The Silent Burden: Waste, Environmental Justice, and Our Health

Hey everyone, so lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on the pile of trash I see around our neighborhood, market places, schools, and health centers, and it’s been a burning burden on me. So I want to share some thoughts on the dangers of waste and how it impacts us all.

Waste, in its simplest definition, is any discarded or abandoned material, be it solid, liquid, or gaseous. It’s the garbage, trash, and rubbish we leave behind. For this discussion, we’ll focus primarily on solid waste, a major form of waste generated by human activity. This includes Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), a broad category of non-hazardous solid waste.

The rising tide of waste presents a complex web of challenges, including:

 • Increased Waste Generation: Population growth, rapid urbanization, and a culture of excessive consumption have fueled an alarming surge in waste production. Shockingly, the World Bank projects a 70% increase in global waste generation by 2050. This exponential growth strains existing waste management systems and exacerbates environmental problems and in a country like Nigeria, where there isn’t a standard of managing waste, the outcome can be devastating.

• Environmental Impact: I remember traveling along the port harcourt airport road, and it was heartbreaking to see some waste being dumped on open grounds, the air wasn’t even breathable and people live around those areas and when those wastes are being burned, just imagine the level of air pollution, and then I realized that we are really messing up our planet. Landfills leach toxic substances into soil and groundwater, contaminating vital resources. Incineration releases harmful pollutants into the atmosphere, contributing to air pollution and climate change. Plastic waste chokes our oceans, and harming sea creatures.

• Health Issues: Waste is not just an eyesore; it’s a public health hazard. Improper waste disposal creates a strong hold for disease-carrying parasites like mosquitoes and rodents. Being Exposed to toxic chemicals from waste can lead to respiratory problems, skin conditions, and even cancer. For me just being around a dirty environment gives me a serious reaction.

 • Economic Issues: The cost of managing waste is concerning, placing a burden on local and national economies. Furthermore, the loss of resources through inefficient waste management hinders economic development and sustainability.

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Environmental Justice: A big Burden

The impact of waste is not distributed equally. Some communities, often located near landfills and industrial sites, bear a significant burden of waste-related health and environmental risks. This is the very heart of environmental injustice.

These communities often lack the resources and political power to fight against the siting of polluting facilities in their neighborhoods. They are exposed to higher levels of air and water pollution, leading to increased rates of chronic diseases. This is an ethical crisis that demands immediate attention.

Health Issues in Detail:

 • Respiratory Problems: Airborne pollutants from landfills and incinerators can trigger asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory ailments.

 • Waterborne Diseases: Contaminated water sources can spread infectious diseases like cholera and typhoid.

 • Chemical Exposure: Exposure to hazardous chemicals in waste can lead to neurological damage, birth defects, and cancer.

 • Vector-borne Diseases: Stagnant water and unsanitary conditions create ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which transmit diseases like malaria and dengue fever.

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Solutions for a Sustainable Future:

Addressing the waste crisis requires a multi-faceted approach:

 • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: in my opinion, embracing the principles of the circular economy is crucial. Promoting sustainable consumption patterns, reducing single-use plastics, and encouraging recycling can significantly reduce waste generation.

 • Improved Waste Management: To be honest we need better ways of handling our trash, more recycling, composting facilities, and my personal favorite waste-to-energy plants, is very essential.

 • Community Engagement: For example here in port harcourt, the drainage are cloaked with trash and that causes flood, By empowering communities to participate in waste management decisions, helping them keep their drainage clean and teaching them how to we can make an impact.

 • Policy and Regulation: Here in port harcourt we can land fill is over flowing, just pass by the port harcourt airport road and see things, it’s a real problem, we need to wake up, By Implementing stricter environmental regulations and enforcing existing laws, can help provide a lasting solution to pollution.

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 •Statistics for action:

   imagine this According to the United Nations, around 8 to 14 million tonnes of plastic leak into the ocean each year, crazy right?. Nigeria now generates roughly around 2.5 million tons of waste per year, and with only %12 being recycled, imagine the damages being done to the rivers, honestly we need to act now.

   The EPA estimates that recycling and composting prevented 69 million tons of material from being disposed of in landfills and combusted in 2018.

   The World Health Organization states that 24% of the global burden of disease and 23% of all deaths can be attributed to environmental factors, A study in Bekwarra Local Government Area identified cholera (18.2%), malaria (47.2%), lassa fever (10.7%), and diarrhea (23.9%) as diseases associated with solid waste disposal, 

And other one in Owerri, Nigeria, found that prevalence of acute diseases like malaria, meningitis and other water and air borne diseases are attributable to improper waste management.

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It’s scary to think about a future without proper waste control, We must recognize that waste is not just a problem; it’s a symptom of a much larger issue. By embracing sustainable practices, promoting environmental justice, and prioritizing public health, we can create a cleaner, healthier, and more fair future for all. 

For me I’m going to start by trying to reduce my own waste, and I hope you’ll join me. Even little  changes can make a huge difference. I’ll be working with my team to come up with a lasting solution for our public waste, so our kids, mothers, fathers, friends and even enemies can have a cleaner future, 

Let me know in the comments what you’re doing to help, or through our email purepowersolution01@gmail.com