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4.11 Knowledge of the waste hierarchy guideline (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) Table 11: Knowledge of the waste hierarchy knowledge of waste hierarchy (the Rs) Frequency Percentage of ‘n’ Yes
85 42.5% No
115 57.5%
valid responses 200 Source. Researcher’s field data, Lagos, April 2018 Figure 22. Pie chart- knowledge of the Rs One of the research questions addresses how the knowledge of the waste hierarchy guideline influence the attitude of waste prevention from source as one veritable tool for achieving sustainable waste management. To answer this question, one of the research objectives is to assess the knowledge of respondents on what they understand by
the waste hierarchy guideline, which has been extensively discussed in the literature review. The responses from the respondents will now be discussed. Table 11 above shows that 56% of the total number of respondents across the 6 LCDAs said they do not know about the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle while 42% said they have heard about it. It is interesting to note that over 40% of the people approached knows about the concept but knowing about it is insufficient if the knowledge is not applied to the benefit of the environment in a sustainable way.
In a similar study assessing the knowledge
of residents on reduce, reuse and recycle in Northern Nigeria,
the results showed 41
42 that over 73% of the respondents numbering up to 500 confessed that they do know what the concept means but merely knowing it is not enough without applying the knowledge appropriately (Awopetu,
et al, 2012). Across the 6 LCDAs, the lowest percentage of respondents that answered no was 56%, and all other LCDAs saw higher no responses than yes except in
Egbe/Idimu where it was ‘16’ against ‘14’ in favour of yes. It is pertinent to mention here that there seems to be growing
environmental consciousness, but much work is still left undone by the relevant authorities and stakeholders in the environment on pragmatic community education that demonstrates how the concept of the Rs can be effectively implemented with respect to the management of solid waste. There is a ray of hope however, that people are willing to know more on how to keep the environment sustainable with the indication of their willingness to learn about source separation as presented on table ‘9’ above.
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