INVENTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN YOLA DUMPSITES USING LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS
Solid waste disposal sites in Yola are characterized by odour, smoke and greenhouse gas emissions causing pollution problems to the environment. The impacts are hardly paid attention to by the communities on one hand and by the authorities on the other. This can lead to serious health hazards to humans and to the environment as well. Taking an inventory of the impacts and advancing th2em to both the stakeholders will highlight the need of the desired attention to reduce them. Elements considered include leachate (heavy metals, organic loading), emission to the air (methane, other hydrocarbons). Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), an environmental impact assessment tool is used to develope the impacts. ISO 14040 standards were used in selecting the impact category as contained in a typical LCA methodology. Global warming is chosen for example as one impact category with direct implication to the study area. The choice of the impact category is made because emissions contributing to global warming in landfill or dumpsite are high. Inventory results showed that the emissions from the dumpsites (methane and leachates) contribute tremendously to global warming potential. Based on standard leachate data for Nigeria, Pollutant concentrations in leachates such as copper (0.2 mg/L), zinc (0.6 mg/L) and phosphate (0.12 mg/L) were found to fall less than the minimum emissions standard value and hence pose less impact to the environment. While sulphate (SO4), total Nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (COD) contents could be potential primary pollutant of both surface and underground water.
Authors : A. H. Abba
Category : Open Access Volume (Issue) : 5(1) Date Uploaded : 22nd July 2019