Characteristics of municipal fresh solid wastes from the selected large urban centres in Uganda: Implication for re-use and soil amendment strategies
Creators: name: Tibihika, Papius Dias
name: Okurut, Tom
name: Lugumira, Jerome Sebadduka
name: Akello, Christine
name: Muganga, George
name: Tumuhairwe, John Baptist
name: Nsereko, Mike
name: Kiguli, Dan
name: Mugambwa, Richard
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Microbiology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Molecular Biology
subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Inorganic Chemistry
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences
subject: Science Policy
subject: Plant Biology

description: In Uganda, the municipal solid wastes are generally a menace to the environment, ranging from indiscriminate dumping, open burning, and landfills, which would be utilized to augment agricultural fields through organic manure. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) of Uganda, however from 2009 to 2012 initiated and implemented a Clean Development Mechanism project. This project was established and conducted in nine urban centers with the key objective of reducing methane and other environmental nuisances while generating compost manure. The in-coming fresh municipal wastes at composting facilities were sorted into six categories; i) wood and wood products, ii) food and food wastes, iii) textiles, iv) garden, yard and park wastes, v) paper and pulp, and vi) glass, plastics, and metals. These were laboratory analyzed based on standard procedures, characterized and investigated for the pH, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) (g kg<sup>−1</sup>). Statistical analyses were performed based on One-Way ANOVA, implemented in the SPSS program. The results indicate that the municipal fresh solid wastes were mainly dominated by biodegradable organic matter; garden, yard, and park wastes (49%), food and food wastes (43.2%), and the other wastes falling below 5.4%. Overall, the pH was 7.7 ± 0.02, TOC 318.2 ± 2.90, TN 12.1 ± 0.10, C/N 26.7 ± 0.20, P 4.4 ± 0.04, K 35.0 ± 0.49, Ca 38.9 ± 0.51, and Mg 5.8 ± 0.09. The concentration of the fresh wastes and macro-nutrients varied per municipality and were congruent with the economic activities and population lifestyles. We detected the effect of season/month on the concentration of wastes which corresponded with the various agronomical activities. The results from this study suggest that the notion of composting is potentially a viable organic waste management strategy in the country which can ultimately generate sufficient organic manure for agricultural input and thus enhanced carbon sequestration. <i>Implications</i>: In this study, we characterized the in-coming fresh municipal solid wastes and investigated the pH, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) (g kg<sup>−1</sup>). We found that the municipal fresh solid wastes were mainly dominated by biodegradable organic matter (&gt;90%). The results from this study suggest the notion of composting to be potentially a viable organic waste management strategy in Uganda which can ultimately generate sufficient organic manure for agricultural input. This is typically vital for enhancing carbon sequestration towards minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.