Waste Management And The Question Of Attitudinal Change

Last night, I came across a video of Mr. Kwadwo Sarfo, leader of the BUZSTOPBOYS, on my timeline on the X platform. The video was shared about two months ago, but I only chanced upon it yesterday. In the video, the gentleman expressed his frustration with the people of Lapaz for the inappropriate use of a container his outfit had secured for the segregation of plastic bottles for recycling. The people treated it as a normal refuse bin and placed all sorts of rubbish in it.

Apparently, Ghanaians are used to the commingled waste culture. Despite awareness creation on waste segregation, we are still sunk in the quagmire of improper waste disposal, which calls into question the general attitude of Ghanaians toward change.

In 2019, I had the opportunity to join Recycle Up! Ghana’s Nationwide Waste Education Campaign (NWEC) as a project intern. The aim of the project was to establish a waste management system in some selected basic and senior high schools, as well as instill in the students the culture and discipline of proper waste management.

We engaged the students in waste education and fun activities such as upcycling of some plastic materials. In addition, the organization provided some logistics to facilitate the segregation of two types of plastics: the PET bottles and the sachet rubbers.

I, particularly, was assigned a school in Madina (name withheld). To be very honest, I was quite impressed by the students’ enthusiasm towards the project. They showed interest in the kind of education I shared with them, and it reflected in their waste segregation behavior. We barely faced any issues with the project, but for challenges related to the timely collection of the plastics. The students segregated the plastics very well. Not only was I impressed by the children’s attitude, but also surprised. Why?

Because a year before joining the NWEC project, I offered to serve as a volunteer in the University of Ghana Plastic Recycling Project (UGPRP) - an initiative that shares similar objectives with the NWEC. The project was aimed at instituting the culture of proper waste management among members of the university community as well as establishing UG as the bulwark of environmental sustainability.

As volunteers, we sensitized the students through room-to-room engagements, lecture hall engagements, and social media campaigns. The project also provided special bins for the segregation of plastic waste. There was a weekly collection of plastic waste for recycling.

The UGPRP undoubtedly made an impact on UG campus. However, there were challenges regarding the attitude of the majority of the students towards the segregation of plastics. I was almost dispirited by how our segregation baskets were flooded with unwelcome materials. This was a university. We expected so much from the students, especially, considering the efforts we put in place to sensitize them.

Comparatively, the students I mentored under the NWEC did way better than the grown-up university students.

In our typical Ghanaian society, adults are considered the true bearers of wisdom, whilst the young ones, except a few who may be considered precocious, are only credited for their exuberance. The question is, how is it that primary students embraced positive change while adults, and not just ordinary ones, but an ‘enlightened’ group, were somewhat reactionary towards it.

Whilst I am tempted to leave the explanation to those who claim expert in human psychology, it is worth noting that studies have shown that adults are less susceptible to social influences than children. In their research on “Age differences in the prosocial influence effect”, Foulkes et al (2018) discovered that children between the ages of 8-11 are the easiest to influence towards a positive cause. This was followed by young adolescents (12-14 years) and mid adolescents (15-18 years). The problem usually lies with young adults (19-25 years) and adults between the ages of 26 and 59 years.

I am convinced that attitudinal change is far viable among children than adults.

This is not to suggest that we give up hope on whipping the adults in line. In my days as a student at Legon, there were several lectures, summits, and dialogues organized to help shape our behaviors and mindsets towards development, which is obviously good. However, if we can channel the same energy to those at the junior levels, I believe we will stand a greater chance at positively shaping the future.

If we are able to sensitize our young ones while they’re nestlings, they’ll fly in the direction we have oriented them when they finally grow their own wings. After all, even the good books said in Proverbs 22:6 that “teach the child the way that he should go, and when he grows up, he will not depart from it.”

By Nathan Nana Afari
([email protected])