HOUSEHOLDS PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG HOUSHOLDS IN HARAR TOWN, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Plastic wastes impose serious environmental pollutions and health problems in humans and animals. These problems are worsened in low-income countries like Ethiopia. Evidence on how households plastic wate management, dispose and perception about its impacts on environmental is limited in Eastern part of Ethiopia, particularly in Harar town, Harari region. Objective: To assess the household plastic waste management practices and associated factors among households in Harar town, Eastern Ethiopia from 01/04/2023-30/04/2023. Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 420 randomly selected households. The source populatios was all households in six urban districts in the Harari region while the study population was the randomly selected household in three urban districts in the Harar town. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire through face-to-face interview. The cleaned data were entered into Epidata version 3.5.1 then exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis. Logistic regression was applied. The variables with p-value of ≤0.25 from binary logistic regression were candidate for multivariable logistic regression to determine associated factor with the outcome and declared significantly associated when p-value ≤0.05. Results: In this study, the prevalence of proper plastic waste management practice was 68.8% with 95%CI (65.0, 73.6). Of the total participants, 216 (51.4%) of participants had poor perception on the environmental impact of plastic wastes. Factors scuh as being female [AOR= 0.50, 95%CI: 0.30, 0.79], secondary education AOR=2.88, 95% CI (1.12, 7.43)], preparatory education [AOR=3.41, 95% CI (1.38, 8.43)] and had good attitude [AOR=2.07, 95%CI: (1.32, 3.27)] were significantly associated with proper plastic waste management practice. Conclusions and recommendations: In this study, nearly 69% of the households practice proper plastic waste management, while 31% practices improper plastic waste management,which seriously raised the risk of the negative impact on human health.Factors such as sex, Being attending secondary and preparatory school,and being perceived that plastic waste can be a resource, were factors remained significant predictors of plastic waste management practice after adjustment for potential confounders.Thus, the Harari health and municipality offices should made unreserved effors to create awareness and educate the community about XII plastic waste management practice to increase the knowledge of householders regarding waste management practices.