Introduction

Globally, the volume of solid waste generated is increasing as a result of population density, economic growth, urbanization, and industrialization [1]. It is estimated that an average of 1.9 billion tons of solid waste is generated annually in most cities in the world [2]. Effective solid waste management thus plays a major role in combatting the health and environmental concerns urbanized cities suffer from, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) [1, 3, 4]. In SSA, waste generation is estimated to be about 62 million tonnes per year [5]. The effective and efficient management of solid waste is one of the biggest challenges local government authorities face, especially in urban settings [6, 7]. Increased population growth and urbanization have resulted in increased generation of large quantities of solid waste across many cities in developing countries, outstripping local authorities’ ability to manage and dispose of solid waste in a sanitary manner [8–10]. Despite spending 30 to 50% of their operational budgets on solid waste management, cities in low- and middle-income countries such as Ghana, only collect between 50 and 80% of the waste generated [11, 12]

In Ghana, about 12,710 tons of solid waste is generated daily, with only 10% collected and disposed of at designated dumping sites [13, 14]. A major challenge in the management of solid waste in Ghana is the collection and disposal process, which are labor-intensive and often not effective. In urban cities in Ghana, issues relating to proper solid waste disposal is a major challenge for the local government authorities. City authorities and waste companies are often overwhelmed by the volume of waste generated daily [15, 16]. The lack of well-planned and efficient strategies to manage waste is one reason for the poor state of solid waste management, particularly by municipal authorities in Ghana [17]. It is estimated that 50 to 70% of the budget of municipal authorities is used to tackle the management and disposal of waste [18]. It has been reported that city authorities in Ghana spend about GHc 6.7 million (US$ 3.45 million) annually on the collection and transport of waste for disposal, and GHc 550,000.00 (US$ 0.28 million) per month to pay waste contractors and for landfill maintenance [19]. Poor sanitation as a result of indiscriminate waste disposal alone is estimated to cost the country $290 million every year- an equivalent to 1.6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product [19].

Major factors hindering proper management of solid waste in Ghana are rapid population growth and urbanization, inadequate supply of waste bins, lack of waste transportation systems, low public awareness on the health consequences of poor waste management, and weak enforcement of environmental regulations [15, 16, 20]. Besides, urban residents’ poor behavioral practices towards solid waste is reflected in littering the streets and water passage-ways as well as other public spaces [21]. Low technical know-how on proper solid waste management processes by waste company managers further contribute to the challenges regarding solid waste management [14, 22]. The consequences of indiscriminate or unsafe disposal of solid waste into open drains and water bodies could contribute to flooding and disease outbreaks [21, 23]. Despite successive governments’ initiatives such as the empowerment of local government authorities to regulate waste management and policy on private sector participation in waste control, challenges remain in managing waste in many urban cities in Ghana [15, 16]. Other challenges such as inadequate waste infrastructure, inadequate equipment, and insufficient operational funds to support waste management activities have also been reported [13, 15]

Managers and supervisors of waste companies play important roles in waste management processes since they are considered to be key decision-makers regarding waste collection, transportation, and disposal to ensure that it takes place in an effective and efficient manner without contaminating land, air, and water sources [24]. In addition, managers and supervisors oversee waste management activities such as landfill sites, ensure compliance with existing legislation and bye-laws in the transportation, handling, and disposal of solid waste. They interact with the public on regular basis such as dealing with enquiries and complaints from the general public, as well as investigating and making follow-ups on claims on illegal disposal of solid waste, and work with other regulatory agencies. By these multiple roles, they are in a good position to share experiences on the strengths and weaknesses in solid waste management in the local Ghanian context. Despite the importance of effective waste management for the well-being and health of the general public, which places enormous obligation on managers and supervisors, they are rarely acknowledged. In effect, most skilled workers tend to move to other better sectors, so maintaining sufficient skills and expertise is a problem for waste companies [25, 26]. The work of managers and supervisors is costly, time-consuming, and complex to manage, partially because most of the time they have to work across multiple locations, yet they seem not to be heard. Despite previous studies [27–29] on solid waste management in Ghana, very scarce literature exists till date on the views and perspectives of waste company managers and supervisors on urban waste management practices.

This study seeks to fill this gap in the literature by exploring and understanding how policy implementation, organizational, and community factors influence solid waste management in an urban municipality of Ghana. The findings of the study are also important as the study explored the weight of the responsibility placed on managers and supervisors of waste companies in Ghana, and how they strive to achieve the competing objectives of managing solid waste economically, socially, and in an environmentally friendly manner [30]. The findings will inform local government authorities and other stakeholders on best practices to improve on solid waste management performance in urban cities in Ghana and similar contexts across SSA.

Materials and methods

Study instrument

In total, 23 supervisors enrolled in the FGDs. Three FGDs were conducted among the supervisors of the two waste management companies; two FGDs in company A and one FGD in company B. An average of eight participants participated in each FGD session [42]. FGD was useful for the understanding of participants’ knowledge and experiences in managing urban waste. FGDs are applied in qualitative research to assess not only what people think but also how they think and why they think that way [43]. Regarding IDIs, 12 interviews were conducted with managers from both waste companies: ten in company A and two in company B at venues of their convenience. FGDs lasted an average of 60 minutes (excluding informed consent process) whilst IDIs lasted for an average of 20 minutes. Interviews were conducted in English until data saturation was reached [39]. Table 1 presents the number of qualitative interviews by type of interview.

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Table 1. Type and number of qualitative interviews conducted.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248392.t001

Results

Socio-demographic characteristics of participants

Twenty-three supervisors and 12 managers were included in the analyses from the two waste companies. The average age of the participants ranged from 31–40 years. The majority of participants were educated to the senior high school level. Further details of participants’ socio-demographic characteristics are presented in Table 2.

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Table 2. Socio-demographic characteristics of participants.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248392.t002

The themes that emerged from the study

Three key themes that emerged from the analyses were organizational, community, and contextual factors influencing waste management in the Ho Municipality. Organizational factors that influenced waste management included organizational capacity, resources, and expertise. Community factors included socio-cultural beliefs influencing negative attitudes of residents and a low sense of responsibility towards solid waste management. Contextual factors included rules, regulations, and the enforcement thereof. Fig 1 presents a framework of factors determined in the study to influence waste management practices and the details of the emergent themes are presented in the subsequent sub-sections.

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Fig 1. Framework of factors determined in the study to influence waste management practices.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248392.g001

Discussion

This study explored Municipal waste company managers’ and supervisors’ perspectives and experiences on solid waste management in Ghana using a qualitative inquiry approach. Most of Ghana’s discourses on solid waste management have highlighted the apparent breakdown of the regulatory agencies assigned to deal with solid waste management at the local government level [46]. This is based on the fact that poor policy implementation, inadequate funding, and poor technical know-how are some of the factors contributing to the breakdown of regulations on waste management and sanitation [47]. However, this study is unique from existing studies because it provides a description and a good in-depth understanding of how policy implementation, organizational, and community factors influence solid waste management in a developing country context. Although this study focuses on managers and supervisors of waste companies, it is able to bring out how the policy issues, inadequate financial commitment, poor governance systems, and negative socio-cultural norms and practices influence sanitation and solid waste management in the Ghanaian context. The focus of this study in an urbanizing environment in a developing country context is unique in providing relevant findings on how to address the broader goals for sustainable development outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, targets (to ensure access to safe water resources and sanitation for all by 2030) [48]. Consequently, this study, which is at the heart of solid waste management, is relevant and timely and can help in identifying needs and bottlenecks for future policy development in Ghana and beyond.

The study found that limited infrastructure and capacity to manage solid waste; lack of skilled workforce; perceived low sense of responsibility towards collecting and disposing of solid waste, low-risk perception towards the harmful effects of waste, poor attitudes towards solid waste management in the community, and contextual factors adversely affect the effective management of solid waste in the study setting. Overall, the study findings corroborate existing literature that shows a firm’s organizational arrangements, financial and technical resource planning to be essential for implementing effective waste management interventions [13, 49, 50].

The study found that the two waste companies are constrained in dealing effectively with the collection and disposal of solid waste due to the inadequacy of equipment and logistics for waste collection and disposal. In addition, frequent break downs of large heavy-duty equipment and infrastructure disrupt the waste collection value chain, a challenge that impacts negatively on waste management in the municipality. The irregular pattern of waste collection along the waste value chain resulting from inadequate equipment and logistical challenges has been reported in previous studies in Ghana [16, 51]. Aside from the process of waste collection, transport of waste to dumping sites remains a challenge, largely due to the lack of appropriate equipment needed to dispose of large quantities of waste. It was noted that there was over-reliance on simple tools/equipment, particularly tricycles and wheelbarrows to transport and dispose of waste, including large quantities of waste. However, the findings of the study is not consistent with the recommended norm for disposal of large quantities of waste that includes specialized machinery, and equipment such as compactors, skip loaders, and waste disposal trailers [52].

The findings also show that the irregularity in waste collection and disposal creates health and environmental issues in the Municipality, with the occurrences of cholera and other dirt-related infectious diseases as noted by Kogi and Takramah [53]. Health problems are also attributed to the indiscriminate manner in which residents in the municipality dispose of waste, with the excuse that physical infrastructure such as public waste bins for temporal storage of waste at some collection points are inadequate. Evidence shows that unhygienic waste management practices resulted in reported cholera morbidity outcomes in the past in the municipality and other parts of Ghana as well as other settings across SSA [53]. A similar study reported that the absence of effective waste management and recycling systems is causing public health concerns in developing countries. This leads to diseases, hardship, and negative effects such as loss of income due to illness, and increased health care expenditure for the underprivileged [54]. Experience shows that regular supply of waste bins at various collection points improve easy accessibility for the residents to dump waste [47, 55].

The study also revealed that waste disposal sites are not engineered, leading to solid waste littering in open spaces as a result of using “archaic” practices in waste management. Recommended methods such as recycling and engineered landfills are either absent or rarely used. Instead, archaic practices such as open burning, landfilling, and open dumping of waste are increasingly being used in the Municipality. These archaic practices release toxic organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, and furans into the air, with negative effects on the eco-systems [56]. Our findings suggest poor adherence of the two study waste companies to Ghana’s Environmental Sanitation Policy (ESP) on final disposal methods. Ghana’s ESP specifically recommends technologies for solid disposal such as sanitary landfill, controlled dumping with cover, incineration, composting, and recycling as standards for the final disposal of urban and large industrial waste [57]. To ensure adherence to the ESP, regulatory agencies such as local authorities in Ghana need to be strengthened to strictly enforce legislation and by-laws on sanitation and solid waste management in the municipality.

Our findings depict a low sense of responsibility among urban residents towards supporting waste management companies’ efforts to manage solid waste. The low sense of responsibility is also manifested in negative attitudes and low-risk perceptions of urban residents towards solid waste management in general. These negative attitudes and perceptions by the urban residents could be due to a lack of awareness raising and environmental education on the potential harmful effects of improper solid waste disposal. In this study, the phenomenon of negative attitudes and low-risk perceptions among residents is not new since existing literature shows that local government authorities face similar challenges in dealing with waste management in most urban cities in SSA [58–60].

The study participants perceived that urban residents show strong arguments that the local authority should be solely responsible for matters of waste management, with disregard of citizens’ contributions to the process of waste generation and disposal [61, 62] noted that urban residents’ perception that generating waste creates job opportunities for domestic waste collectors (DWCs), and waste management companies contributed to the sense of inaction to support local authorities and waste companies to manage waste effectively. These findings suggest the need for a multi-sectoral partnership between public sector agencies to design and implement solid waste management effectively. Behavior change interventions/activities to improve urban residents’ awareness, knowledge, and cooperation for managing waste are important [63]. Local authorities and waste companies could identify multiple and innovative channels of targeting and communicating sanitation and hygiene messages to urban residents. Also, evidence indicates that appropriate communication channels can be effective when designing interventions aimed to influence positive sanitation and hygiene practices at the population level [64]

Another important finding from this study suggests that the managers’ and supervisors lacked the requisite technical and human resource management skills to effectively manage the waste processing along the value chain, contributing to the culture of poor waste management. Our finding corroborates previous studies that showed low-skilled workforce who play managerial or supervisory roles poses a serious challenge to the effective management of waste [65–67]. The lack of managers and supervisors of the requisite technical skills and capacity could be due to lack of training and poor condition of service in the waste management sector, making skilled workers to shun the job [26, 68, 69].

This study findings also show that urban resident’s refusal to pay waste management companies for services provided, contribute to the companies being under-resourced to operate at optimum. This may explain why the companies are not able to improve on the condition of service of the staff or purchase modern equipment for effective waste management. Our findings confirm previous studies that found inadequate financial resources as one of the major challenges of solid waste management in developing countries [19, 65]. The study also supports previous studies that reported inadequate funding support for managers and supervisors for solid waste management in the urban city councils [68, 70].

The lack of fair and firm enforcement of waste disposal laws by the local authority and political interference contributes to the poor community attitudes towards waste disposal and management. Thus, people litter indiscriminately because they know they would not be prosecuted. Previous studies in Ghana corroborate that the lack of enforcement of waste management legislation is a major obstacle to realizing effective and sustainable waste management [71, 72]. The non-enforcement of the regulations and bye-laws on sanitation may have many underlying reasons including inadequate capacity and financial resources at the local levels [73]. In order to ensure adherence to solid waste policies, there is a need for regulatory agencies such as local authorities to strictly enforce regulations and bye-laws on sanitation and solid waste management in the urban municipality. In addition, the study found that an inefficient or lack of role clarity and coordination among regulatory agencies such as EPA and the Environmental Health Department of the municipal authority affect the implementation of waste control laws in Ghana. Similarly, studies have confirmed that the inefficient or lack of role clarity and coordination amongst the regulatory agencies adversely affect waste management in urban cities in SSA [65]. In resolving the poor solid waste management in the study setting and other developing countries, there is a need for improvements in the coordination, and capacity building among regulatory agencies for effective waste management and environmental sanitation.

Socio-cultural beliefs and practices with regard to indiscriminate solid waste disposal were perceived as contributing to poor community waste disposal practices and cooperation with waste management companies. This is consistent with studies that reported that socio-cultural beliefs such as norms, lack of participation, and cooperation by the communities serve as a challenge to efficient solid waste management in SSA [74, 75]. When urban residents are involved in waste management, they support the waste company managers and supervisors to effectively manage solid waste [1]. The community’s participation, and cooperation in solid waste management activities from the planning stage to final disposal, and in structural reforms can enhance and motivate their sense of belonging and ownership [76]. There is a need for managers and supervisors of waste companies to adopt the positive socio-cultural beliefs and cultural practices that would promote sanitation improvement in the study setting and SSA [74]. In addition, there is a need for further research to explore the role of socio-cultural beliefs and cultural practices in solid waste management.

Conclusion

Our study results indicate that waste management is an activity that involves multiple stakeholders such as government, waste companies, and the community playing effective roles. A holistic approach would need to be adopted in intervening because the problems are interlinked. In order to address the challenge multidimensional and multilevel interventions are required. However, further research is necessary for understanding the most appropriate strategy for the involvement of urban residents in solid waste management in poor-resourced settings like Ghana. For effective and efficient solid waste management, the study recommends interventions at the local government, company, and community levels.

The local government authorities need to enforce sanitation and solid waste management by-laws on solid waste management for the waste companies to follow the standard procedure in solid waste management. At the community level, there is a need for the local government authorities to enforce sanitation and waste management regulations in households for the sanitary disposal of waste. The study recommends financial support from the central government to the waste management companies for effective solid waste management practices. There is also a need for training and capacity building for regulatory agencies in order to strengthen them to enable them to strictly enforce legislation and by-laws on sanitation and solid waste management in communities. The local government authorities should provide appropriate and engineered landfill sites for waste companies to dump waste in the appropriate way in order to avoid environmental pollution and flooding.

With regards to the company level, the study recommends that waste companies should follow the standard protocol in waste management. The study also recommends that managers and supervisors of waste companies should intensify awareness raising and education on environmental sensitization to the various target group such as urban residents and the community. In order to promote hygienic way of solid waste management. There is a need for the provision of adequate logistics, solid waste bins, and facilities at vantage points for easy access and dumping of waste. There is a need for waste companies to provide motivation and attractive terms and conditions of service for the staff. This will ensure that waste companies will recruit staff with the requisite skills and qualifications for effective and efficient solid waste delivery service.

At the community level, there is a need to promote community involvement and participation in decision-making processes on sanitation issues in order to help improve on effective solid waste management. In particular, improving waste collection coverage of municipal areas, introducing mass community awareness raising and information campaigns will help to address negative community attitudes towards waste management. Also, it could encourage community members to pay for sanitation levies towards waste management. The implication is that if the various stakeholders follow these recommendations it could lead to effective and efficient solid waste management in the study setting.

Supporting information

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our profound gratitude to all the study participants for sharing their opinions and experiences with the research team. Our special thanks go to Dr. Samuel Addo, and the research Assistants for assisting us in data collection.