Recycling biodegradable waste as a way to combat poor solid waste management in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

Waste management is a social, economic and environmental problem faced by the world and all African countries. Poor waste management contributes to air pollution, climate change and directly affects many ecosystems and species, including human beings. Thus, this study sought to explore the potential of managing solid waste through composting to promote sustainable environmental management and agriculture in Lubumbashi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The intention was to apply the concept of circular economy which is underpinned by turning waste into other useful forms that provide solutions to human and environmental problems. For this study a mixed-method research design was adopted that included field observations, qualitative and quantitative research methods. Interviews, and waste weighing were used to collect the data where 162 households participated in the interviews and 15 participated in the waste-weighing exercise. Households were grouped into two categories depending on where they were located, whether it was a formal settlement (colonial) or informal settlement. The unit of analysis in this research was the household. Data analysis was done using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) and Microsoft Excel 2022, Version 16. Results from the study showed that there is a need for attention and urgent action to address the poor waste management in Lubumbashi, DRC. When talking about the management of waste in the city, the practice is non-existent. The common mode of waste treatment around the city is burning and disposal of waste in open dumps. There are a few informal and formal waste pickers; they pick up and dump the waste on open dumps, which is not sustainable. Only a few of the respondents indicated that they used biodegradable waste as organic fertilizers, while the majority just wanted their waste to be taken away as it smelt bad, attracted flies and rodents. There was no attempt to raise awareness of sustainable waste management and most of the respondents were interested in attending such training. Furthermore, officials working in the department of environmental and waste management were from different backgrounds namely economists and lawyers. It was also observed that policies to regulate waste management in the city were not implemented and the population was not aware of any. With regard to the respondents’ location, respondents in the formal settlements had access to many (formal and informal) waste pickers while those in informal settlements, had only few informal waste pickers. This was due to the socio-economic situation and road infrastructure. It was found that the average household in Lubumbashi generates 6.797333333kg (0.006797333 ton) of compostable materials per week, which represents 141 840.55 tons of compostable waste that goes to the open dumps annually from 434 731.00 households in Lubumbashi. This means that 9 219,6 tons of methane gas is released into the atmosphere from disposing compostable waste in open dumps in Lubumbashi, DRC annually. This could have a huge negative impact on human health and the environment if not managed sustainably.