• 
• Japanese
• 
• IETC's Focal Area
• Waste Management
• Publications & Tools
• Meetings & Workshops
• Global Partnership on Waste Management
• Background
• Objectives
  & Expected Outcomes
• Framework
• Sub-focal Areas
• Information Platform
• Meetings
• Participation / Membership
• Water and Sanitation
• Publications & Tools
• Meetings & Workshops
• Resources
• Publications & Tools
• About IETC
• Background and History
• Director
• Activity Reports
• Supporting Foundations
• Internship
• Contact Us

2.1 Topic f: Special wastes

For the most part in Africa, services are not available for the separate handling of special wastes such as household hazardous waste (HHW Ð paints, solvents, consumer batteries, etc.), construction and demolition debris (CDD), medical and infectious waste (MIW), tires, sewage sludge, or chemical and pharmaceutical wastes. The predominant practice is to collect these items along with the rest of the waste stream and co-dispose of them at the same open dumps used for regular MSW.

For other special wastes, some items are recycled. Automobile lead-acid batteries are recycled at a rate approaching 100% where there are available battery refurbishers and lead-smelting plants. Their continent-wide rate of recycling is not known. Tires are recycled as retreads, for use on carts, or to make shoes and other domestic articles. The significance of recycling for these purposes on the overall tire recycling rate is unknown. Used oil is recycled as an industrial lubricant or fuel in many countries. In South Africa, a deposit system has been proposed to increase the rate of oil recycling. In addition, the privately funded Rose Foundation promotes the recycling of used oil across the country. A factory for the regeneration of used oil operated in Dakar, Senegal during the 1980s but proved to be an uneconomical venture. CDD is recycled as backfill at new construction sites, for the reclamation of wetlands, and for the filling of low-lying areas subject to regular flooding. Wood, nails, bricks, and other materials of direct use are also reclaimed from CDD for use in other construction projects. The rate of recycling of CDD has not been established continent-wide.

Many cities use septic tank or soak-away systems for municipal sewage, particularly in residential areas. Commodes are linked directly to the septic tank. Soak-aways drain all other wastewater from the buildings. In low-density residential areas, these drains are used to irrigate garden plots. In commercial centers or in high-density residential areas, they are connected to the municipal drainage system. This either leads to the municipal water treatment works, if available, or discharge into a nearby body of surface water.

In some cities, such as Dakar and the major cities of South Africa, treatment plants provide secondary treatment of industrial and municipal wastewaters. The sludge from these facilities is generally disposed of in open lots, which often serve as dumps for MSW. As with many equipment-intensive MSWM services in Africa, enabling policy, human resources, costs, and hardware are the main operational constraints to effective sludge management.

Accra has a co-composting system using treated human waste sludge and solid waste. The sale price of the compost covers the system cost. Initial equipment and technical assistance were provided by the German agency, GTZ. With the help of a current World Bank urban project covering inte-grated human waste treatment and sanitary landfills, AccraÕs co-composting system may be adopted by other Ghanaian cities over the next five years.

As mentioned earlier, some medical and infectious waste is disposed of by combustion. It is difficult to say what proportion of this waste stream is consumed in this way. In some cities portions of the MIW stream are buried in facilities that are separate from the MSW dump. Where MIW is neither buried nor burnt, it is generally disposed of in the city dump, next to the rest of the undifferentiated MSW stream.

In summary, separate arrangements are generally not available for special wastes. They are largely co-disposed in open dumps with regular MSW. Those materials with economic value are recycled both before and after entering the waste stream. These include car batteries and tires as respective examples. Some MIW is destroyed by combustion and some is buried. The exact proportions are unknown. CDD is used in land reclamation for new construction. Though official development aid has financed the construction of some wastewater treatment facilities, the sludge from these, as with most other sewage sludge, is disposed of in open dumps with regular MSW. Accra provides an example of a successful human waste and MSW co-composting system.

Table of Contents

• Brochure
• 
• 



• International Year of Forests
• 
• 



• World Environment Day
• 
• 



• UNEP Campaign
• 
•