Abstract
Solid waste management remains a major challenge in Ghana, especially in the peri-urban and urban areas. The implications from this bottleneck are widely acknowledged. Nonetheless, fundamental issues such as the factors that drive households into the adoption of a particular solid waste disposal system have not been explored. This study applied a multinomial logit approach using 16,767 households in the Ghana Living Standard Survey round six data to examine whether or not socioeconomic factors influence households' decision to adopt a particular solid waste disposal system. The results established that a number of the hypothesised socioeconomic factors drive households into the use of a particular solid waste disposal system. For instance, education of households on solid waste management is important to increase households' decision into collecting wastes other than open dumping or burning. The characteristics of houses and the location of households also influence waste disposal systems in Ghana. We conclude that solid waste disposal at unapproved places was largely influenced by socioeconomic characteristics other than income or welfare of households. We recommend continuous advocacy programmes on improved solid waste management systems, led by the various decentralised governance structures such as the District Assemblies, to curb the menace.
Highlights
Solid waste management is a major problem to most economies, especially the developing ones such as Ghana
Population growth coupled with urbanisation will mean that solid waste generation would be on the increase. This calls for increasing attention for solid waste management systems in Ghana
We examined the factors that drive households into the adoption of a particular solid waste disposal system
Summary
Solid waste management is a major problem to most economies, especially the developing ones such as Ghana. About 1.3 tonnes of solid waste is generated annually and this is expected to increase to 2.2 tonnes in 2025 while the cost of solid waste will increase from the present $205.4 billion to about $375.5 billion in 2025 (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012) The increase in both quantity and cost is expected to be high among the developing countries such as Ghana. In addition to air pollution, flooding and public health effects, solid waste contributes to climate change through methane production (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012). This is an indication that the situation is detrimental to sustainable development and human wellbeing
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More From: Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy
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