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Attitude, Awareness, Concern and Practice (AACP) towards Solid Waste Management among University Students: A Case Study in Kotebe Education University in Addis Ababa

Adane Sirage Ali, Negassa Bekela, Mekdes Mengistu

Solid Waste Management (SWM) is the major challenge throughout the nation. SWM strategy and facility are poor; public awareness is very low; public perception of SWM is not good; individual responsibility and accountability to the problem are extremely low. Regarding solid waste management, it seems there is no difference between educated and non-educated individuals in the community. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the awareness, attitude, concern, and practice regarding SWM problems and their management among University students. The study was conducted at Kotebe Metropolitan University using a close-ended questionnaire, individuallevel observation, and follow-ups. The result of the study indicated that about 62%, 51%, and 46% of the students have good awareness, attitude, concern, and practice respectively toward SWM issues. It was displayed that students have good awareness and moderate attitude towards SWM issues, but are less concerned and don’t practice. Because of their close intimacy with the environment and cultural influence, female students were better at all SWM issues than their male counterparts. Students from natural science faculty have good awareness (75%) and better attitude (70%) than students from social science departments. This is obviously due to the influence of their educational background. The result of this research clearly showed that the AACP of University students towards SWM was influenced by gender and educational background.