Assessment of perceptions and practices of electronic waste management among commercial consumers in Ho, Ghana

ABSTRACT Attitudes and behaviours towards e-waste management among commercial consumers in Ho Municipal, the capital city of the Volta Region, Ghana, will become detrimental to humans and the environment at large. This research aims to examine the perception and practices of e-waste among commercial consumers in the capital city of the Volta Region of Ghana and to document the overall characteristics of e-waste management to help raise awareness about the growing e-waste threats to the environment and to engender discussions to find a lasting solution to the issues. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Ho municipality during May and June of 2021. The purposive sampling approach was used to select 200 participants from institutions/organisations. Data was collected using a standardized questionnaire, which was then entered and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16. The significance of relationships was determined using binary logistic regression analysis with <0.05 p-value and the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI), and Likert scale analysis with mean response values. Among the 200 participants, there is a high level of knowledge of e-waste and its negative impact on commercial consumers, but there was a low level of awareness of laws and government regulations. The participants’ knowledge of the awareness of e-waste was significantly related to their qualification; 2.472 (95% CI: 1.476–4.142), p = 0.001(<0.05). Moreover, most respondents were aware of toxic/hazardous compounds in e-waste materials, yet they ranked the environmental effect of e-waste as minimal and exhibited poor practices for disposing of their e-waste. We recommend that the existing legislation passed by the parliament of Ghana should be made known and available to the public through continuous televised programs on national television to educate the general public on e-waste management practices due to the lack of awareness and practices in e-waste management.