achievable and avoids unacceptable environmental hazards. They may try to adopt unsuitable,
highly expensive imported designs or ignore the issue altogether, perhaps fearing prohibitive costs.

Institutional roles and responsibilities

A disposal site may be located outside the boundary of the town it serves and may serve more
than one municipality. This necessitates the co-ordination of all authorities concerned and may
involve departments that are accustomed to acting independently. Within authorities, the roles and
responsibilities of different departments need to be clearly defined and accepted by all concerned.
Some smaller towns may not have staff with specific responsibility for providing a solid waste
management service.

Location
The accessibility of a disposal site – especially its distance from town – is an important factor in site
selection, especially when staff and the public do not have a strong incentive to use it when compared
with indiscriminate dumping.

What could be done?

Final disposal of solid waste must be an inseparable part for the planning of integrated waste
management. This must go hand in hand with recycling strategies to minimise the quantities of
waste requiring final disposal. The estimates of quantities of waste requiring final disposal needs
to be based not on how much waste is produced but on the estimates of quantities left, requiring
disposal. Municipalities could gradually develop safe disposal practices. Some of the common
options for final disposal of solid waste are given in Box 2.

As low income countries are making progress in their socio economic status, they need proper
disposal of waste. With the expected increase in trade, employment and literacy, there is an
urgent necessity to improve the final disposal of solid waste. In order to achieve the full benefits
of the millennium development goals on poverty and environment, solid waste disposal must be
considered as one of the key elements of infrastructure and services. A number of organisations
collect and disseminate information on good practice in solid waste management.
Waste disposal in developing countries 4

Box 2. Summary of waste treatment and disposal options

Disposal option Description Application for low income countries

Uncontrolled dumping Waste is dumped at a designated site This is not a disposal option but a common
without any environmental control practice in low income countries. It has
measures high environmental health risks.

Sanitary landfilling Controlled burial of waste. The site is Comparatively low cost and simple
engineered and managed to meet certain technology solution when land is
standards. available. Presents some risks in certain
circumstances.

Composting Biological decomposition of organic Requires sufficient proportion of bio-

matter in waste under controlled degradable material in the waste. Not
conditions. a complete disposal system; if there
is no market for compost a further
disposal option will still be needed. Large
mechanised schemes have not been
successful.

Incineration The controlled burning of waste at high High capital costs, requires highly
temperature to reduce its volume. Plant is skilled operation and control. The waste
designed to recover the energy released must have a high calorific value, which
by combustion. is unlikely in low and middle income
countries. Cost-effective only if landfill
sites are not available.

Gasification Biological decomposition of organic High cost and technologically complicated

matter in waste under controlled for developing countries.
conditions to obtain methane and other
gases.

Refuse derived fuel Separation of combustible materials from Depends on the presence of combustible
solid waste for fuel purposes. material in the waste. Expensive and
therefore of limited use in developing
countries.

Pyrolysis High temperature conversion of organic Capital intensive with high running costs.
materials in the absence of oxygen to Technically complex; the full operational
obtain combustible by-products. and cost issues are not widely known.

The following are key contacts.

Other sources of information:

Ali S. M. (2000), ‘Down to Earth: Waste Disposal Practices in Developing Countries’. Loughborough
University.

http://www.ciwm.co.uk/ http://www.sandec.ch/ http://www.waste.nl/

http://www.worldbank.org/urban/uswm/ http://www.awma.org/
Regional annex: Solid waste disposal in Ghana

Author: Anthony Mensah and Eugene Larbi, November 2005

Quality assurance: Andrew Cotton
Edited and produced as a PDF document: May 2020

This fact sheet seeks to assess the solid waste disposal (SWD) situation in Ghana and to identify
prospects for improvement focusing on remediation of dumpsites and sanitary landfills. The key
problems with solid waste disposal in Ghana principally relate to:

• Problems with indiscriminate dumping:

• Increasing difficulties with acquiring suitable disposal sites;

• Difficulties with conveyance of solid waste by road due to worsening traffic problems and the
lack of alternative transport options; and

• The weak demand for composting as an option for waste treatment and disposal.

Generally the poor state of waste management is clearly not only an engineering problem. Rapid
urbanization, poor financing capacity of local authorities, low technical capacity for planning and
management of solid waste, weak enforcement of environmental regulations - which allow local
authorities to flout environmental regulations without any sanctions - have all contributed to compound
the problem. The Ghanaian experience shows that within the existing socio-economic context, manual
systems are appropriate. The challenge therefore is to develop and promote disposal systems that
require a minimum level of mechanical equipment.

The magnitude of the problem

The disposal of solid waste has always been an intractable problem throughout Ghana. Landfills in
Ghana are primarily open dumps without leachate or gas recovery systems. Several are located in
ecological or hydrologically sensitive areas. They are generally operated below the recommended
standards of sanitary practice. Municipal budgetary allocations for operation and maintenance
are inadequate. The result is substandard and unsafe facilities which pose public health risks
and aesthetic burdens to the citizens they are meant to serve. It is estimated that throughout the
country only about 10% of solid wastes generated are properly disposed of.

In the last few years problems with solid waste disposal have assumed increased prominence as a
political issue especially in urban areas. The dismissal of a mayor of the capital city (Accra) in 2002,
was largely attributed to his inability to deal with the problems of waste management.

Based on an estimated population of 18 million and an average daily waste generation per capita
of 0.45 kg, Ghana generates annually about 3.0 million tons of solid waste. Accra, the capital, and
Kumasi, the second city, with a combined population of about 4 million and a floating population of
about 2.5 million generate over 3,000 tons of solid waste daily. Almost all the collected quantities of
wastes in Ghana depend on the “waste sink” function of the environment for assimilation.
Waste disposal in developing countries 6

Overview of current situation

In recent years several large foreign loans have been secured to help tackle the problems of
environmental sanitation. Ghana’s first sanitary landfill facilities were recently commissioned in
the 4 largest towns in the country – Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi and Tamale - between 2003
and 2004. In smaller towns and rural areas the issue of solid waste disposal has never really been
a priority issue. Few districts are known to invest in the development of solid waste disposal sites.

Generally conditions of waste disposal in Ghana are similar to those in many developing countries
within the tropical climates. The overwhelming majority of landfills in Ghana are open dumps even
though these are strongly discouraged in the national sanitation policy. The problems associated
with open dumping are briefly described below. The most feasible options for SWD are:

• Controlled dumping,
• Sanitary land filling,
• Composting, and
• Incineration

Complex systems for waste disposal that are coupled with energy recovery such as gasification and
pyrolysis are not considered to be financially and technically sustainable in Ghana and arel thus not
considered.

Uncontrolled dumping of refuse

Open refuse dumps are most commonly located at the perimeter of major urban centres in open
lots, wetland areas, or next to surface water sources. Open dumps are generally sited based
on considerations of access for collection vehicles rather than hydrological or public health
considerations. In rural areas and small towns, there are often no vehicles for collection hence
uncontrolled dumping occurs within the built up areas - with all its attendant health hazards and
negative environmental impact.

The recent proliferation of plastic bags for packaging has seriously aggravated the negative impact
of uncontrolled dumping creating very unsightly conditions.

Generally, the widespread prevalence of uncontrolled dumping reflects the weak capacity of
districts and municipalities, and given the lack of resources for dealing with the problem, it is likely
that for hundreds of small towns and villages, this option will continue as the only option for SWD
in the medium to long-term. The key challenge for local authorities therefore relates to how to
upgrade the numerous uncontrolled dumping grounds in order to ensure some semblance of order
and hygiene in uncontrolled dumpsites using manual labour.

Controlled dumping
The sanitation policy recommends controlled dumping with cover as the preferred option for
all small towns and rural areas. In practice however, there are few good examples. In most
communities controlled dumping sites are located on river banks and in depressed areas such
as in borrow pits, surface mining areas, ravines, old quarries and valleys. Generally the standard
of operation and maintenance on these landfills is inadequate. There is often no mechanical
Waste disposal in developing countries 7

equipment for spreading and compaction of waste which means little reduction in waste volumes.
Fly and rodent control are often neglected and there are serious problems with littering. Few
district assemblies (DAs) can afford to haul the required inert cover materials to disposal sites.
Various trials have been made with use of industrial wastes such as shavings from timber
sawmills (which are abundant in most urban areas) for this purpose but research in this area
is still scanty and the extent of suitability is not well documented. With low central government
budgets and weak capacity for internally generating funds, most DAs find sustained operation of
controlled landfill sites a real burden. However, there is a real need for improvement in current
levels of operations and in the design and siting of new facilities to ameliorate current levels of
environmental degradation.

Sanitary landfilling
This option is the recommended choice for solid waste disposal for the metropolitan and municipal
areas (comprising about 10 cities with populations over 200,000). Landfilling is considered the
most feasible option from the point of view of costs and level of environmental impact. However
experiences with landfill sites that meet engineering requirements in Ghana are few. Indeed, the
first set of landfill projects have only been recently commissioned in 4 key metropolitan areas.
These projects were mostly sponsored by external donors including the World Bank and DFID.
All the new landfill sites were designed and developed with technical assistance from foreign
consultants. Generally the trend has been to develop solid waste disposal sites alongside waste
stabilization pond based treatment systems for liquid wastes. However none of the recently
completed sites has operated for long. It remains to be seen whether the beneficiary cash-
strapped Metropolitan

Composting
Generally conditions in Ghana are very conducive for composting in terms of the waste composition
and weather conditions. However composting has never flourished as an option for refuse
treatment and disposal. Most local authorities feel, based on local experience, that the running
costs of composting plants are excessive and unjustifiable.

Box 3. The experience of a local NGO

The Ghana Organic Agriculture Network (GOAN) has promoted compost as an option for solid waste
management. The experience of GOAN has shown that: technically, there are good prospects for
sustainable operation of compost plants. The plant designs involve simple screening and maturing -
that can be operated by community groups or private sector. Though a growing horticulture industry
has generated some demand for compost the operations of GOAN confirm the long held view that
there is low demand for compost and financial sustainability for composting is difficult to attain. The
problems with financial sustainability are attributed to: (i) lack of awareness about the soil-enriching
benefits of compost which means there is little demand for compost, and (ii) lack of support from
the key agencies who could do most to promote it, ie The Ministry of Local Government (who are
responsible for waste management) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).

The only known large composting plant in the country was built with external donor support and
commissioned in the early 1980s. During its early years of operation the plant was useful in helping
reduce the volume of waste. However high maintenance costs adversely affected its sustainability.
In the last few years most of the mechanical components have been decommissioned and the plant
currently operates only for demonstration purposes.
Waste disposal in developing countries 8

Incineration
The national policy recommends small scale incineration plants for the treatment and disposal
of health care and hazardous wastes. In most towns with health facilities small incinerators have
been built as part of the health provision infrastructure. These facilities involve simple designs
with lateritic bricks, cement blocks and metal. Local firewood is the most common energy source
and the facilities are easily operated and maintained by environmental health staff of the District
Assemblies. These simple incinerators have provided several years of service in dealing with
relatively small quantities of hazardous hospital wastes. However in reality many of such facilities
have no environmental controls and often comprise nothing more than combustion of medical and
chemical waste in an oven or open pit.

Key knowledge gaps

Generally, the level of research and documentation of experience is very low. The analysis of the
current situation reveals the following key knowledge gaps :

• Feasibility of options (preferably labour intensive) for upgrading waste dumping sites and
landfill management
• Experiences with resource mobilization for solid waste management within local authorities.
• Experiences with monitoring and control of waste disposal by local authorities. Specific
examples are required for questions like “How do other countries build capacity to ensure
that local authorities do not flout environmental requirements for landfill based disposal
sites?”
• Experiences with sustainable composting systems and success stories on strategies for
promoting composting as a waste management option.

This Factsheet was developed by Anthony Mensah, Director, Waste Management, Kumasi, Ghana
- contact [email protected] and Eugene Larbi (Sanitary Engineer) of TREND Group,
Kumasi, Ghana. More information could be obtained from [email protected] and
www.trend.watsan.net

A DFID Resource Centre for Water, Sanitation and Health Managed by WEDC and LSHTM

Prepared by WEDC
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Loughborough University
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