Willingness to pay for improved solid waste management services in an urbanizing area in South-East Nigeria

Developing countries often fail to pay adequate attention to solid waste management in the bid to accelerate the rate of their development, and this oversight typically culminates into an adverse impact on the environment and on public health and safety. This paper sought to analyse the factors influencing residents’ willingness to pay for improved solid waste management services due to private sector involvement in Ihiala, Southeastern Nigeria. Data were collected with structured questionnaires administered to ninety respondents, and was analysed using descriptive statistics and ordered logit regression. The results showed that majority (92.2%) of the residents were aware of the inherent risks that could stem out of improper solid waste management, although a lesser proportion of them (64.4%) were willing to pay for an improvement. WTP was influenced by marital status, household size and income. It was recommended that government pursue policies that will significantly improve the income of residents and encourage public-private partnership in waste management.Keywords: Solid waste management, Willingness to Pay, Ordered logit, pollutio

Socioeconomic determinants of food waste among households in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeris

Due to rapid urbanization, population growth, rising living standards as well as changing lifestyle and diets, food waste has emerged as a crucial issue with far reaching implications on food security and environmental sustainability in developing countries, including Nigeria. Consequently, this study examined socioeconomic factors influencing household food waste in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Data were collected using multi-stage sampling procedure, and analysed using descriptive statistics and Tobit regression. The average value of food waste was N1, 499.67 per month with cereals accounting for the largest percentage (27.97%) of total value of food waste. Food waste is mostly experienced during storage and as left-over across various food groups. The results of the Tobit regression model showed that gender and age of household, location of households (rural dummy), household income, type of work of household head, presence of children, presence of refrigerator and unawareness of the environmental effects of waste had varying significant influences on household food waste of different food groups in the study area. The study recommends that government should improve the level of infrastructure development (electricity), in order to encourage households to utilize refrigerators and other electricity dependent storage equipment, which can help reduce the amount of food waste. In addition, public enlightenment about the moral and environmental effects of food waste should be pursued vigorously