**6. Findings and discussion**

#### **6.1 SWC practices in the five cities**

Solid waste is kept in waste sacks (locally knows as 'kesha') and containers 'Genda' before collection. Most of the waste sacks are over-used, with some holes on them uncovered and untidy. As a result, leachate and odour are unpleasantly common. The situation is aggravated by the presence of ownerless dogs that disperse the collected waste at the transfer station while searching for food. It was also observed that the wind disperses the dirt. Only a few households in each city use standard containers, durable with fitted lids, able to prevent odour and leachate flow from the waste, and these are mainly in high-income areas.

It is common in the five cities to see wastes in open drains or on the ground near the houses before the collection truck takes them. The waste is collected by the crew members and transferred to the disposal sites. These workers often complained about the littering habit of households, i.e. pushing waste from their houses into the ground, drainage lines and on roads. Burning and burying solid waste around home areas are practised by some households. During collection, crew members move around the households to alert them with alarms to bring waste out for collection. Then, they unload the waste from the waste sacks and containers, put them in the collection trucks and return the waste sacks to the owners. House-to-house and communal type of SWC is practised in the study cities. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Addis Ababa and in Adama collect waste from households, whereas SMEs in Bahir Dar and Hawasa collect waste from households, hotels and institutions and take the waste to transfer stations. In Addis Ababa, waste from hotels and institutions is taken to landfills by private companies while such waste is taken to transfer stations and landfills by companies in the other cities. CAA's and CADs' vehicles take waste from transfer points (communal containers) to the disposal site.

#### **6.2 Awareness**

FGD participants revealed that several individuals put waste in waste sacks and throw it in the narrow streets or under the fence of other households. Despite the

#### *Waste Separation and 3R's Principles for Sustainable SWM: Practice of Households… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108327*

presence of dust bins in most central parts of the city either as standing on the road or mounted on lamp posts or telegraph poles and other strategic sites, such as bus stops, shopping places and walk streets, people do not use them properly. As a result, banana skins, bus tickets, used tissue paper, chewing gums, etc. are seen on the street. And individuals are not held responsible for such trashes.

FGD participants especially in Addis Ababa confirmed that travellers and strangers are not concerned about the cleanliness of the city since they lack sense of ownership and awareness. From the FGD, we noticed that most of the time it is the women who manage and throw out the waste. Culturally, SWC tasks are largely left to mothers and maid servants. However, Hage et al. [38] found that gender does not matter much for recycling behaviour. Most households fail to recognise channelling of materials at household level to SMEs as precursor for supplying of material input to recycling and reuse process. We also noticed that people have low perceptions of the waste problem and its threat and their responsibility of safe environment.

Interviewed private company managers and SMEs members complained about health and safety issues due to poor SWC system. They also showed dissatisfaction with the poor cooperation of residents and poor storage practice of some households.

A study by Tilye and van dijk [13], which is related to this, revealed that the city cleanliness index of Addis Ababa was much less than that of the neighbourhood index. This was due to lack of public awareness of the health implications of unsanitary practices and residents' indifference to the presence of waste.

FGD results indicate that CAA and CADs neither have they done much on public education themselves nor have integrated with service providers to do so. CAA and CADs did not provide the residents with facilities, such as dust bins and containers for sorting waste. Moreover, their failure to enforce a regulatory sanction made residents become less careful and even ignorant for waste handling. More general education and information about the broader issues underlying waste management are required in order to explain to the public the need for and the benefits from the acceptance of a wider responsibility towards waste disposal [39].

#### **6.3 Awareness for waste reduction**

What is ideal is reducing waste generation beforehand so that no waste is left for disposal or recycle. However, this conception is not equally understood by the community. In all the five cities, FGD participants mentioned that most of the residents are unaware of waste reduction. For instance, households are unaware of the importance of avoiding small individual packages of any products and using of durable plastic materials for handling as part of waste reduction activities. Even though the Ethiopian saying 'Alemakosheshmatsdatnaw/not generating waste is tantamount to keeping clean'is displayed in public places, but it seems that most people do not value it.

Failing to understand the benefit of waste reduction is still seen even among the SW collecting private companies and SMEs. The main reason for this is, according to the FGD, their payment is based on the amount of waste they collect and dispose. Some companies even believe that the application of waste reduction means an activity which hinders their business as, for instance, compost making reduces the amount of waste to be collected. Even SMEs and other companies do not want residents to bury or incinerate waste. Some companies even mix ashes, concrete scarps with other waste so that the waste becomes heavier and looks full.'

#### **6.4 Practice of waste separation**

Ecological sustainability concerns household participation in reuse, recycling and composting and the intention to support recycling by practising in separation at source. The FGD results and personal observations show that many households do not have awareness about waste separation. An interviewee from a household in Mekelle said, 'Let alone waste separation our district has no coverage for SWC', he added, 'we are better than others because we collect waste at least in a waste sack and make it ready for collection'. A few households reasoned lack of sorting materials for their failure of separating waste.

A household interviewee in Addis Ababa said people in the area do not have a warranty to get back their own relatively new waste storing material from SMEs. This forced them to use less value materials which subsequently affect the quality of waste handling. Two household interviewees who live in a condominium in Adama said they do not want more than one waste sack reasoning lack of space in their compounds.

Households are required to have two solid waste collection receptacles – one for organic and the other for non-organic waste as gathered from the FGD in Mekelle. However, this was later stopped because of residents' carelessness and absence of enforcement from CADs.

As a better practice, in a sub-district of Bahir Dar city, people used to separate waste using three different coloured containers, i.e. yellow for plastic waste; green for degradable waste; and black for hazard waste. Officials in the city confirmed that there was an effort by individuals at household level to separate waste for different purposes. There were trained households by government, civil society and community-based organisation to separate the organic part of the waste and produce compost in their compounds. This was later stopped because of the residents' carelessness and absence of support from CADs. Some households separate animal extract and use or sell it for fuel purpose.

According to the CAA and CADs officials, the challenges for waste separation are CAA's incapability to provide households with different coloured waste sorting materials even in the rich neighbourhoods and the absence of a responsible monitoring body. All the cities shared the lack of kerbside recycling bins, lack of recycling machineries both in the transfer stations and in the disposal sites and a gap towards mobilising household and private providers to separate waste. This finding is similar to Williams and Kelly [40], who found that people mentioning insufficient availability of space to store recyclables both inside and outside the home as well as inadequate local facilities as barriers for separation and recycling. However, CAD officials in Mekelle planned to request their regional administration to produce plastic waste bins to be distributed to the residents at a lower price.

#### **6.5 Waste reuse and recycling practice**

It was noticed from the FGD that willingness to reuse and eventually reduce waste is not based on the positive environmental attitudes and active concern for waste issues; it is rather on economic benefits. This is because they use the waste to earn money. Households are the first level for identifying the type of waste for reuse. This practice even extends to the disposal sites. Disposal sites do not have fences. People live around them. Painstakingly, some people search for materials with their naked fingers to extract plastic bags, cans and iron bars.

#### *Waste Separation and 3R's Principles for Sustainable SWM: Practice of Households… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108327*

Recyclable materials in the household waste stream in each city can be categorised as dry, i.e. comprising paper, plastics, metals, glass and textile, etc. and organic material, consisting of kitchen (food) and garden waste, which are suitable for composting. From our observation in the five cities, we noticed private companies were collecting solid waste with high organic content.

A resident interviewee in the rich neighbourhood said that there is potentially recyclable waste in his compound; for instance, shampoo bottles, empty facial tissue boxes, empty toilet paper tubes and the like. Items that have intrinsic commodity value, such as glasses, cans, rubbers, plastics, low grade paper, are locally traded. These materials are bought by itinerant buyers (Locally known as 'korale' and 'Liwach'). The 'korale' are door-to-door traders who buy and/or exchange reusable items; for example, tins, plastics, bottles, nail varnish containers, broken cooking jars, used shoes, old garments, etc. They supply such materials to middlemen at Mercato in Addis Ababa and at the local markets in the other cities.

These traders have a huge impact on the reduction of solid waste both at household and city level. Despite their well-established economic system and a market niche in the city, they were less recognised by the public sector for their contribution to recycling and reuse. According to the FGD with CAA and CAD officials, such individuals are informal collectors from the poor section of the society. There are more than 10,000 informal collectors in Addis Ababa as secondary data indicated. Yet, they are not organised and do not have support from the city administration.

A review of the 'Urban Development and Construction Minster, Waste Management and Green Development Strategy Document'shows that Ethiopia's climate Resilient Green Economy strategy underpins mainly four issues: forest protection and development; electric power generation from renewable energy; modern energy saving transport, and industry development. Linked to waste management, the strategy stipulates wastes from households, transfer stations and disposal sites should be reused to enhance agricultural productivity through compost and bio gas production. A CAA official in Addis Ababa mentioned that in the disposal site called 'Koshe', biogas generation project is undergoing.

This strategy document states that SME associations who are involved in the reuse and compost production could be granted land with discounted lease payment and facilitated. For instance, capital goods imported for such production will be tax-free. This makes SMEs and households to be integrated into compost marketing. So, the benefit goes both to them and to the farmers through satisfying their demand for fertilisers. Nevertheless, the FGD shows that the strategy has not yet been successfully implemented. SME interviewees confirmed that though they were conscious about the strategy, they were not involved and became beneficiaries. On the other hand, some households consider the compost production as a burden on their livelihood, and they fear they may not have a market for it. Still, some others complained about a lack of space to produce compost.

As a good practice in the periphery of Bahir Dar city, we discovered a resident who locally produces compost from organic materials consisting of kitchen and garden waste. He uses his compost in his garden and farmland. He also sells the compost in the local market. He said he had a vision of environmental responsibility. He also envisioned that he would produce more if he would get machinery support as he believes composting is a business opportunity. He remarked that if people are educated in this regard, over the years people gradually would evolve from a hauler of waste to a producer of fertilisers.

Connected to reuse and recycling, a large proportion of reusable materials are transported to small towns and rural areas to be used as household items, such as plastic bottles for holding water, oil and gas; used cans for storing cereals, honey, butter and spices. In the five cities, there are industries that reuse rejected paper, glasses, plastic fabrics, iron pieces and steel rods as raw materials. Raw materials for plastic fabrics which are imported could have been substituted by local scraps through recycling.
