Solid wastemanagement is an established environmental health challenge in most societies. The heterogeneousnature of municipal solid wastemakes its management particularly complex. Waste segregation which is key to proper solid waste management has not been adopted in the Nigerian society. Improper waste segregation could result in diarrheal diseases. The study was designed to assess solid waste segregation as a strategy for improved waste management in AMAC, Abuja.
A quasi-experimental study was adopted and multistage sampling was used to select (30) households. A semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire comprising respondents‘ socio-demographic characteristics, 14-point knowledge scale and 14-point practice scale was used. The knowledge and practice scores were rated as poor (≤4), fair (4-8) and good (8).Jute sack bags without label or colour code were given to households to collect solid waste for 1 week. Wastes collected were characterised and weighed at pre-intervention. Thereafter, labelledcolour coded jute sack bags (Black for degradable and White for nondegradable waste) were provided and training on its use was conducted for 2 weeks for the households. The questionnaire was re-administered to the selected respondents‘ after intervention. Waste from the households were collected and weighed for 1 week as postintervention SW segregation. Non-degradable waste was segregated, characterised and its components were weighed. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and t-test at p꞊0.05.Respondents‘ age was 28.6±2.6 years. Educational status of respondents‘ was non-formal (23.3%), primary (26.7%), secondary (20.0%) and tertiary (30.0%). Pre-intervention knowledge score of respondents‘ was 2.7±0.2 while the practice score was 2.2±0.1.