ABSTRACT
The Vegetable Market, located in the center of Benin City, is an important hub that naturally produces a variety of waste as part of its everyday operations. Effective waste management has emerged as a critical issue, and the goal of this study is to thoroughly examine the waste generation trends in the vegetable market. The primary aim of this project is to enhance the solid waste management practices in the GRA Vegetable Market, Benin City, with a focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility This study explores the many waste streams from market activities, from organic matter to packaging materials, in depth. It examines the effectiveness of the current waste management techniques. The research attempts to pinpoint opportunities for development and sustainability by undertaking a thorough analysis of the current practices which involved field observations, interviews with traders and market regulation bodies, distribution of questionnaires, data cleaning to check for errors and data analysis using ANOVA, Kolmogorov - Smirnov test, Pearson correlation test. Variations in age showed that 7% of the total respondents were 20yrs, 30.6% were between the range of 21-30yrs, 40.8% of the respondents were between the age of 31- 40yrs and 21.5% were above 41yrs. Academic qualification showed that 35.7% of the respondents have no formal education, 6.1% attended to the level of primary education, 35.7% were SSCE holders, while 22.47% have tertiary education honour. Majority of the waste was food waste (71.4%), while cans (2.04%), plastic waste(8.2%), polythene/bevearages (14.3%) and paper (4.06%) constituted the remainder of the waste. The analysis of results showed that some traders lack proper understanding of the importance of waste management with only 11% of the respondents sorting their waste thereby loosing useful recyclables. The importance of solid waste management was discussed, advise on sorting of waste, introductions of various waste bins for various types of wastes to reduce lost of recyclables. The findings of this research reveal a gap in implementing a suitable waste management system in the subject region. This necessitates prompt and effective action geared toward addressing the demands of the present and improving future solid waste management practices.
