TITLE:
Assessment of Waste Management Practices among Residents of Owerri Municipal Imo State Nigeria
AUTHORS:
P. O. U. Adogu, K. A. Uwakwe, N. B. Egenti, A. P. Okwuoha, I. B. Nkwocha
KEYWORDS:
Waste Management, Knowledge, Practices, Owerri, Nigeria
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.6 No.5,
May
11,
2015
ABSTRACT: Poor waste management has been a major
problem to human existence and it affects both rural and urban areas. Various
methods of waste disposal exist and this study assessed the waste man-agement
practices among residents of Owerri Municipal, Imo state, Nigeria. It was a
descriptive cross sectional study in which a total of 282 residents of Owerri
Municipal were selected by multistage sampling technique and studied using self
and interviewer administered questionnaires. The results showed that 90% of
respondents were aware of waste management while 97.5% had posi-tive attitude
towards it. The major types of waste generated from households were food
residues (97.1%) and vegetable products (95.4%). Also poor waste management
practices among residents include open dumping, practiced by 66.3% of the
residents and burning as practiced by 62.4% of respondents. The commonest means
of waste transport to final disposal site was by wheel barrow. Gender and
educational status of respondents significantly influenced their knowledge,
attitude and practice of waste management (p