Biologically, all living organisms must essentially generate wastes. It follows therefore that regardless of the social and economic status, mankind must inevitably generate wastes of various forms which include gas, liquid and solid on daily basis, no matter the geographical location they live in. This implies that “irrespective of humans’ socio-economic status they must generate waste, thereby increasing the quantity of waste generated in a geographical location as population increases”.
Intricate linkages between population and environment in the process of economic development are not in doubt even though they are not fully understood or appreciated by man. Rapid population growth and advances in technology for example result in high consumption of resources extracted from the environment. And in the process of extraction and processing, considerable changing and destruction are inflicted on the environment where wastes accumulated.
The quantity of waste generated in Yenagoa metropolis, increases proportionately by population size, worsen by humans’ lifestyle. This has increased volume of wastes generated in Yenagoa over time. It is common to find waste littered/scattered on streets, in gutters, roadsides, Epie Creek and water channels, causing flash flood, diseases and constituting nuisance in the Environment.
Abel 2009, opined that “education, income and social status are some of the important factors influencing per capita solid waste generation.” Also, Sridhar et al, 1985 asserted that, “the quantity and categories of solid waste generation varies with socio-economic groups in which the high and middle groups take the lion share”. The above assertions explain the disparity in the quantity and classes of wastes generated by low and high income earners in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
While it’s obvious that individuals with good quality of life and better income generate high volume of waste than those with low income in a geographical location, the populace need to adopt measures to minimise waste generation in the city. Such measures are but not limited to:
1. EATING HABIT – By eating habit I mean the act of discarding food remnants unnecessarily. To some folks it’s a norm not to eat over night meal but would always cook without proper management, and when not able to finish all then dump them in a nearby dumpster. The poor are without food
2. SHOPPING HABIT- There is a need to adopt good shopping habit to reduce quantity of waste generated on daily basis. Instead of packaging every food items purchased at the shopping mall with a separate polythene pack that would later become waste at your location, a polythene can be use to package items that falls into category. That’s pepper, Okro, Onion, etc can go with one. Get a shopping bag/basket!
3. RE-USE/DONATE – Items like old shoes, old clothes, old golds, polythene, newspapers, tyres, used wood, old books, etc should be reused or donated less privilege to minimise waste generation.
4. BIRTH CONTROL – It’s a verifiable truth that the higher the population, the higher the quantity of waste generated in any geographical entity, given the fact that every human generate waste of various forms. As such a reduction in family size will definitely minimise the quantity of wastes generated by individual household, couple with good waste management system and programmes.
5. Government, NGOs, multinational, corporate bodies and individuals should employ more active and qualified experts to educate the populace on the important of solid waste minimization through 3Rs with a view towards reducing waste impacts on the Environment. Government should promote responsible solid waste management practices to combat/control gargantuan quantity of solid waste and its resultant effects on plants, animals, humans and other life sustaining components of the Environment.
