Assessing solid waste management systems at Makerere University

Abstract

The study aimed to assess solid waste management at Makerere University in 2022. The objectives were to determine the current solid waste management setup, to determine the solid waste management practices, and to determine the challenges of solid waste management in Makerere University. Data was collected using a questionnaire as the main tool, interviews, observation checklist, and data was summarized and analyzed under Microsoft excel. Data was presented informs of graphs, tables and charts. The findings revealed the most waste storage methods being secondary storage, primary storage and roadside storage within the university and these wastes stored were in plastic containers, buckets and waste dumpsites. The plastic containers and buckets were put in all rooms and also the corridors of the buildings within the university to avoid littering the wastes and the waste bankers (dumpsites) were seen near the roads where the wastes were put to enable easy collection by the waste collectors. Waste collection is done by a private company (Hilltop Enterprises) contracted by the university. Hilltop enterprises acknowledged that the amount of solid waste generated overwhelms the capacity of the enterprises to collect and dispose of on daily basis. These wastes collected are later taken to a final disposal site called Kiteezi landfill. The study revealed different waste management practices and these included recycling, open burning, and waste recovery as being the most dominated practices used in the university. The study also found out that though solid waste management isn’t bad in Makerere University, still there were some challenges and these included unsegregated wastes which contributed to production of bad odor bringing flies, limited bins and poor siting of the bins and these being the major challenges affecting solid waste management in the university. Also the small dumpsites to accommodate the wastes produced forced workers to dump some of the wastes outside and burning it hence polluting the environment.