Journal of Environmental Science and Water Resources ISSN 2277 0704 Vol. 2(1), pp. 001 - 008, January 2013 2013 Wudpecker Journals

Solid waste, the Throw-Away culture and livelihoods: Problems and prospects in Harare, Zimbabwe

Innocent Chirisa

Senior Lecturer, Dept of Rural and Urban Planning, University of Zimbabwe. Email: chirisa.innocent@gmail.com

Accepted 20 December 2012

This paper attempts to demonstrate the dynamics of the solid waste management in Harare amid the growing problem of waste generation in the city. It is pinned on the concept of the throw-away as put across by Alvin Toffler in his semianal of the 1970 entitled Future Shock. Evidence in Harare shows that, indeed, this is now a lived reality. To deal with the problem, there are a number of solution suggested which include embracing it as a fact but creating livelihoods through solid waste management. Key words: Solid waste, urban poverty, livelihoods, transfer, globalisation, culture.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Globally, the increasing affluence in urban centres, relative to the countryside, has posed problems to the management of the environment (Hardoy and Mitlin, 2001). Urban environments have become the cesspools due to increased pollution (air, water, sound and land). The explanation to this premise lies in the fact that: as motor generators of national economies, these centres are involved largely in colossal processing, distribution and consumption of many commodities, most of which are in solid form (DFID, 1999).

Solidity speaks of physical correspondence and appearance of the products and, ultimately the waste thereof. The throw-away (Toffler, 1970) culture is symbolism for fashionableness, relevance and modernity. The thrust of this paper is to show how solid waste management is an issue raised by advancement of technology, tastes and preferences of the modern society and how the throw-away culture (Toffler, 1970) poses a great challenge to environments per se, urban planners and managers especially in the developing countries. Harare has been cited as a centre to show case vividly.

This paper attempts to demonstrate the dynamics of the solid waste management issue and endeavour to work out the panacea to this spreading gangrene. The working assumptions for this discourse are that: a) The increasing solid waste in streets, alleys, garbage collection points and sites of similitude is a reflection of underlying affluence among urbanites due to increases in disposable incomes of individuals and households; b) The solid waste problem together with the throw-away phantom shall continue to haunt cities and towns; c) Technology is both the cradle and coffin of the

solid waste management problem in urban centres; and d) Solutions to the solid waste dilemma lie in both technical and socio-economic approaches more than anything else. From these assumptions, it is possible to draw up some thematic frames like livelihoods, technology, globalisation, to name these three, in line with the object of the study. The research is therefore designed in such a way that these issues are addressed through and through. In developing countries, the problem of solid waste has been largely felt as a neck-wrenching problem, more of a negative problem that a positive one. This is largely as a result of the impermissibility of the resources. Yet, someone would argue to say that the resources are available. The problem has been of mismanagement of the resources there especially with the growing cases of corruption, cronyism, among others. THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The gist of this section is to learn from experiences and insights in the nature of problems, prospects and themes in solid waste management in urban environments. Africa is 38 percent urban, making the region the least urbanised in the world. Nonetheless, it is catching up fast with the worlds most rapid urban growth rate of nearly 4 percent per annum (United Nations Population Division 2002:26; Hardoy et al., 2001:28). Municipal solid waste management constitutes one of the most crucial health and environmental problems facing governments of African cities. This is because even though these cities

are using 20 to 50 percent of their budget in solid waste management, only 20 to 80 percent of the waste is collected. The uncollected or illegally dumped wastes constitute an adversity for human health and the environmental degradation. Not only are the quantities increasing but also the variety, both a consequence of increasing urbanisation, incomes, and changing consumption habits fuelled by globalisation (Horst and Tannya, 2001; Khan , 2003; Masser , 2000; Rakodi, 1997; Satterthwaite 1997). This scenario places the already-desperate urban councils in a difficult situation especially as they have to develop new strategies to deal with increasing volumes as well as strange varieties of wastes.

Nevertheless generation rates for the continents major cities are estimated to range from 0.3 to 1.4kg per capita per day. This gives an average of 0.78 compared to an average of 1.22 kg per capita for developed countries (Beukering et al. 1999:9). There is a positive correlation between city population size and both the percentage of waste moved and rates of households enjoying regular waste collection. This suggests that increasing city size poses a greater problem to the solid waste management in Africa. Solid waste: disposition and composition Khan (2003) defines solid waste as material that is cheaper to throw away than to store or use. He goes on to say, nevertheless, that such unwanted material can be segregated, transformed, recycled and re-used with great environmental and financial gain or benefit. In the same strain, it important to note that sources of solid waste are different and this knowledge can be useful in showing that different types of waste are subject to spatial mapping. Solid waste can be organic or inorganic. (Table 1a and 1b).

Studies on Bamenda City in Cameroon by Achankeng (2003) indicate that one new and increasing element in waste composition is that of non-biodegradable waste. Electronic waste or E-waste, and waste from white goods are increasing. This show how the element of globalisation influences wastes generation in the developing world give that the problem transcends across national boarders. Lifestyles are linked to various wastes production. From the table it is conspicuous that the nature of waste could produce some benefits especially in agricultural production in the case where urban agriculture is accommodated as part of urban livelihoods and development The throwaway culture: origins The cradle of the throwaway culture, according to Toffler (1970), is the Americas. From America, it has spread to

Chirisa 002 Europe, and in the recent years ultimately globalised.

Toffler (1970) asserts that the philosophy has been perpetrated by the increasing philosophy of socio-cultural transience and transformation. This argument reaches to the notion of globalisation. He argues that the contemporary society is increased the propensity towards impermanence, modularism, technically innovation and organisation. It is based more towards production of goods than any other period in the annals of the history of humanity not meant to last. This can be seen in aspects like architecture and engineering. In the past, people built to last. New York, according to Toffler has been a city without history, to exemplify this conception.

Technology is ever changing such that obsolescence is on the faster increases than any other time in the past. This brings into perspective the notion of fashionableness, which is marked by the basic characteristics of a buy, use and throwaway society (Toffler 1970:56). The rise of rentalism and hiring services reinforces the modishness of throwaway and modularism. This explains why the throwaway culture is much more than a simple physical disposal of waste issue. Toffler typifies the whole phenomenon by citing its dynamics as portrayed by Japan and France. He writes that in Japan, throw-away tissues are so widely used that cloth handkerchiefs are regarded as old fashioned, not say unsanitary. And even in France, disposable cigarette lighters are commonplace. From cardboard milk containers to the rockets then power space vehicle, products created for long-term or one-time use are becoming more numerous and crucial to our way of lifeBut to spread of disposability through the society implies decreased durations in man thing relationships. Instead of being linked with a single object over a relatively long span of time, we are linked for brief periods with the succession of objects that supplant it (ibid: 57). The throwaway culture has critical psychological roots and effects. One effect is that respect to property is changed. Toffler (1970) explains the way the fabric of social experience comprises five relationships. These are people, organisations and ideas and time. The descriptions of these components, which synthesise to a situation are given in Table 2. The situation goes with the changing attitudes of things, which people will assume. Transformation moves with technology, super-industrialism and standardisation (i.e. uniformitarianism associated with the minimum set values). These are key features indicating that social and economic transformation in society is an irrefutable reality. Globalisation, technology and transformation Globalisation has transformation as its hallmark transformation goes with transience and continuity.

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Table 1a. Taxonomy of waste and their sources.

Type of waste Composition of waste

Garbage Includes wastes from household preparation, cooking and serving of food; market refuses, handling, storage and sales of produce and meals.

Non-biodegradable solid waste or rubbish

Paper, carton, cardboard, plastics, clothes, rubber, leather bottles, glass, ceramics, tin cans, etc

Imported second hand goods from the developed world

These old goods are near the end of their life cycle and spend little time with their final owners before being put aside as waste. Cases of accepting imported foreign waste in exchange for hot currencies have been reported in Africa

Electronic waste or E-waste From white goods are increasing

Other sources Ashes, bulky waste, street sweeping, abandoned vehicles, non-hazardous industrial waste, construction and demolition waste etc. Waste derived from private and public institutions and sewage treatment centres.

Source: adapted from Achankeng (2003)

Table 1b. Nature of different solid wastes in urban centres.

Type of Waste General Disposition Comment

Natural and Rustic

-Bio-degradable -Difficult to burn so decomposition can be cheap way, Smelly environments

Decomposition in urban centres not quite economic. It would work better for positive gain in rural environments.

Synthetic and Complex

-Cannot be degraded biologically -Easy to burn but difficult to dispose, Smoky environments

Recycling is an alternative and can be a way of employment creation for underemployed and underemployed

Table 2. Five relationships that make up the social experience fabric.

Component Description Things A physical setting of natural or man-made objects. Place A location or arena within which actions occur. People Constituents of a social situation Organisational Ideas or Information Network of society

time Point in moment and durations and is the principal determinant of change

Source: Adopted from Toffler (1979:39) Technology is the engine to transformation; knowledge is the fuel to this vehicle. There are three basic elements of technology. Firstly, it has to be with idealised creativity, secondly, practical application of the ideas and lastly diffusion of the product. Technology speaks also of new methods, new techniques new machinery. Yet it is not only about novelty or newness. It may mean re-packaging of the already known inputs or intermediate products to the end of sophisticated or complex situation. Technology has been both the main accelerator in the

processing of new or improved products and also the disseminator of such to other space. Globalisation has both spatial and temporal significance. Technology can be viewed as a vector to the spread of solid waste. The Internet is the engine of technology through which values from especially the Western Motors are getting to the Harare. The young are the most accessed of this facility. The media also helps the Internet to the same effect. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have helped to shape the buy, use and throw away

culture. The result is littered streets, increased scavenging ventures, increased squatter, and the smoky city as people by to reduce solid synthetic waste.

According to the City-Systems Concept (Storper and Walker, 1989), what happens in one metropolitan centre has ripple effects, which are eventually felt, in other urban centres, either of superior or inferior nature. What transpires in New York gets a signal response in Lusaka, or Harare or Sao Paulo. The receiving cities or urban centres, through technological advancements marking todays world, have developed some form of antennae through which the transmission is restorable. The world has become a global village. International trade has had a contribution to the cityscapes increase of litter. Durable goods cost the manufacturers. Hence they produce less durable items. These, for instance plastic shoes, cosmetics, etc when used or have expired need to be disposed.

Globalisation has been identified as playing a negative role in solid waste management in African cities. The impacts include: the transfer of globalised or internationalised waste management methods and ideologies together with an increased volume and variety of waste, resulting from increased flows of goods and services, and changed life style and consumption patterns; and conflicting involvement of multi-national companies (MNCs) with local initiative groups, city and national government in waste management matters and other issues which directly or indirectly affect the waste sector. Few cities remain untouched by the global economy or by the products or operations of the transnational corporations that have such large role within it (IIED 2002): the global economic system takes place in a growing net work of global cities and cities that might best be described as having global cities functions.it has contributed to a repositioning of cities both nationally and globally (Sassen, 2002:14). The process of globalisation has reinforced the problems of rapid urbanisation in Africa and other areas of the developing world. URBAN AREAS, SOLID WASTE REALITIES AND LIVELIHOODS Urban areas have a multiplicity of functions, Industrialists esteem them as places where they manufacture process and market commodities of their business. The unemployed view urban areas as the havens of employment where they can sell their labour. The proletariat becomes the market threshold of entrepreneurs goods and services. Urban managers, as governors, are involved in the efficient running of the cities and towns so that order, sanity and health are

Chirisa 004 created, maintained and sustained. One of the main issues in the urban system, which urban manager wrestles with is the deposition of waste. The questions associated with this task are what types of waste, where should it be deposed or treated and how best can this be achieved? (Table 3). This issue of resources, capacity and sustainability are paramount in trying to answer these questions. Solid waste and livelihoods dynamics Like any other problem, there is room for great opportunities in solid waste problematique. This includes the fact that a number of people get their livelihoods1 as they are employed or self-employ themselves because of the spectre of solid waste. There are processes and outcomes in dealing with this aspect. Box 1 relates the problem of the issue in light of how a number of people have crafted livelihood activities in Cairo. The activities include transportation of waste, its screening and the aspects of recycling and re-use.

Apparent from the Box is the fact that solid waste management by socio-economic drive leads to empowerment and betterment of the urban poor. This is management of waste with a human face. The processes put households in business. It is labour-intensive. Where the machines are required, the innovative skills are put to effective use as a strategy of tapping from the indigenous technical knowledge. Moreover, networks are created such that there is a strong link between the small-scale enterprise to big business. Such is a form of partnership that is desirable. Although the scale of the little settlement of Cairo is not that large, it is a great lesson that can be of use in other cities and regions. The next sections will try to relate and apply the Cairo case to Harare in Zimbabwe. A CASE STUDY OF HARARE Empirical findings Empirical evidence shows that in the past decade, solid waste has been one of the main challenges in urban centres (Zinyama, Tevera and Cumming ed. 1993). The following is a report of what has been taking place in the cityscape of Harare regarding solid waste in terms of its sources, diffusion, management and how the livelihoods approach is related to the wider picture. At the turn of the countrys independence, the Capital Harare was popularly known as the Sunshine City. It was esteemed highly for its aesthetics and high quality physical and healthy environment (Zinyama, Tevera and Cumming ed. 1 A livelihood comprises of capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access) and activities required for a means of living (Chambers and Conway 1990, Ellis 2000).

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Table 3. Solid waste management methods.

SWM Method Description and scale Comment Incineration Hazardous wastes such as hospital

waste are been incinerated at a small scale.

This remains a low option for Africa. Incinerators are more of energy consumers that energy producers. They are very expensive to construct and run. Not sustainable for low-income countries.

Landfills A majority of landfills are dumps on open plots, wetlands, and lands with water near the surface. They are usually not provided with liners, fences, compactors or soil cover. Waste pickers use this advantage to visit the site and sort valuables for themselves

One great concern is that in Africa, the landfills are owned and operated by the very body that is supposed to enforce standards. The philosophy of getting waste out of sight and consequently out of mind seems to be the overriding consideration of these authorities. Hence removing the waste is considered paramount giving their limited resources.

Recycling Recycling of the waste can produce employment for urban dwellers especially the poor who may have to resort to scavenging sprees.

Box 1: Solid Waste Management through the poor in Cairo. Background information The population of Cairo in 1991 was 14million and producing 10000tones of rubbish a day. Landfills were found to be situated at least 10kilometres outside the city limits, making their operation barely cost-effective. Confronted by that problem many refuse collectors began selling (secretly) their loads to the Zabbaleen (part of Egypts largest religious minority, the Coptic Christians, based in squatter camps on the city of Cairos outskirts) instead of driving to the landfill. The largest Zabbaleen settlement is Manshiet Nasser, a community of 17 000 people situated in a rocky valley at the south-eastern edge of Cairo. The Zabbaleen here own the land. They enjoy aid handouts from agencies like Catholic Relief Services, the World Bank and the Ford Foundation. They are better of when compared to other settlements. Their recycling industries are as well more advanced. Operations taking place at Manshiet Nasser Segregation of waste: Families sort through rubbish in and around their homes, dividing it into plastics, metals, rags, paper, bones, and organic matter. Piles of driving licenses, passports and government papers, accidentally thrown way, lie waiting here to be claimed. Transformation: For example, bones end up in factories to be turned into glue, soap, animal feed or filters for the purification of honey or oil. Plastics are sorted by appearance and ground into pellets in a machine. Most of the pelletised plastic is sold at about half the price of newly manufactured polymers to factories, which produce cheap plastic goods. Recycled jugs are even being exported. Some products are brittle and they are transformed for some use commensurate with their quality. Unsaleable is either torn into thin strips and woven on handlooms into rag rugs, or shredded into fluff. Recycling: For instance, the recycling of beer bottles or a case where metals are returned to factories where they were originally manufactured. Glass, for example is reblown into bowls, jugs and glasses). Paper waste is sent back to paper mills. Division of labour and specialisation Different families specialise in different materials: plastics, paper, rags, glass, bones and tin cans. Developments critical of noting Manshiet Nasser has undergone something of an industrial revolution. Inhabitants have built better houses for themselves. Several own assets like televisions, cassette recorders, refrigerators, and pick-up trucks (new and second hand. Sometimes, the Zabbaleen club together to buy trucks and also to set their own companies and spend on capital equipment (e.g. machines for grinding and moulding plastics and for shredding rags) for the furtherance of their operations.

The machines, based on Western designs, are made in small workshops in the city. Several of their owners have become sufficiently rich to sit in the background, drinking tea and smoking, while others slave away for them in the heat. Money talks even from the bottom of a steaming, stinking pile of rubbish

Source: adapted from New Scientist 130 No 1775 (29 June 1991), 1993; Herald 21, June 2006). The city was small and well managed. Strict development control applied. Solid

waste management was a superb exercise and hallmark of the city. By the turn of the first decade of

independence the situation was increasingly getting out of hand (Zinyama, Tevera and Cumming ed. 1993). Within ten years much of the city lay in the hands of blacks.

In terms, of administration and residents composition, most whites had moved the countryside. Their frequenting of the Central Business District declined drastically with them opting to do suburban shopping in places like the Sammy Levy Village Complex, or Westgate. As the former colonists moved away from the city centres, the influx of dirty and squatter grew by leaps and bounds. The regulators of development released their grip in the name of liberty. Blacks can now also access formerly prohibited goods. The same applied to jobs hence an upshot in the disposable income inducing increased expenditure on different commodities. Informal Sector and waste diffusion in the city Zinyama, Tevera and Cumming ed. (1993) assert that the infrastructure and services of Harare, (former Salisbury) were designed for a smaller population. Now the city has been choked and efforts to redesign the systems have proved to be a mammoth task given the narrow financial base of the centre (and/or the mismanagement of the funds) environment. Micro-enterprising in the grey economy has been the main coping strategy for livelihoods by households. Predominantly the informal, sector thrives on petty commodity selling. As well the sector thrives by free-rider ship. Free-rider ship is a parasitic venture of using services but evading payment for the services. Free riders mainly do nicodemous appearances. They appear for personal gain and do little, if any care about the public environment or health aspects. Mapping the solid waste challenge in Harare Urbanisation, which in one angle is a demographic phenomenon, attributes for the key sources of the solid waste problem. Urban centres are undoubtedly magnets of huge populations. The rate of population increased for the past fifty years has been phenomenally astronomical. Consumption has been one feature visible in these centres of mass populations. This has seen the increase in the bulkiness of solid waste. The culture of throwing away such waste has been rife on Harares cityscape and will continue to raise such, there is a need to formulate policies and come up with techniques that are less harmful to the environment. Throwing away is taken as a semblance of affluence. There is an ingrained attitude in most Zimbabweans that: If you eat and at least throw away spin-offs it shows that you are well up. Most people envy to be off such a class. This includes the young and the old, the educated and uneducated, the timocracy, aristocracy and the unprivileged.

Chirisa 006 Before the clean up campaign in 2005, one can say that the sites used by the informal sectors were one of the most heavily polluted environs in terms of land solid waste.

Both the natural and synthetic wastes mark these areas. At times this stuff sold by the informal trades (radio components, cables, computer parts and consumables etc) are disposed articles, which are brought back to be sold to the poor. At time they are used items brought from the low-density areas like Avondale, Borrowdale, Mandara, Mount Pleasant, Chisipite, etc and taken to informal site in Mbare, Highfield, Glen View. It is common sight to see a scavenger head-bearing used bottle and plastic containers milk, oil and other commodities. This can be termed a diffusion of dirty - transfer of dirty from high- income earners to low-income areas. What is dirty in one persons perception is useful and profitable to the other. This was exhumation of dirty to secure a livelihood by a number of pool elite who had discovered the gold mine and wanted to keep a preserve of it. The containers (plastic containers, bottles, cardboard) are often assembled or accumulated by traders at Mbare Musika who then sell them to people going to rural areas, who would making good use of those in their areas probably as carriers of water from springs and wells.

In Harare, the largest waste proportions are of food and yard disposition. In the CBD, the increases in disposable incomes have seen a number of people frequenting kiosks, restaurants, and supermarkets for packed launches. After lunch or supper, the container must be disposed hence the increase in solid waste. It is unfashionable to eat from a dinner plate or take a drink from glassy bottle. It is fashionable to eat or drink from a plastic container, to use tissues and not clothes, among other practices. All these amount to one thing that solid waste is increased. This has a bottom line in the philosophy of buy, use and throw away. The producers of the containers subject to being thrown away have business if the culture is sustained. Airtime cards. After juicing up, what is left is to throw away the residence (card) into a bin. There are psychological implications to all these actions.

Goods and services are both consumable. The type of goods consumed range from the rustic and traditional ones like agricultural and forestry products (which are by nature, subject to natural and physical decomposition in terms of disposal), to more refine and (modern) products packed in synthetic packages (like plastic and metallic tins). The latter products are sometimes found to be largely in the group not biodegradable. The main problem with the biodegradable is that they normally produce offensive smells, which the smart and modern society hates and shuns. There is a link between livelihood activities and type of waste and in this discourse the strongest linkage in the waste-livelihood combinatum is with plastic materials which are largely non-biodegradable. They are recyclable. They area

007 J. Environ. Sci. Water Resourc. transportable given their malleability. The next group of materials is metals. These have qualities that are of near verisimilitude to plastics. The two are artificial after intensive human intervention and reprocessing. Technology plays a critical role with this material. Glass, though it enjoys the same qualities as the two materials already mention it enjoys a little linkage to livelihoods. This is due to its fragility hence too difficult to handle. LESSONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS While the solid waste problematique has viewed as a negative development resulting in the siphoning of manifold capital and land resources to ensure a serene environment, it has also been an opportunity for employment creation. In addition, it has been an opportunity for reinforcing the privatisation thrust as urban managers have increasing contracted out hence capitalisation on the aspect of competitive advantage and signal for further research and development. From the foregoing discussion the following conclusions can be made that:

i. The increasing solid waste in streets, alleys, garbage collection points and sites of similitude is a reflection of underlying affluence among urbanites due to increases in disposable incomes of individuals and households. Although poverty is said to be a big problem in Zimbabwe, affluence is increasingly becoming a feature of the cities relative to their rural counterparts. The transfer of second hand goods and other assets formerly in the hands of the rich is an indicator to this. Within the urban setting, the high-density residential areas are the recipients of the goods from the medium and low-density residential area. If they do not get the goods by scavengers, they get the items through auction. An estimated 70% of low income earning households rely for their furniture and other long-term goods from the high-income earners residing in the medium and low density areas;

ii. The solid waste problem together with the throwaway phantom shall continue to haunt cities and towns. In Harare, this is revealed by the fact that the infrequency of garbage collection to designated dumping sites is an increasing serious problem. Households end up throwing away and dumping their dirty in the closest open space near them. Non-biodegradable waste is the worst problem haunting the city. In the CBD, disposable materials are a common sight and these include drink containers, juice cards, etc. generally the greatest amount such kind of waste is during the festive season when households enjoy their greatest disposable income- bonus time;

iii. Technology is both the cradle and coffin of the solid waste management problem in urban centres. In Harare, with the indigenisation thrust, a number of

indigenous companies have sprout and a significant of these are in the food industry. Some of the micro-companies are manufacturers of drinks, others maputi, others mealie meal. Others provide with the packaging material for the finished products. As day precedes night so the increase in the application of technology in production of goods and services must follow the increase in the finding the suitable technologies of dealing with the solid waste problem. ; and

iv. Solutions to the solid waste dilemma lie in both technical and socio-economic approaches more than in anything else. This is a persuasion towards integrating livelihoods to the solid waste problem just as the Cairo example shows. Once households become increasing involved in taking the solid waste collection, transportation, screening and related processes, a strong and supportive industry for recycling and production of products like glue and organic manure must be so developed such that there is no frustration of the diligent workers. All the above noted points need careful consideration and analysis. As such there is need for: a) developing partnership between different players like the micro-enterprise and macro-enterprise business units; b) integrating livelihoods in the environmental policy and city bye-laws for waste management; c) awareness campaigns and incentivisation by the local authorities and government on the prospects that lie in solid waste hence institutionalising the whole issue; and d) developing and applying development planning packages like Geographic Information Systems (Masser, 2000) so that a religious mapping of the volumes, costs, and reduction measures can be put in place and appropriate technology may be located in areas of highest concentration. CONCLUSION It is not all-bad with solid waste. The case of Harare shows that there are a lot of prospects within the problem hence the need for a change in perception about the issues. This renewal of the mind is for the whole terrain from the household, to business and the structures of governance. The major opportunity within the solid waste problem is that of employment creation and livelihood enhancement. This is in the socio-economic dimension. In the technical dimension are the issues like application of GIS planning and management tools and the development of industry dealing with waste processing, transportation and management. This is a mix of labour-based and capital orientated strategies for the health of the city and the citizens. Although poverty is a problem in

urban centres, traits of affluence are traceable in these centres. Hence, it must never be overstated that whole urban terrain is subjected to blanket poverty. Waste is transferable from areas of high affluence to areas of low affluence. REFERENCES Achankeng E (2003). Globalisation, Urbanisation and

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