Abstract:
Waste in urban areas is growing rapidly everywhere in the world. Effective methods to address
challenges of solid waste management are critical in achieving an environment that is clean and
healthy. The problem of waste growth in urban areas has been brought about by low collection
of waste, illegal and uncontrolled dumping sites and the absence of sewer lines. In Kenya for
instance the growth of economy has resulted in the development of cities and emergence of
towns leading to waste management challenges. Efforts have been directed towards addressing
the problem of waste management by various county governments. This study sought to address
solid waste disposal and management challenges in Nyamira Municipality. The methods which
are being employed to address this challenge was costly and had not yielded desirable results
as was evident with the scattered waste in the streets of Nyamira Municipality. Currently the
management does not carry out any waste recycling and has hired one landfill which is paid
for monthly. This Study formulated solid waste management tool that involved construction
of a fuzzy goal programming model with two objective functions. The model was solved
analytically by simplex method. The obtained results for first objective function of minimizing
the cost of solid waste management is ksh. 26,557,125 which gives a membership function
of 0.6 and the second objective function of maximizing revenue is ksh 9,500,000 that is 0.5
membership function. This findings has reduced the net system cost of solid waste management
in Nyamira Municipality by 36%. Numerical simulation and sensitivity analysis was carried
by varying the operation cost of recycling facility and on the capacity of recycling facility
parameters and then the graphs drawn using MATLAB software. The utility of the model
was tested using data from Nyamira municipality. The research advocates for waste recycling
as one of the ways of managing waste so as to earn revenue from these recycled waste. The
findings of this study is useful in formulating policies such setting up of waste management
projects and establishment of recycling industries. Furthermore the findings forms the basis for
future research in related fields.
