Solid waste management is a basic activity and requires the participation of everyone to increase the quality of environment and health. The aim of this study was to assess solid waste management practice of Bedele town, Oromia, Ethiopia. The data was collected through sampled households and key informant interview, field observations and focus group discussion. Food waste, plastic bags, plastic bottles, papers and cartons, cans and glass were some of solid waste released from each household and disposed to inappropriate disposal site and environment. Majority of the respondents (60.4%) practiced open field disposal and incineration (21.7%) mechanisms.  The disposal sites used by the urban dwellers were open land (38.8%), road side (26.7%), river side (22%) and public centre (12.1%), respectively. The common identified diseases associated with poor solid waste management were common cold (52.9%), respiratory track and shyness (27%), and typhoid and cholera (4.6%) respectively. Television, radio, formal and informal meeting were reported as the information source for the communities on solid waste management. For the overall solid wastes generated by households, only 2.1% of the respondent responded as communities applied composting mechanisms. Containers such as plastic bag (61.25%), carton (30.83%), dust-pin (1.67%) and other local materials (6.25%) was used to collect solid wastes. Lack of appropriate disposal site and environmental awareness were the major factors affecting solid waste management as reported by 51.2% and 42.1% of the respondents respectively. Mean daily solid waste generation rate per day per household in the town based on the current finding was 0.3240 kg/day/house hold. Therefore, the municipality should have trained the communities to aware on effective and efficient solid waste management practices.

Key Words:  Disposal, Generation rate, Management, Solid waste

DOI: https://ejesm.org/doi/v12i5.4