Informal sector initiative in the primary sub-system of urban solid waste management in Lagos, Nigeria

The study investigates the operations of an informal initiative; the “barro’ boys” in the primary sub-system of urban solid waste management. The study is focused on 2 of the 20 local government councils in Lagos State, Nigeria. All the barro’ boys identified in Mushin and Kosofe local government areas were purposively sampled through structured interview. Information on the residents’ perception of the operators’ services were obtained from 392 households through systematic random sampling technique. The study identified that the operators of the initiative are educationally low in status, single by marital status, young adults all of whom are below the age of 35 years. The main activity of the initiative is collection of waste from the source of generation and no form of sorting is practiced. The equipment used is human driven cart which is either owned or rented. No definite method of service charge exists. The service is available throughout especially from Monday to Saturday. The operators’ minimum daily income is Naira 1000 (Naira 128=US$1). The initiative also produced dump site touts and several clandestine waste dump sites. The study further established that residents use environmentally unfriendly storage receptacles which aggravate the problems of effective collection. Though the residents were apprehensive of their properties’ security in the hands of the initiativeʹs operators, it is still the most popular means of disposal as 71.3% of the waste produced in the two council areas is disposed through them. In addition, the index of satisfaction (residents’ satisfaction index, RSI) on each attribute of “service availability”, “cost, in relation to the service provided”, “politeness of the initiativeʹs operators” and “reliability of the service rendered” is higher than the aggregate satisfaction of their service. The study concludes that with the popularity of the illegal, but highly cherished service of the barro’ boys, integrating them into the existing system to evolving an effective and efficient urban solid waste management is more realistic than the consideration to outlaw the initiative.