Knowledge and Attitude of Market Women towards the Practice of Waste Disposal in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Fatai Olatunji Sule^*
*Correspondence: Fatai Olatunji Sule, Department of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA, Email:

Keywords

Women • Knowledge • Disposal methods • Sampling technique • Waste disposal

Introduction

A clean environment influences good health and improves quality of human life. An unhygienic environment, on the other hand, constitute a risk factor for environmental pollution and health hazard. Proper waste disposal is important for the protection of the people in our society.

Reno described waste as materials or eliminated by-products which are no longer useful [1]. It could be garbage, sludge, gaseous and other discharged materials resulting from various homes. They are unwanted domestic or industrial materials that are produced from human and animal activities and are described as useless. Human waste include solid, liquid (sewage) and gaseous waste. Solid waste includes; metal waste, aluminum materials, rubber, nylon, papers, husks or animal parts [2].

According to Ayuba, Manaf, Sabrina and Sulaiman, liquid wastes are waste materials such as dirty water from toilet and bathroom, running water from roads, useless diesel oils from factories and industrial effluents [3]. Others are running water from rivers, waste waters from kitchen, hospitals, schools, hostels, markets and other public places. Gaseous waste includes industrial waste, burning fire, tire, and exhaust from vehicles which are dangerous to our life.

Waste disposal is an act of removing and destroying or proper storage of damaged, used or other unwanted materials such as papers, glass, plastic for domestic, commercial and agricultural benefits [4].

Disposal of waste could be through landfill that involves burying waste in the land, incineration or combustion involving burning or composting that involves bio-degradation process that turns them into organic materials serving as nutrients which are useful in the farm to assist in growing plants.

The fact that wastes are generated daily calls for the need to have adequate knowledge of its disposal so as to guide against disease outbreak. Reno implies that knowledge is familiarity, awareness and understanding of the phenomenon of something which can be formal or informal. Knowledge can be acquired in different ways and from many different sources including education, reason, memory, inquiry, exploration and practice.

Bortoleto Kurisu and Hanaki, submitted that knowledge of individuals about waste disposal is recognized as an important and influential factor in effective waste disposal practices [5]. However, Amasuomo and Baird expressed that most people while having good knowledge of waste disposal do not practice what they now properly [6]. Inadequate and inappropriate knowledge of handling household waste may have serious health consequences and a significant impact on the environment. Adequate knowledge of waste disposal can, to an extent, change the attitude of people towards proper waste disposal.

Adogwu Uwakwe and Egenti, described attitude as a set of emotions, beliefs and behaviors toward a particular thing, object, person or event [7]. It connotes a predisposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain a certain idea, object, person or situation. Attitudes are often the result of experience or upbringing and they can have a powerful influence over behavior. Attitude of people towards waste disposal is their positive or negative behavior towards waste disposal in all public places.

One of the public places that is prone to high rate of waste generation is the market. Markets are characterized by a lot of buying and selling activities which will involve generation of waste. Due to the nature of activities that occur in the market, waste generation are on the high side. If proper hygiene is not maintained, there is a risk of a disease outbreak.

Adeyemo and Gboyesola. submitted that good knowledge and positive attitude are essential before an individual can dispose of their waste properly [8]. Poor waste disposal practices can lead to contamination of the environment hereby increasing the burden on infection and diseases among the people. Waste disposal practices can be improved by providing enlighten programs through the media; television, radio, social media etc., household meetings, through peer groups and other means of interaction among the people.

Adeyemo et al. also opined that stepping up of efforts by the government and non-governmental organizations in assisting the market women towards proper disposing methods of these wastes. Small amount of money can be collected from individuals to ease the cost spent on disposing the wastes generated by the market users. There is the introduction of environmental sanitation achieved by setting aside a day for proper cleaning of the environment whereby everyone is involved and being supervised by a task force. Offenders (those who do not participate) are penalized by being compelled to pay a certain amount of money as fine which will serve as a determinant to everyone in the market.

It has been noted by the researcher that the efforts of government and non-governmental organizations in ensuring proper waste disposal has yielded little success. In view of this, the researcher wants to investigate knowledge and attitude of market women towards the practice of waste disposal in Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Research questions

• What is the level of knowledge of waste disposal in Ekiti State?
• What is the level of attitude of market women towards waste disposal in Ekiti State?

Research hypothesis

There is no significant relationship between knowledge and attitude of market women towards waste disposal in Ekiti State.

Materials and Methods

This study adopted a descriptive research design for the purpose of describing and interpreting situations, beliefs, attitudes and prevailing practices. All the market women in Ekiti State will be the constituted population for this study that comprises of sixteen local governments and three senatorial district of Ekiti State; which have many towns and villages with about 150 market in all. The sample comprised of 108 market women selected from 6 local government area across the three senatorial district of Ekiti State. A simple random sampling procedure was used to select 2 local governments from each senatorial districts making 6 local government areas in the State. At the second stage, same procedure was used to select one town and one village from each of the 6 selected local government. At the third stage, same technique was used to select one market from the town and one from the village markets. The fourth stage, same simple random sampling technique was used to select 25 market women from each of the selected town and villages to give a total of 108 market women to serve as a respondent for the study.

Section A: This was used to gather information on the demographic characteristics of the respondents.

Section B: This was used to gather information on commonly disposed wastes among market women.

Section C: This was focused on information relating to knowledge of market women on waste disposal.

Section D: This was used to gather information on the practice of market women on waste disposal.

Results

Analysis

The age of the respondents was evenly distributed among the age groups while majority about 76.9% and 64.8% were female and lived with urban location respectively (Table 1).

Table 1. Demographic values.

Overall, waste from nylon 64.8% and waste from fruits 66.7% were the most commonly disposed waste among market women while waste from glass 42.6% and waste from metal work % were the never dealt with waste category (Table 2).

Table 2. Commonly disposed waste among market women.

The market women demonstrate good knowledge on waste disposal as majority have high knowledge index in the knowledge questions (Figure 1).

Table 3 revealed that more than half of the respondents 51.9% and 56.5% strongly agreed that proper waste disposal in the market area is their primary duty and they equally involved in the act of proper waste disposal. 63% strongly agree that each shop should have its own waste bin as a measure of good waste disposal practice while 60.2% strongly support that they engage in paying certain amount of money to execute proper waste disposal plans. Majority 69.4% strongly agree to be interested in proper control and disposal of waste in the market to enhance clean environment while more than half 58.3% confirm to engage in setting aside a day in a month for general cleaning of the market area. Overall the respondents demonstrate a good practice of waste disposal in the market area.

Table 3. Practice of market women on waste disposal.

Discussion

This study revealed that the respondent’s age was evenly distributed among the market women age groups. This was in line with Bortoleto et al. who submitted that age has no significant relationship with proper disposal of refuse which was in line with the view of Amasuomo et al. that various age groups can be find as market women. The findings also revealed that majority of the respondents were women and lived in urban areas. This was in line with Adeyemo et al. submitted that women are more involved in market activities than men.

The study further revealed that nylon and fruits with domestics waste were the commonly disposed waste among the market women while metal and glass waste were not given any consideration or seen as a waste. This view was in agreement with the report of Onazi et al. that domestic waste like unused fruits and other domestic waste that were not useful are commonly nylon and other common waste. It was also in-line with Adeyemo et al. that most market waste do sell their unused metals and glasses for further reuse by other people.

The result of this study also showed that market women have a good knowledge of waste disposal which was similar to that of Ayuba et al. this may be so because of public health education and enlightenments of people about the importance and good method of waste disposal that were done by government officials on proper waste disposal. This was also in agreement with the view of Yoada et al. that periodical enlightenments program helps in refreshing the memories of the people about proper disposal of waste [9].

This study also revealed that market women demonstrated a good practice of waste disposal in the market area. This finding was in agreement with Ferronato et al. report which stated that market women do ensure proper disposal of waste which may be due to a well-coordinated activities of the enlightenments program of the government and some non-governmental organisations in various communities on ways to disposed individual waste properly.

Finally, the study revealed there is no significant difference in the practice of waste disposal among rural and urban market women in Ekiti State, this may be so because of adequate supply of disposal materials for market women for effective and hygienic practices of waste disposal.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the activities of government and non-governmental organization in spreading the good news of proper waste disposal must be sustained. This will continue to enhance good practice of waste disposal methods helps to prevent the outbreak of diseases from the markets which can easily be spread to the community at large. In the same vein, government should sustain the punishment meted out to offenders who defaulted in engaging in the environmental sanitation.

Recommendations

The government and non-governmental organizations should engage the market women in various seminars and workshops to improve their knowledge on the proper waste disposal methods. Also, proper implementation of environmental sanitation and sanctions should be maintained by the government in areas that they are less strict. The government should provide more waste bins to ensure their adequacy in the markets. Every market users should also be encouraged to clean up their stalls, stands and environments after the days’ work. Lastly, the government should put machineries in motion to fumigate the market and its environments to kill insects, pests, reptiles and other inhabitants that are in the market.

References

1. Reno, Josh. "What is waste?." Worldwide Waste: J Interdiscip Stud 1 (2018): 1-11.

   [Crossref] [Google Scholar]

2. Onazi O, NS. Gaiya EO Ola-Adisa, and YPE Mangden. "An appraisal of Waste Management Practices in Selected Peri-Urban Communities in North Central Nigeria." (2018).

   [Google Scholar]

3. Ayuba, Kadafa Adati, Latifah Abd Manaf, Abdullah Ho Sabrina, and Sulaiman Wan Nur Azmin. "Current status of municipal solid waste management practise in FCT Abuja." Res J Environ Earth Sci 5 (2013): 295-304.

   [Crossref] [Google Scholar]

4. Ferronato, Navarro, and Vincenzo Torretta. "Waste mismanagement in developing countries: A review of global issues." Int J Environ Res Public Health 16 (2019): 1060.

   [Crossref] [Google Scholar] [PubMed]

5. Bortoleto, Ana Paula, Kiyo H. Kurisu, and Keisuke Hanaki. "Model development for household waste prevention behaviour." Waste Manag 32 (2012): 2195-2207.

   [Crossref] [Google Scholar] [PubMed]

6. Amasuomo, Ebikapade, and Jim Baird. "The concept of waste and waste management." J Mgmt Sustainability 6 (2016): 88.

   [Google Scholar]

7. Adogu, Prosper Obunikem Uchechukwu, Kenechi Anderson Uwakwe, Nonye Bibiana Egenti, and Ihuoma B. Nkwocha, et al. "Assessment of waste management practices among residents of Owerri Municipal Imo State Nigeria." J Environ Prot 6 (2015): 446-456.

   [Google Scholar]

8. Adeyemo, Florence O, and GO Gboyesola. "Knowledge, attitude and practices on waste management of people living in the University Area of Ogbomso, Nigerian." Int J Environ Ecol Family Urban Stud 3 (2013): 51-56.

   [Google Scholar]

9. Yoada, Ramatta Massa, Dennis Chirawurah, and Philip Baba Adongo. "Domestic waste disposal practice and perceptions of private sector waste management in urban Accra." BMC Public Health 14 (2014): 1-10.

   [Crossref] [Google Scholar] [PubMed]