Turning Household Solid Wastes into Resources for Poverty Alleviation: A Case Study of Abokobi in the Ga East Municipality

Abstract

The study was a randomly-sampling based survey of 165 respondents living in three suburbs of Abokobi – low-income, middle-income and high-income areas. It was undertaken to identify the types of solid wastes generated by householders, ascertain the solid waste management practices of households, assess the level knowledge of households with regards to the various methods for converting solid wastes into resources for their benefit, and assess the current practices of converting solid waste into resources. The study further assessed the acceptability of new waste disposal methods and established the factors influencing the levels of income currently earned through conversion of solid wastes into resources. The results indicated that 12 different types of solid wastes were generated by householders with food and plastic wastes being the dominant ones. The most popular methods of disposal of solid wastes were dumping of such wastes into public containers and burning the wastes around the home; these two methods were especially favoured by people living in the low-income and middle-income suburbs. Waste collection services offered by companies was also a major disposal method used by slightly over one-third of households, especially those living in the high-income suburb. Respondents generally had a low level of knowledge concerning the methods available for converting solid wastes into resources. However, given the right information and conditions, more than 90% of the respondents were willing to accept the alternative methods of converting waste into a resource such as waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting. It was established that older women aged over 50 earned more money from collecting household plastic wastes than other groups of people.