Analysing structures and attitudes towards sustainable waste management in the district of Morrumbene : A Minor Field Study in the district of Morrumbene, Mozambique

Sammanfattning: This bachelor thesis was executed as a Minor Field Study (MFS) in the district of Morrumbene in Mozambique. The project was partially financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and was written during the spring semester of 2023 at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. The study was made in a collaboration with the non-profit organisation Project Vita who are situated in Linga Linga, Mozambique.  In Mozambique, the globalisation and increasing population has led to an increased waste generation, which creates a problem since waste management, due to lack of resources, is slim to none. Open dumps are used, and as they aren’t sanitary, health and environmental problems appear. Treatment of waste is only occurring in the bigger cities, which means the majority of all waste are disposed of by open dumping, incineration, thrown in nature, or buried. This project uses this as starting point, as the aim is to investigate people’s attitudes and knowledge in relation to sustainable waste management, which materials are frequently occurring in waste, as well as the waste management structure in the district. The results show the respondents of the survey have a high knowledge around issues related to waste, positive attitudes towards sustainable waste disposal, and above all strong intentions to perform sustainable waste disposal if given the possibility. For the waste management structure, the district only had waste collection within the city, one location for open dumping, and few resources to improve the waste management chain. The most frequent materials in residents waste were paper/cardboard, plastic, and glass. The conclusion is that improvements can be made through converting current open dump to a sanitary landfill, extending the waste management system to bigger parts of the district, using NGOs to educate and inform, as well as looking at ways to secure funds for implementation.