Household Solid Waste Generation Rate and Onsite Handling Practices in Debre Berhan Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Solid waste management is one of the public health problems in Ethiopia. Accurate and reliable information on solid waste generation rate and onsite handling practice are very important elements to plan and implement solid waste management system. This study aimed to assess solid waste generation rate and onsite handling practices among the households of Debre Berhan town. A community based cross-sectional study was conducted on 211 households, and systematic sampling technique was used to select those households. Data was collected through face to face interview using pre-tested and structured questionnaire for onsite handling practices. The amount of solid waste generated per day was weighed to determine generation rate. Data entry and cleaning were done using Epi Info version 3.5.4, and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Solid waste generation rate from the households of Debre Berhan town was 0.253Kg/capita/day. Majority of the households (85.8%) in our study area had onsite storage, but only 8.5% of them had practiced appropriate onsite handling. Solid waste handling at household level was mainly the responsibility of the women (72%) compared with others family members. Poor onsite solid waste segregation was observed from the present study as 90% of households store all types of wastes in a single container. In conclusion, onsite solid waste handling practice was poor in our study area with less shared responsibility among the family members.