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Reliable national data on waste generation and composition that will inform effective planning on waste management in Ghana is absent. To help obtain this data on a regional basis, selected households in each region were recruited to obtain data on rate of waste generation, physical composition of waste, sorting and separation efficiency and per ca...
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... This is demonstrated by light colourisation of the region as shown in Figure 9 and Figure 10. This is particularly relevant because the MSW generated in most African cities is composed of over 60% organic component [109], whereas only about 44 -60% of this waste is collected [110] with only 1% of this waste recovered [98]. Comparatively, over 96% of MSW is reportedly collected advanced countries [111]. ...
Clean hydrogen is expected to play a crucial role in the future decarbonized energy mix. This places gasification of biomass as a critical conversion pathway for hydrogen production owing to its carbon neutrality. Yet there is limited research on the direction of the body of literature on the subject matter. Utilising the Bibliometrix package R, this paper conducted a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of the literature on gasification-derived hydrogen production over the past three decades. The results show a decade-wise spike in hydrogen research, mostly contributed by China, the United States, and Europe whereas the scientific contribution of Africa on the topic is limited. The current trend of the research is geared towards alignment with the Paris Agreement through feedstock diversification to include renewable sources such as biomass and municipal solid waste and decarbonising the gasification process through carbon capture technologies. The review reveals a gap in the experimental evaluation of heterogenous organic Municipal Solid Waste for hydrogen production through gasification within the Africa context. The study provides an incentive for policy actors and researchers to advance the green hydrogen economy in Africa.
... Ghana generates around 0.84 million tonnes of municipal plastic waste each year-a total that is growing annually by 5.4%, an increase in per capita plastic consumption of 3.4% per annum (Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP), 2021). Ghana has an indiscriminate use of plastic products with no or little legislation (if any) to regulate its use (Adu-Boahen et al. 2022), just 10% of solid waste is properly disposed of in Ghana (Miezah et al. 2015). If the plastic litter generation continues in Ghana, it is expected that the plastic litter entering the water bodies will rise by 190% to 228,000 tonnes per year by 2040 (based on 78,000 tonnes per year in 2020) (Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP), 2021). ...
Plastic pollution has become increasingly apparent in sandy beach zones and aquatic environments, creating more than just visual pollution. Impacts are observed in many environmental and social levels, including the fishing communities that depend on the coastal environment for their livelihoods. Plastic pollution was assessed on the sandy beaches and mangroves of Ghana’s Western and Central regions. The study’s objective was to determine the composition, abundance and sources of plastic litter at four different sites during the wet and dry seasons. Samples were collected from within 50 cm² quadrats placed randomly along four transects at each site. Plastic litter was classified according to the OSPAR guide. A total of 1895 plastic litter items with a combined weight of ~ 3000 g, representing 30 plastic categories, were collected. The average number and weight of plastic litter items were 19.73 ± 31.37 number of plastics per 50 cm² and 32.59 ± 45.47 g per 50 cm². The minimum and maximum plastic litter items were 0 to 159/50 cm². The highest amount of plastic litter was found in Ghana’s Central region. The total plastic litter weight is the variable that present statistical difference between the wet and dry season period. Bags, bottles, and fragments were the most common plastic items found, with 70% of the plastic litter being land-based, with the most frequent polymer types found in this study being polyethylene (~ 54%) and polypropylene (~ 20%). Mangrove regions act as sinks, specifically trapping plastic bags, contrary to the sandy beach areas, which mainly comprise plastic bottles that accumulate in these regions. Regions that have numerous communities, or are urbanised centres, tend to have higher levels or plastic litter. West Africa generally has poor waste management, absence of safe drinking water, and high levels of single-use plastics which are some of the main reasons for increased levels of plastic litter specifically in Ghana. Urgent actions are needed to prevent, mitigate and control plastic pollution in Ghana and the wider region.
Graphical abstract
... In recent years, machine learning (ML) has become widespread across various geographical regions worldwide, including Australia [12], Turkey [13], Vietnam [14], China [15], and Malaysia [16], and Ghana [17]. ML's adoption stems from its ability to rectify the drawbacks of conventional methods, and to capture non-linearity, high-dimensionality, and dynamic changes in waste generation. ...
... ML applications in solid waste management include forecasting waste generation trends, classifying waste based on composition, optimizing collection routes, predicting best waste treatment methods, and improving resource recovery, aligning with circular economy principles [19,20]. Studies across numerous regions, have demonstrated the potential of ML models such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Decision Trees (DTs), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) in enhancing waste management practices [12][13][14][15][16][17]. Such models can not only predict MSW generation but also address secondary challenges such as landfill leachate management and contamination risks, thereby supporting sustainable urban development [21]. ...
Effective solid waste management requires adaptive planning and accurate forecasting of waste generation and composition. Accurate predictions require a deep understanding of key influencing factors, including population, urbanization, income, and temporal effects, which impact waste trends. Traditional models, including regression and fixed-effects analysis, struggle to capture these complex, non-linear relationships. Recently, machine learning (ML) techniques have emerged as powerful tools, leveraging large datasets and advanced computational methods to improve predictive accuracy. Nonetheless, challenges like data limitations, regional variability, and scalability hinder their practical implementation. This review explores and summarizes the significance of the essential factors for predicting solid waste generation and emphasizes new opportunities for real-time waste monitoring by integrating ML with emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT). Enhanced sustainable waste management needs advances in model generalisability, data quality, and policy integration.
... In Ghana, several studies have highlighted that municipal solid waste (MSW) is predominantly composed of organic matter, with food waste constituting a significant proportion (Awafo et al., 2023). Miezah et al. (2015) reported that food waste forms the major subfraction of organic waste. It also accounts for about 79 % of organic waste and about 50 % of the total waste from middle-and low-income areas. ...
... Some studies have mentioned that, municipal solid waste production in developing countries is dominated by household solid waste (55-80%), then waste assimilated to household solid waste (10-30%) finally industrial and institutional waste (7%) [12,13]. The waste resulting from household activity is heterogeneous in nature and presents variable characteristics from the point of view of the waste categories of which it is composed [14][15][16]. The composition of household solid waste in numerous studies in sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by the fermentable fraction, which accounts for 40-70% of the total mass of waste generated [7,17,18]. ...
... Daily production of household solid waste is generally correlated with household size and/or socioeconomic level [21][22][23]. Higher-income households will produce more waste on the one hand, and larger households would produce less waste [7,10,15,24]. Thus, waste production in developing countries is increasing over time, with densities that can reach 600kg/m 3 with a moisture content exceeding 50% [25][26][27]. ...
... There is a statistically significant difference between household size and daily household solid waste production. Indeed, the larger the household size, the lower the per capita household solid waste production [7,10,15,24]. This trend can be explained by the fact that, in large and often poor households, purchases are made more by the head of household, which minimizes the amount of packaging and also waste produced compared to individual purchases. ...
Developing countries are facing increasing urbanization accompanied by the production of large quantities of solid household waste, the management of which is a crucial problem. This study aims to characterize, quantify and promote the recovery of organic waste in Dolisie, Republic of Congo. More specifically, it aims to: (i) Determine the flow of solid household waste produced in Dolisie and (ii) Evaluate the physical properties of solid household waste with a view to predicting possible recovery routes for organic waste. Waste from 60 households of different socio-economic levels was collected, weighed, dried and classified daily for 60 days, during the wet (February 15 - May 15, 2021) and dry (July 12 - September 30, 2021) seasons. The results showed that the average daily production of solid household waste in the city of Dolisie was 0.82±0.23kg/capita/day in the wet season and 0.61±0.10kg/capita/day in the dry season. Daily per capita production correlates positively with family income and negatively with household size. The average density of waste produced was 355.71±92.99kg/m3 and 308.02±74.15kg/m3 respectively for the wet and dry seasons. The moisture content of the waste varies between 40-80% in both seasons. The waste stream collected is dominated by waste sizes between 100-20mm. The study revealed that the composition of solid household waste produced in Dolisie is dominated by biodegradable waste, which can be recycled in several sustainable ways: composting, biomass pyrolysis and biogas production.
... The current waste collection operations, processing methods, challenges, and future plans for a more sustainable waste management system were shared by all stakeholders. Some studies and reports related to waste management in Cape Coast were also consulted since they also provide insights into the waste generation patterns in the city (Gyimah, 2018;Miezah et al., 2015). Municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Cape Coast Metropolis include the reliance on a mix of waste management services, such as door-to-door collection and communal containers, with a small proportion utilizing formal services, leading to indiscriminate disposal Table 2 A summary on recent studies that adopted GIS for municipal solid waste management improvement. ...
... Like many developing nations, Ghana faces challenges regarding data on waste generation for effective waste management and energy recovery potential. An extensive study on the characterisation of municipal solid waste in Ghana estimated waste generation at 0.47 kg/person/day, which translates into about 12,710 tons of waste per day at a population of 27,043,093 as of 2015 (Miezah et al., 2015a), of which only 10% is collected and disposed of properly at landfill and dump sites (UNDP, 2022). The engineered Kpone landfill site commissioned in 2012 to manage 1200 metric tons daily for the Greater Accra region was engulfed by fire for several months in 2019 because of the trapping of methane gas at the site (Ghanaweb, 2019). ...
... Metropolises generated higher waste (average 0.63 kg/person/day) than the municipalities (0.40 kg/person/day) and the least in the districts (0.28 kg/person/day). The waste generation rate also varied across geographical locations; the coastal and forest zones generated higher waste than the northern savannah zone (Miezah et al., 2015a). To account for waste recovery challenges, conservative figures of 60% waste recovery was used to estimate the potential. ...
Ghana's increasing challenges of waste management and clean cooking fuel necessitate sustainable solutions. Small-scale biogas digesters present a viable option for addressing these issues by converting organic waste into biogas for domestic energy needs and biofertilisers for agriculture. This study investigates the adoption of small-scale biogas digesters in Ghana, focusing on design preferences, operational challenges, and stakeholder roles. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from installers, users, and institutions through structured interviews and surveys across selected regions. Findings revealed that fixed-dome digesters dominate installations due to their durability, while prefabricated digesters offer cost advantages and limited skilled labour requirements but lack widespread adoption. Barriers to adoption include high initial costs, inadequate technical expertise, lack of standardised designs, and limited public awareness. Gender disparities were evident, with women underrepresented in technical roles, highlighting the need for targeted inclusion strategies. Despite these challenges, the study identified significant potential for digesters to meet up to 48% of household cooking fuel needs and 6166 tons of daily organic waste management. To enhance adoption, the study recommends implementing targeted financial incentives such as low-interest loans, subsidies, and tax breaks for digester installations. Public awareness campaigns highlighting the economic and environmental benefits of biogas are essential for addressing misconceptions and increasing user acceptance. Standardised training programmes and certification systems for installers. Real-time monitoring systems should be integrated into digester designs to improve operational efficiency and troubleshooting. Gender-inclusive policies and tailored technical training programs for women are critical to fostering equitable participation in biogas technology. These actionable insights provide a roadmap for integrating biogas technology into Ghana’s sustainable development agenda.
... A one-way ANOVA test was performed in SPSS, which gave p = 0.009 (<0.05), which shows the statistical difference in the value, justifying that the waste generation increases with the increase in the income range of a household. A similar trend can be seen in the results presented by previous studies in Nepal (Dangi et al., 2011;Pathak et al., 2020) and worldwide (Kaza et al., 2018;Miezah et al., 2015). The higher R 2 -value obtained from the graph (0.99 and 0.8), as shown in (Fig. 4), suggests the trend line reliability (Di Bucchianico, 2008). ...
... It may also be relevant that problems in execution could be due to the artificial changes in soil bulk density induced by the special conditions irradiation lysimeters are exposed to. Domestic refuse is very heterogeneous [7], which makes it difficult for lysimeters since the physical characteristics of the waste are constantly changing. Research into using lysimeters for the study of municipal waste is cotemporaneous. ...
... • Dedicating funding to this; • Dedicating human resources for national coordination, such as incorporating it into the Ghana Carbon Market Office; • Future research focused on carrying out detailed and up-to-date studies on aspects such as national waste composition similar to that carried out in 2014 [80]. Other important areas of concern are emission factors and operation-related emissions from waste treatment activities; • Facilitating training programs for waste management companies, research institutions, agencies and decision-makers to enhance monitoring and compliance. ...
Waste management in most parts of Africa is characterized by the disposal of mixed waste in unengineered landfills. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of mixed waste received at a waste-to-energy plant in Ghana relative to the current model of landfilling. A Life Cycle Assessment was conducted using OpenLCA software version 2.3.1 based on the ReCiPe Midpoint method. For landfilling, LandGEM software version 3.03 was used. The results indicate that waste-to-energy has the potential to provide carbon savings of 3.52 tCO2eq/ton of waste treated compared to landfilling. Pyrolysis is observed to have high avoided burden across all impact categories, with the lowest Global Warming Potential of −2.3 kgCO2eq. Anaerobic digestion shows a near neutral environmental impact with the highest value of 47.56 kg 1,4DCB for Terrestrial Ecotoxicity, while Refuse-Derived Fuel and segregation processes show low environmental burdens. The net avoided burden is highest for global warming and non-carcinogenic human toxicity potential. Overall, the hybrid waste-to-energy model is concluded to be an environmentally preferred waste management option compared to conventional landfilling methods, and we recommend that decision-makers facilitate investments into it. It is also recommended for the development of local inventories and databases to encourage more country-specific environmental impact studies and to reduce uncertainty.
