Urban dwellers and solid waste management plans: A case study of selected towns in Afar regional state, Ethiopia

Abstract The increase in quantity and composition of solid waste has come up with a necessity of effective measures to cope up with its negative impacts in our society. One possible measure, in this case, is the participation of the public as part of the solution. This study is aimed at the estimation of the non-market welfare gain as a result of proposed improved solid waste management plans for households in some selected towns of Afar region, Ethiopia using Contingent Valuation Method. The proposed improvements are presented by a scenario where the frequency, payment vehicle, and appropriate disposal mechanism were considered. Ordinary Least Square model with twelve variables for residential households and with nine variables for commercial households was estimated. We have notable differences between residential households and commercial households’ average willingness to pay for improvement in solid waste management. Generally, it was seen that solid waste management could also be source of income apart from the environmental benefits. The people can play a decisive role in solid waste management by sharing its costs.