Abstract
Products that are made from recycled materials or are sustainably produced are
becoming more common and popular globally as people become more
environmentally aware. However, these products are often expensive or not widely
available. In developing countries, additional obstacles to adoption of such products
are lack of awareness and affordability. In this study, I investigated public
perceptions of, and willingness to buy, products made from recycled materials in
Yola-Jimeta, northeastern Nigeria. Using a structured questionnaire, I interviewed
175 adult shoppers. Using cross-tabulations and logistic regression modeling, I
evaluated the influence of demographic factors and level of environmental concern
on how willing shoppers were to buy and pay more for three products (bag, basket,
and mat) made from plastic bag waste. I also evaluated the role of an educational
flyer in affecting public willingness to buy or pay more for these products.
Household income was the only si
INTRODUCTION
Waste production has been an inevitable problem in the history of mankind. As
human populations continue to grow, so does the production of waste. Waste
production increases faster than the rate of urbanization. Every year, 1.3 billion tons
of solid waste is produced globally (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012). Waste
production is predicted to increase to 2.2 billion tons by 2025 and more than double
in low-income countries in the next 20 years (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012). In the
United States alone, about 250 million tons of trash is produced every year (United
States Environmental Protection Agency, 2010).
Waste production increases with a rise in a country’s standard of living. As the
economic wealth of a country increases, the country’s consumption also increases,
which results in the potential increase in the amount of waste produced (Achankeng,
2003). For example, a research conducted in India showed an increase of 49% in the
country’s population resulted in an increase of 67% waste production (UNEP, 2001).
There are substantial variations in the amount of waste generated between and within
countries. More waste is produced in North America, particularly in the United
States than in any other region (Figure 1). Waste generation is lower in rural areas
than urban areas (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012). This may be due to lower
densities of people living in rural areas. More than half of the world’s population
today live in cities, where waste generation is high.
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By 2050, the population of people living in the cities will be as large as the entire
human population in 2000. This population will eventually produce a large amount
of waste. (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012).
Waste Management Practices and Health Implications
The increase in the amount of waste produced will result in the need for a proper
waste management technique. In the past, there were no standard waste management
practices until the occurrence of some serious pollution incidents due to of improper
waste management. As a result governments had to enforce regulatory frameworks
that deal with the management of waste. The main waste disposal technique for some
countries are landfilling and incineration (Giusti, 2009).
Figure 1. Waste generation by region showing most of the waste production in the
developed countries.
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Figure 2. Waste management hierarchy of practices that involve complete waste disposal
and diversion to other means. Credit: WHO
Landfilling involves the burying of waste in landfills, while incineration deals with
burning of waste materials. Other waste management practices are composting of
waste, reusing and recycling (Figure 2). As of 2014, about 136 million tons of the
total 258 million tons of waste produced in the United States are landfilled. Some 89
million tons are recycled and composted while the remaining 33 million tons are
incinerated (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2014).
With the advent of science and technology, management of waste became more
organized and focused (Giusti, 2009). Nevertheless, poor waste management led to
serious environmental and health issues. Specifically, mismanagement of waste leads
to water, air and land contamination, which eventually affect public health (Giusti,
2009). Environmental problems include water and air pollution. Water is
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contaminated by leachate, which comes as a result of water percolation through the
waste deposit. Air is contaminated through burning of waste particles. Also, solid
waste particles that are not properly disposed of serve as breeding sites for insects,
promoting air and water-borne diseases (Alam, Chowdhury, Hasan, Karanjit, &
Shrestha, 2008).
Diseases such as cholera are contracted as a result of contamination of water by some
pathogens (Giusti, 2009). Pathogens are disease-causing agents. Health issues are
connected to the practices of handling and disposal of waste. This involves recycling
activities and exposure to emissions caused by incineration and the odor from
landfills. Exposure to emissions from incinerators is mostly due to inhalation and in
case of water, it occurs as a result of consumption of water that is contaminated by
leachate (Giusti, 2009). In developing countries, waste is mostly dumped in lowland
areas, and there are no imposed regulations for waste disposal. Solid waste may not
be separated from infectious and toxic wastes that are harmful to waste scavengers
and the environment (Alam et al., 2008).
Specifically, landfills affect human health by causing congenital malformations.
Incineration on the other hand increases the risk of developing a group of blood
cancer that evolved from lymphocytes known as non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and
sarcomas. It also leads to poor air quality and can cause acid rainfall. Composting of
waste as a waste management practice exposed workers to respiratory diseases
(Giusti, 2009). None of these methods, though, helped reduce the amount of waste
humans keep producing. This led people to think about how to manage waste and if
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there was any other way to treat or use waste. This is how the recycling and reuse of
waste started (Skinner, 1993).
There are several factors that affect waste management practice. According to
(Guerrero, Maas, & Hogland, 2013), there are several factors that affect waste
production, separation and management in developing countries. Some of these
factors include; lack of knowledge on technologies to use for waste management,
lack of equipment, and absence of decision makers. Also, public awareness
influences individual behavior towards waste management practices. Knowing the
consequences of waste mismanagement to the environment and individual health
influence people’s practice of proper waste management (Guerrero et al., 2013). The
more environmentally aware an individual is, the more likely he is to properly
dispose of household waste, separate toxic from solid waste, avoid littering, and pay
for waste management services (Imam, Mohammed, Wilson, & Cheeseman, 2008).
Educating people about the importance and significance of waste management
increases their level of participation in waste management programs (Nnorom,
Ohakwe, & Osibanjo, 2009).
Generally, the condition of waste management practice in developing countries is
very critical because it is not considered a priority. Water quality, lack of food, poor
education, widespread of diseases are major problems in developing countries that
make waste management not a major priority (Giusti, 2009). In contrast, several U.S.
cities have already banned the use of packaging materials, particularly plastic bags,
as have some countries in Africa, such as Kenya recently in 2017, Morocco in 2016,
and Rwanda in 2008. Kenya has severe penalties for violators (BBC, 2017). This is
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done in order to reduce the amount of waste generated. Plastic bags are believed to
contribute heavily to waste production (Skinner, 1993).
The problem with some of the waste management techniques is not just limited to
public health consequences but other financial constraints. Landfilling as a technique
needs to be operated on a large scale. This requires financial input mostly from the
government. Also, the cost of completely cleaning up a dumpsite is a burden on a
nation’s economy. Even though cleaning of dumpsite provides business opportunities
between countries, there is a need to identify the environmental consequences and
costs of waste management system. The more productive technique to consider for
waste management is recycling (Skinner, 1993). It is more reliable than the
aforementioned techniques because it involves converting what is considered useless
into useful and valuable items (Cooper, 2008).
Recycling
Recycling is the environmental reprocessing of disposed waste. Recycling is more
than just a way to transform waste to raw materials, but also a way of reusing old
materials into new forms through maintenance and repair. Recycling is not just
limited to plastic bags and plastic containers. Paper, metals and glass can also be
recycled. Recycling is done as a means of reusing items through extending their lives
in another useful form. It is considered an easy way to maintain already existing
things (Werrett, 2013). Globally, recycling is not done on a large scale. From the 250
million tons of trash that is produced in the United States, only 65 million tons is
recycled (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2010).
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In developed countries, recycling involves industrialized activities and is considered
as part of the daily life of each citizen. Thus, in these types of countries, research on
recycling considers technical applications of models and tools. Socio-economic
factors that affect recycling in the developed world include education, income,
consumption patterns, gender, and age (Troschinetz & Mihelcic, 2009).
In contrast, developing countries have only few researches that focus on recycling.
Most of these few researches were done in China and Mexico. These researches
considered belief as one of the factors that influence recycling and other
environmental behaviors. This entails the belief and understanding of reasons to
recycle. Both Mexico and China are on the transition state to become developed
countries. Other factors that influences recycling in developing countries are
government policy, a country’s finance, knowledge of solid waste management and
land availability (Troschinetz & Mihelcic, 2009). In a similar study that was
conducted in 2012 on 22 developing countries from 4 different continents, findings
showed that citizens that get information on the benefits of recycling are more likely
to recycle waste materials (Guerrero et al., 2013).
Recycling has an advantage to the environment over other waste management
techniques. Proponents of recycling opined that using products that are made from
recycled materials has a benefit of reducing environmental pollution caused by litter.
Another advantage is that recycling preserves biodiversity; by recycling and not
using landfills, the land can be used for more productive means rather than just
filling it with waste (Black, 1995) .
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Consumer preferences toward green products
Today, most people are concerned about what they use in the environment because
they care about the quality of life of future generation (Khan & Mohsin, 2017). This
is unlike the way the ancestors have lived (Khan & Mohsin, 2017). For consumers
who are concerned with the negative impacts of products on the environment, they
consider it a good idea to use “green” or environmentally friendly, products (Bhatia
& Jain, 2013). Green products are those that are presumed to be environmentally
safe. Most examples of green products are domestic materials that were made from
discarded papers or plastics, recyclable packaging materials, cleansers made from
biodegradable materials, pollution-free agents and energy-efficient light bulbs
(Mainieri, Barnett, Valdero, Unipan, & Oskamp, 1997).
The major concern with the environmental consequences of not using green products
is mostly due to climatic factors, environmental degradation, which give rise to
global warming and the stratospheric ozone layer depletion. This eventually results
to increasing air, land, and water pollution and subsequently the destruction of
natural habitats (Khan & Mohsin, 2017). Therefore, using green products has an
advantage of making the environment less polluted (Bhatia & Jain, 2013).
Since consumers are becoming more concerned about the consequences of what they
consume and use to their health and the environment as well, they are beginning to
change their attitudes and behavior towards their food and things they use (Biswas &
Roy, 2015; Laroche, Bergeron, & Barbaro-Forleo, 2001). These concerns have
increased the demand for products made by environmentally conscious firms. The
goal of all sustainable production is to meet the needs of today without affecting the
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environment’s ability to meet the needs for future generations (Forbes, Cohen,
Cullen, Wratten, & Fountain, 2009). Companies are considering sustainable
production as a competitive advantage (Bhaskaran, Polonsky, Cary, & Fernandez,
2006; Forbes et al., 2009; Mollá-Bauzá, Martinez-Carrasco, Martínez-Poveda, &
Pérez, 2005).
In a study in New Zealand, environmentally sustainable wine was preferred by 75%
of the respondents, whereas 5% of respondents had no preference for sustainably
produced wine. According to the results, factors that influence consumer preferences
to buying sustainable wine include proper labeling indicating that the wine is
produced using environmentally sustainable techniques. Another significant factor
are the environmental and health consequences of using the wine. Therefore,
production of environmentally sustainable wines may yield a significant benefit in
the market (Forbes et al., 2009).
Another study that was carried on women with children who shop regularly in
supermarkets in London concluded that 80% of the women are likely to choose
products they knew were produced by companies that use environmentally friendly
practices. None of the women strongly disagreed when asked if they would choose
sustainable products. The results of this study mentioned factors that affected
consumer preferences to include trust in products, including exposure and productmarketing communication. Most female respondents in the study trust only wellknown brands. Lack of exposure to green products and informing consumers about
new and improved products that are environmentally friendly also affect consumer
preferences (Pickett?Baker & Ozaki, 2008).
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Environmental attitudes and behaviors
Consumer attitudes, beliefs and values need to be considered when identifying
factors that influence consumer’s purchase decision. Attitudes generally are the
beliefs people have for a particular thing that incline people to behave in a particular
way toward that thing (Weigel,1983, as cited in Mainieri et al., 1997). Consequently,
people with positive attitudes toward environmental protection are more likely to
support the use of environment-friendly materials. An important finding in the study
of Laroche et al. (2001) confirms the relationship between attitudes and willingness
to pay for green products. Customers that were willing to buy green products did not
professed it as inconvenient to behave in an environmentally favorable manner while
the reverse was true for customers that were not willing to buy green products
(Laroche et al., 2001).
Demographic factors, such as age, gender, ethnicity, and educational status, may
contribute to environmental attitudes and behavior. Traditionally, people that are
young, well-educated, wealthy and based in cities were considered as the group that
are more concerned about environment-related issues (Arbuthnot, 1977). This is not
the case today. Today, women are more likely to be environmental advocates than
men (Mainieri et al., 1997). This is because women are more likely to do most of the
shopping for a household, which may make them more aware of environmentally
friendly products. Women also recycle and participate in environmental issues more
than men (Mainieri et al., 1997). Education and income may also be positively or
negatively correlated with environmental attitudes. Therefore, depending on the
society, demographics may not be great predictors of environmental concern and
behavior (Mainieri et al., 1997).
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In developing countries, environmental attitudes are considered a major factor to
determine consumer perception on sustainable products and attitudes toward a green
lifestyle. For example, in Nigeria, research concluded that willingness to participate
in e-waste recycling was dependent on environmental awareness, individual concern
about the environment, and willingness to support efforts to control environmental
deterioration (Nnorom et al., 2009). Thus, for developing countries where
environmental awareness may be low, the willingness of people to pay for waste
management and green products is considered low compared to their willingness to
pay for electricity and water bills (Nnorom et al., 2009).
Factors that affect purchase decision
Most studies have shown support for environmental protection, but it is yet to be
concluded how much the public are willing to pay for the improvement of the
environment. Consumers may be price-sensitive when it comes to buying moreexpensive green products, despite their environmental concern (Mainieri et al.,
1997). One of such studies concluded that among the 74% of the consumers that
preferred environmental protection to economic growth, only few of them
participated in environmental protection behaviors such as the recycling of bottles,
cans, and newspapers. About 75% of the consumers claimed to pay more for green
products, but only 14% of them bought products made from recycled materials.
Despite their pro-environment concern, again only 16% of the consumers avoided
companies that are considered anti-environment (Mainieri et al., 1997). Though
many people claim to be environmentally concerned, their actions toward the
environment may not support their convictions.
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The major concern is that what most people say they are willing to pay for to buy
recycled products will not be the same with what they end up paying for. Therefore,
there is a need to better understand other factors that influence consumer buying
behavior (Hamzaoui Essoussi & Linton, 2010).
According to the study conducted by Laroche et al. (2001) in a large North-American
city, several factors contributed to the resident’s willingness to buy and pay more for
sustainable products. The factors include demographics, environmental literacy,
values, behaviors, and attitudes toward environmental issues. In this study, the most
influential factors were demographics; specifically gender, marital status, and
number of children. Married women with at least one child were more likely to pay
more for sustainable products. This result may be attributed to the fact that women
are more environmentally conscious than men. Their marital status also contributed
because of their thought of how a ruined environment will affect their partners and
children (Laroche et al., 2001).
Another important factor that influences purchase decision of green products is
environmental awareness. Environmental awareness is important to consumer’s
determination of what product to buy. This can be seen in the result of a study where
absence of information about a remanufactured camera made participants value it
less than its substitutes. The introduction of the environmental information about the
remanufacturing process and environmental characteristics of the remanufactured
camera as opposed to a conventional one, made the participants boycott the
conventional camera and accept the remanufactured one. Even with the debriefing
about the products, people were concerned about its quality as a remanufactured
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product. Therefore, quality and price are two other main factors that affect
consumer’s purchase decision. The challenge is for companies that make green
products to consider high quality standards for their products. Accordingly, there
should be proper labelling to enable consumers to know what product they are
buying (Michaud & Llerena, 2010).
Consumers & green products in developing countries and Nigeria
There is a global concern in the population growth rate. This is because a growing
population is always followed by growing needs. In developing countries, population
growth rate has increased significantly. As the population continues to increase, there
is a need to create new and big markets for products. Unlike in developed countries,
people in developing countries are not aware of environmental problems and do not
show concern for it (Yadav & Pathak, 2014).
In India, a study was conducted in 2013 on consumer perception toward green
products. The result showed that consumers have a positive attitude towards green
products but they are more concerned about the price and availability of such
products. It was found that only a small percentage of people buy green products. It
was then concluded that if marketers make consumers aware of the benefits of green
products, consumers will be willing to pay more for green products than other
traditional products (Bhatia & Jain, 2013).
Nigeria has the largest human population of any African country; thus, it represents a
large and growing market for consumer goods. The country also suffers from
widespread pollution and environmental degradation. The Nigerian government has
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adopted sustainable development as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals, which were launched at an international summit in 2015. Within
Nigeria, businesses and organizations may promote sustainability in their own ways.
For example, in northeastern Nigeria, the American University of Nigeria (AUN), a
private university, is involved in several projects promoting sustainability as part of
its mission as Africa’s development university. In 2012, AUN became the first
member from sub-Saharan Africa of the Association for the Advancement of
Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). That same year the AUN
Sustainability Office was established. The Office of Sustainability built nature trails,
developed bottle-brick construction projects, planted trees, taught sustainable
farming to poor rural farmers, and runs two programs that turn waste materials into
consumer products while simultaneously supporting local women in the community.
Established in 2013, the first of these programs, called Waste-to-Wealth, helps
women learn how to clean and sew products, such as handbags and floor mats, from
used plastic bags, thus helping clean the environment while giving local women a
source of income (AUN Office of Sustainability, 2013). In 2015, the second
program, Creating-with-Threads, was established. In this program women use
discarded materials from tailors to make products such as floor rugs, computer bags,
and makeup cases (AUN Office of Sustainability, 2015).Products made through these programs have been sold at exhibitions in Nigeria’s
Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The Sustainability Office also regularly organizes
sales exhibitions at AUN to draw the attention of customers. However, the AUN
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Sustainability Office is challenged to market these products to the wider Nigerian
public, to help create more income for local women manufacturers and bring more
women into the program.
Therefore, I investigated the Nigerian public’s perception of and willingness to buy
products made from the Waste to Wealth program. I focused on the city region of
Yola-Jimeta, Adamawa State, in northeastern Nigeria, where AUN is located. My
aim was to identify factors, such as demographics, that may influence people’s
interest in and willingness to buy these locally made green products. I also aimed to
identify whether increased environmental awareness influences the public’s
perceptions and willingness to buy the products.