Browsing by Author "Nell, Charlotte M."

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    Disposable diaper usage, disposal practices and quantity estimation in rural areas
    (Elsevier, 2024) Nell, Charlotte M.; Schenck, Catherina J.; Chitaka, Takunda Y.
    This study aimed to describe the disposable diaper usage, disposal practices and quantity estimation in a specified rural setting within a developing, sub-Saharan country, South Africa. Quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used to collect primary data, which included survey research, focus group discussions, participatory thematic mapping, illegal dumping mapping and member checking. Most diapers end up within the natural receiving environment due to a lack of formalised waste management service provision. Dumping hot spots are water courses and streams. On average, each infant generates 4.47 diapers per day, while an average of 158,154 and 34,493 total diapers are generated daily within Bushbuckridge and Maruleng, respectively. High unemployment and grant-dependency rates characterise the study area, and households often spend the majority of child support grants to purchase diapers. Residents were willing to use a diaper disposal point and are not opposed to incineration. This study forms a comprehensive baseline to determine the feasibility of disposable diaper beneficiation options in rural areas.
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    Waste characterisation in Stellenbosch Local Municipality, South Africa
    (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2022) Nell, Charlotte M.; Schenck, Catherina; de Waal, Jan
    This article demonstrates how household solid waste (HSW) generation patterns differ in neighbourhoods of the same town by determining the composition of the residual portion of the HSW stream in 2017 in Stellenbosch. HSW was collected from 10 pre-identified suburbs out of a total of 48. These chosen suburbs and their 17 830 households were representative of all the HSW from all households in the catchment area of the Devon Valley Landfill Site. A separation at source programme was in place in nine of the suburbs.The confidence level and level of precision were set at 95% and ±8%, respectively. A total of 1543 bags of HSW were collected with a total mass of 5748.01 kg and an uncompacted volume of 84.87 m3. The samples were sorted into 7 main and 18 final fractions.