User Charges and Solid Wastes Generation in Lagos, Nigeria

Solid waste is a major disutility of urbanization in Nigeria as rapid urbanization combined with industrialization in Nigerian cities have created greater concentration of wastes than what these cities’ systems can possibly assimilate. One state where this problem is most severe is Lagos State. The size of the state, coupled with the other factors like population trend, topography, concentration of industries act as potential threat to the limited carrying capacity of the environment. Therefore, if the present annual growth rate in population of 6-8% is to be sustained, there should be an urgent need to de-link economic activities from environmental degradation via an efficient waste management strategy that focuses on waste minimization among others. This research analyzed the impact of user charges, recycling incentive (price of recyclables) and weather variables on both residential and commercial sectors. In addition, income and population density variables were included for the household model using the OLS and ARIMA model. The author found that user charges negatively impacts on waste quantities. Weather variable (temperature) positively influenced wastes quantities. The author recommends the use of variable user charges set appropriately and the encouragement of recycling in the state. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2646-1.ch011