Abstract
Assessment of perception on solid waste disposal is fundamental to any proper planning of solid waste management in an area. This study assessed the value-added solid waste disposal perception in Kwamo community, Ejisu Municipality in Ghana. Two hundred and sixty (260) households were stratified into high, middle and low-class residential areas based on the type of building, access to road and income status, randomly sampled and interviewed via a structured questionnaire. This study indicated 85% of the respondents consider waste materials as potential value-added resources. Concerns on negative environmental impact of improper solid waste disposal was raised by 77.7% of the responding population, 18.5% were not aware and 3.8% not sure of the negative impacts. The awareness creation on the negative impacts of waste was effective in the following order: media (36.2%) > school (30.3%) > neighborhood (16%) > friends (12.2%). Waste segregation at source was known and practiced by 4.6% while 95.4% of the households had waste bins for storage of their wastes but do not practice segregation. About 74.6% of respondents were interested to participate in waste segregation while 71.5% had interest in adding value to waste (community-based composting). It implies that source separation of waste can be practiced as an integral part of waste management in the municipality. Waste segregation has a potential of providing cleaner materials to maximize revenue through compost preparation, recycling and land reclamation and reduce challenges with public health caused by poor management of waste.
Key Words: Waste disposal, Compost, Value-addition, Community-based waste management, Ghana
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