Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Market Women at Takoradi Market Circle Towards Waste Management

ABSTRACT

Effective management of waste has globally been a challenge, especially in most developing countries. With a rapid increase in population growth, urbanization, industrialization and change in consumers‟ pattern of living, waste generation has increased over time with limited resources of most governments to adequately manage such waste effectively. The effects are that waste are left uncollected and not properly disposed of which could breed an outbreak of diseases. The study thus aimed to find out the knowledge, attitude and practices of market women in Takoradi market circle towards management of waste. The study further explored age, educational level and items sold as important variables that affect women‟s knowledge, attitude and practice towards waste management. The study was subsumed in the theory of planned behaviour to be able to predict and explain the behavioural patterns of market women towards the management of waste. The study employed the Descriptive Survey Research Design with an integration of quantitative and qualitative data collection tools. A sample size of 150 respondents was selected to represent the total population of 1100. In addition, five market queens and two officials from the waste management services were also interviewed. The study also employed simple random, purposive, convenience and snowball sampling techniques to select respondents for the study.

Moreover, descriptive statistical methods used to analyse the data include chi-square and Pearson correlation to establish the relationship between some background information of the respondents and their knowledge, attitude and practice towards waste management. xi The study found out that most women at the Takoradi market circle had knowledge in some aspects of waste management such as proper disposal of waste and waste separation but lacked knowledge on waste reduction. Their knowledge could, however, not be translated into good practices towards waste management as more than half of them admitted they do not separate their waste. The study also revealed that market women had a very positive attitude towards management of waste though their practices showed otherwise. The study concluded that even though market women expressed high knowledge and attitude towards management of waste, their practices towards the management of waste was low. This is because most of them (58%) indicated negative practice towards proper disposal of waste. It was also revealed that, most waste piled up at the market was as a result of the inability of city officials to correspondingly collect the waste that is generated daily. The study recommended more and frequent sensitizing programmes for market women to enable them to translate their knowledge into effective waste management practices. In addition, city authorities must provide necessary support to enable the waste collection task forces to promptly collect waste at the market circle.