Waste management in urban Africa: a case of solid waste separation for reduce, reuse and recycle in Dar es Salaam

The 3Rs Initiative of Waste Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is among solutions to Waste Management Challenges in most urban areas. To achieve this initiative however, waste has to be appropriately separated at generation points. This study focuses on households as a unit of analysis, who are the largest source of waste generation in Dar es Salaam and with potential for reuse and recycle. It uses a survey approach through administering questionnaire to collect the data for a total of 450 households in all the three Municipalities in Dar es Salaam. This data is then used to investigate determinants of domestic (households) separation behavior. Analysis based on the descriptive statistics found that knowledge on reuse and recycled material was mainly limited to plastic bottles while most of other wastes is regarded as useless. Using Logistic regression model, the variables such as education, income, incentives, status of waste handling and peer influence showed a significant influence on household’s willingness to participate in domestic waste separation. To enhance higher levels of participation, this study is recommending for more awareness, preferring local government campaigns as primary medium of awareness since local campaigns are interactive and close to households. Further, there is a need of establishing collection centers near households, alongside creating markets for sorted waste so as to provide incentive to lure household’s participation in waste management. Waste separation at source is necessary to effectively implement 3Rs initiative and attain not only solution to waste management challenges but also offers income to material sorters, generate employment and promote industries and local artisan utilizing reuse and recycled materials.