Possibility of improving solid waste management in senior high schools in the Ashanti region of Ghana

Abstract

Little attention has been given to solid waste management in Senior High Schools meanwhile their population and consumption pattern keeps on increasing. The study was conducted in senior high schools within the Ashanti Region to determine the composition and generation rate of solid waste in the selected senior high schools. An extensive field investigation was used for quantification and analysis of the composition of solid waste in fifteen senior high schools in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Averagely, waste generated were organic (70.91%), rubbers and plastics (11.24%), metals (5.64%), textiles (4.67%), other waste (2.77%), glass/ceramics (2.64%) and papers (2.13%). The per capita per day generation rate ranged from 0.02 to 0.13 kg/cap/day with an average of 0.056 kg/cap/day. The population of the schools and generation rate per capita per day of the schools had a negative correlation coefficient (-0.05). More than 90% of the waste generated in the schools could be dealt with through waste reduction, recycling, and composting. It was recognized that a greater percentage of the waste generated in the selected senior high schools was organic and therefore composting should be encouraged as a way of effectively managing such components of the waste stream and whipping up the students’ knowledge in waste as a resource. Key words: Waste generation, solid waste, waste characterization, source sorting, composting.