Abstract:
Urbanization with inadequate waste management practices widespread disposal of
waste in dumping inside the road and uncontrolled dump sites aggravates the
problems in Ethiopia. This research paper presents a study on identifying the determinants of
solid waste management practice in Gondar town, Amhara regional state. The collected data
were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics among 385 randomly selected
household accomplished through questionnaires, field observations and focus group
discussion. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the data
Descriptive statistics using group and table for analyzing of the result, and the study also
used the binary logistic regression model. The trends of solid waste disposal in the study
area also showed increasing rate from the year 1999 up to 2019 with R
2
value of 15 %, the
maximum and minimum annual average solid waste disposals was 36711 m3 in 2013 and
2893 m3 in 2005 respectively. The result showed about types of solid waste generated in
household level, the residents reflect the most of the nine identified solid waste like food
waste, paper and cardboard, yard wastes, dust, ash and fine sand, plastic, metal, textile,
glass and ceramics and rubber and leather waste. Most of the residents response yes we are
generating and less than 5% of respondent response no generate for each type of solid waste.
The result show that about amount of each solid waste were paper and cardboard 79.2 % of
respondent produce below 1 kg and 1.8% from 6-10 kg, and 90% of respondents produce
below 1 kg waste for each waste type per day. The socio economic result for the determinant
of solid waste management indicated that access to private solid waste collectors, awareness,
willingness to pay to pay at 0.05 significance level, and other independent variable like
education status, income, year stay also significant at 0.01 level of significance. The result of
reuse and sold of solid waste indicated most of the respondents 82.3% dispose their waste
without reusing, and 83.6% do not change their cloth wastes for plastic. The majority of the
residents practiced improper solid waste management. Lack of adequate knowledge about
solid waste management and not having access to door to door solid waste collection could
have contributed to the reported improper solid waste practice. Therefore, there is a need to
enhance the awareness of the community about proper SWM and to improve the door to door
solid waste collection service by the town municipality.
