Appraisal of Households’ Consumption Lifestyles and Implication for Climate Change: Case Study of Ota, Nigeria

Abstract

The pervasiveness of climate change impacts has necessitated the collaboration of global leaders, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations and corporate organisations. Indeed, everyone who cares about planet earth is taking drastic steps and proactive measures to combat climate change phenomenon. One of the contributory factors to climate change is volume of waste being generated. The unprecedented increase in the global waste generation has also been linked to consumption lifestyle of the people. On its part, consumption lifestyle has been significantly influenced by the improvement in income and consumption of higher technology. This paper aims at examining the households‟ consumption lifestyles in Ota with a view to describe its implication for climate change and develop policies towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using purposive sampling technique, a total of 120 questionnaires were distributed in selected households in Ota. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that households generate waste materials such as food, plastic bottles, glass bottles, cans/tins, polythene bags, textile, electronic waste, paper, disposable packaging and leather, but polythene bags (representing 40.5%) are predominant. Chi-square (χ2) test revealed that income has no significant effects on households‟ consumption lifestyles with the calculated values (12.083 and 18.460) < critical value (24.996) at 0.05 level of significance. Households exhibited some level of consciousness in the way they purchase products. 53.2% of the households agreed to increase in waste generation in Ota over the last 2 to 5 years, and in an attempt to manage the waste, they adopted waste disposal methods such as burning, burying, open dumping, collection by private waste collection firm (otherwise known as PSP), cart pushers and sale of recyclables. Burning, open dump and burying, which are unethical waste disposal methods are practiced by about 54% households. The paper recommends the establishment of waste management programme whereby households are engaged for waste minimization, reuse and recycling; and is to be facilitated by public awareness and campaign. Collaboration amongst stakeholders in the solid waste management sector needs to be encouraged while the government through policy should support products standardization so that products can be designed for waste minimization, reuse and recycling.

Keywords: Household, waste, income, categories, management