Determining Waste Plastic Generation in Developing Cities Via Geographical Analysis

With recent global attention on waste plastic generation and its accumulation on land and in oceans, several solutions for combating waste plastic accumulation have emerged. Viable solutions include ocean-cleanup efforts, reduction of waste plastic on land by recycling or incinerating, utilization of waste plastic for construction of homes, roads, and consumer goods like shoes or blankets, and complete removal of plastic from the ecosystem via pyrolysis. These solutions are altering human perception of waste plastic from garbage to a valuable resource.

However, the potential and feasibility of implementing these solutions is limited in developing countries due to lack of data on the amount of plastic waste generated in a location, such as for a city or village. Often, insufficient capital and infrastructure hinder proper collection and management of waste plastic in these regions. Thus, a tool is needed for estimating waste plastic generation in places where data is not readily available. This study performs this analysis by correlating geographical information, such as residential and commercial density, size and location of buildings to population density and income level factors directly correlated to waste plastic generation. A case study was performed in Kampala, Uganda for development of a metric that estimates waste plastic generation by analyzing the geographical overview of the city's neighborhoods via QGIS, an open-sourced special analysis tool. Initially, input data were provided for the city's plastic generation, population density and income level for each neighborhood. In return, the metric estimates waste plastic generation for similar Sub-Saharan African cities.