Household Perspective of Plastic Waste Management in Urban Ghana: A Case Study of the Bolgatanga Municipality

Many urban areas in Ghana are heavily polluted with plastic waste and the Bolgatanga Municipality is not an exception. The inability of the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly and Zoomlion Ghana limited (a private waste management firm) to tackle the problem calls for the participation of the general public. Households as a subset of the public consume more plastic products and subsequently generates enormous amount of waste. In addition, their waste management practices affect the environment. In view of this, the study was carried out to ascertain the plastic waste situation, identify household plastic waste management practices and challenges, and to find out from the household's perspective the way forward to reducing plastic waste. This questionnaire-based study was carried out in twelve (12) randomly selected electoral areas, and the analysis of the results showed that about 81.67% of households believed that the plastic waste situation was bad. Household waste management practices identified included temporal storage of waste in dustbins, boxes, buckets and large polythene bags. At the household level, plastic waste was generally collected together with other household waste and temporary stored in waste storage bins. In terms of final disposal from the household, about 54.77% of households disposed their waste at approved dumping sites whil34.77% burned their waste, 8.92% disposed their waste at any available open space whilst 1.54% buried their waste. Challenges of household waste management identified were distance to dumpsites, lack of sufficient dumpsite and dustbins as well as irregular collection of waste by waste management firms. Households however believed that dealing with the problem required a change of attitude towards waste disposal, discontinuation of plastic use, recycling, and all stakeholder participation in waste management. Recommendations made included the establishment of a recycling plant, creation of awareness and carrying out educational campaigns, the use of environment R's (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) and support for the Municipal Assemblyin its waste management efforts.