E-waste Awareness and Management Among People Engaged in E-waste Selling, Collecting, Dismantling, Repairing, and Storing Activities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Associated with the increasing demand and supply of short life-span electrical devices, e-waste generation is rapidly increasing. This created a special business for some informal groups: dismantlers, e-waste sellers, repairers, and storekeepers. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness, management strategies, and associated influencing factors among the central role players of the e-waste-related business. A cross-sectional study was used to assess the awareness and management of 345 purposely selected e-waste workers including all those who are actively engaged in e-waste buying, selling, dismantling, storing, and transferring. A questionnaire was used to obtain the required information. The findings show that about 92% of the dismantlers, 70% of the sellers, and 55% of the repair and maintenance workers have poor awareness. The awareness level of the respondents is strongly associated with the newness of the issue (V = 0.64) and lack of concern (V = 0.44), and moderately associated with educational status (V = 0.31), their lack of access to information (0.31), job type (0.28) and income level (0.26). The e-waste management among the study groups was limited to unsafe disposal (50%), unsafe storage (36%), and transfer (14%) to other users. The analysis showed that there is a statistically significant association between their job type and management systems (chi2 (6) = 139, P