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Using Factor Analysis to Understand the Influence of Individual Perception on Plastic Waste Disposal

Indonesian Journal of Social and Environmental Issues (IJSEI) 2022 2 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Christian Julien Isac Gnimadi, Michael Aboah, Kokoutse Gawou

Summary

Researchers used factor analysis to identify the key influences on plastic waste disposal behavior among 360 randomly selected residents in three districts of Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana. The most influential factors were inadequate municipal waste collection and lack of education (factor loadings of 0.84 and 0.82), followed by perceptions of plastic durability, distance to disposal infrastructure, and weak regulatory enforcement.

One of the major plastic pollution problems is the understanding of the ideology underpinning their disposal. Consequently, this research aims at evaluating the factors that influence respondents’ decisions on managing their plastic waste and investigate respondents’ awareness of the health and safety issues associated with inappropriate plastic waste disposal. This research used a descriptive design. 360 individuals were randomly selected in three districts within the Cape Coast Metropolis. The data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire. The results showed that the influential factors listed according to the decreasing value of factor loading are the idea that municipal authorities’ inadequate collection of wastes, lack of education, notion that plastics are more durable than paper, the long distances of the individual to a dustbin, the lack of information on the alternatives to reduce plastic waste, the increased number of people living in the area, the high amount of plastic packaging, the lack of adequate information on proper methods to dispose of plastic waste, the attitudinal problems, the lack of infrastructure for recycling the plastic waste and the weak enforcement of existing bye-laws on sanitation. The factor loading values are 0.84, 0.82, 0.80, 0.72 ,0.71, 0.68, 0.67, 0.66, 0.64, 0.61, 0.58 respectively.

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