Abstract
Insufficient staff, inappropriate collection vehicles, limited operating budgets and growing, hard to reach populations mean that solid waste management remains limited in most developing countries; Malawi is no exception. We estimated the willingness to pay (WTP) for two hypothetical solid waste collection services. Additionally, we tested the impact of the WTP question positioning relative to environmental perceptions on respondents’ WTP. The first scenario involved a five minute walk to a disposal facility; the second scenario involved a 30 min walk. Additionally, the order of the question was randomized within the questionnaire. A WTP value of K1780 was found for the five minute walk scenario when the question was placed first, and K2138 when placed after revealing the respondent’s perceptions on the environment. In the 30 min walk scenario, WTP was K945 when placed first and K1139 when placed after revealing the respondent’s perceptions on the environment. The estimated values indicate that there is both a willingness to pay for solid waste services and that there are at least two options that would be acceptable to the community; a pilot scale implementation would be required to validate the hypothetical values, especially given the dependency on problem framing. Community financing should be considered as a sustainable approach to solid waste management in underserved areas.
Highlights
Adequate management of solid waste should promote minimum waste generation, and include regular collection, voluntary separation, safe and adequate storage, effective treatment and safe disposal (UN-Habitat 2012)
We found no correlation between the current disposal practices and the willingness to pay (WTP) values
Our results indicate that there is a willingness to pay for improving solid waste collection in
Summary
Adequate management of solid waste should promote minimum waste generation, and include regular collection, voluntary separation, safe and adequate storage, effective treatment and safe disposal (UN-Habitat 2012). Poor waste management reduces the quality of life by providing food and breeding conditions for vermin and disease vectors, producing odor, diminishing aesthetics and contaminating surface and ground water (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata 2012). Financing for the transport, human resources, and facilities that are required is usually supplied via some sort of tax base, but in resource-poor environments, solid waste management (SWM) is usually under-funded and as a result, poorly managed. Over 70% of the population lives in unplanned areas, which occupies 23% of the land area in Blantyre (UN-Habitat 2012). There is collection (and semi-controlled dumping) of waste in formal areas, informal areas are left unserved
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