The ugly side of ‘Aboboyaa’ in waste collection

I watched in utter disgust as the motorised tricycle, popularly known as "aboboyaa", with stinking garbage on its exposed bucket cruised through a busy street of Kumasi at about midday.

As the "aboboyaa " pulled away recklessly, the rider obviously was making nonsense of the rights of the other road users.

For some time now, garbage tricycles in the cities, especially in Accra and Kumasi during the busy hours, is a daily nuisance that residents have come to live with.

The nauseating smell emitted from the buckets of these tricycles pollutes the air and it is a health hazard.

Some of the tricycles also litter the roads with garbage as they pull along on top speed- the very cities they want to help clean are made dirty by their movement.

Headache of waste collection

Waste collection has for a long time been one of the biggest problems confronting our major cities.

Every year, metropolitan assemblies make huge budgetary allocations for waste management yet, the problem of waste collection remains unsolved. Not even interventions by the government have helped to save the situation.

A sizable amount of waste generated daily remains uncollected with all the attendant environmental and health hazards.

Kumasi, for instance, generates  an average of 1,500  tonnes of solid waste every day but 1, 200 tonnes is evacuated to the landfill sites with the remaining 300 tonnes finding its way into gutters and around container sites.

Enter motorised tricycles

In October 2006, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly  (KMA) launched a tricycle waste collection concept as part of efforts to improve waste collection in the metropolis.

The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) at the time, Madam Patricia Appiagyei,  said waste management company,   Zoomlion Ghana Limited,  was to execute the concept.

Kumasi was facing difficulties in its waste collection and the tricycles were to fill in a major gap by  ensuring effective collection of waste from communities, especially in high-density but low-income areas where waste collection trucks could not have access to.

For more than 10 years, the tricycle concept has played a major role in the collection of waste in the metropolis but Zoomlion no longer holds the monopoly.

Individuals have joined in the collection of refuse from homes for a fee, and although the development has brought competition into the system and ensured some level of improvement in sanitation,  it also comes with challenges.

Regulating  use of "Aboboyaa"

In his maiden sessional address to the KMA on May, 11, 2017, the current MCE,  Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, spoke about plans to regulate the use of "Aboboyaa" in waste collection in the metropolis.  

He said," The use of "aboboyaa" for refuse collection should be regularised and controlled by providing operational guidelines, registration, embossment and training."

Although the mayor admitted that the tricycles were making huge contributions to solid waste management in the city, he expressed concern about the indiscriminate dumping of waste at dump sites by the riders of the tricycles.

Mr Antwi could not have said it better looking at the nuisance caused by some of the motor riders.

Filling a void

It is a fact that these tricycles have come to fill a void in waste collection in the cities.

Until the introduction of the tricycles,  many people had to carry solid waste generated in their homes to the dumping site.   But, a common sight in recent times is residents standing outside their homes, especially in the  mornings, to hand over waste to these motorised tricycles for a fee.

Reports from some communities indicate that the amount of garbage thrown into the gutters has reduced as a result of the introduction of the tricycles.

The dumping of refuse into the gutters usually leads to the choking of gutters which causes flooding during rainfall.

Clearly,  these motorised tricycles in waste collection has come to stay in our cities but the system is being abused by operators of the tricycles which needs to be checked by the KMA.

Looking forward

It is important  for the KMA, and indeed all other local authorities, to reconsider the time rubbish containers are emptied as the current situation creates a nuisance for city dwellers.

The riders must also cover the garbage in the bucket of the tricycles to prevent  the offensive smell emanating from the moving tricycles.

Again, the assemblies must consider leveraging the use of tricycles in the segregation of waste in households.  

In some countries where the tricycles are used in the waste management concept, tricycles go to the communities with bins to collect the segregated waste, which is then bought by some companies for recycling.

Here, again,  the KMA’s Chief Executive hinted of plans to start sorting waste as part of measures to check the indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the city, and also create jobs for the people.

According to him, some communities would be selected to pilot the sorting of solid waste at the household level.