E-WASTE AWARENESS AND PRACTICES OF ZIMBABWEAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Africa’s cyberspace is experiencing unprecedented growth as the continent joins the global village to spur socio-economic development. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have become part of everyday life, and when they reach their end of working life, they become electronic waste (e-waste) and should be appropriately discarded. However, the continent is streaming towards a major crisis as obsolete ICT equipment is indiscriminately disposed of to the detriment of the environment and public health. This study aimed to assess university students’ e-waste awareness and practices. This cross-sectional study was conducted amongst university students in Zimbabwe. After obtaining institutional ethical clearance, a predesigned pretested questionnaire was administered to university students with informed consent. The sample size calculated was 223 from four purposely selected state universities. Part two and four students were randomly selected. Chi-square Test was applied to get the Chi-square value and p-value. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the significance of the independent variables in explaining the variability of the dependent variable. Our results show that the four independent variables (lack of knowledge, policies, poor practices and handling) positively influenced e-waste management by university students in Zimbabwe. Of the four independent variables, poor handling had the strongest effect on e-waste management with a regression coefficient of 0.420 and the lowest significance of 0.000. Although the knowledge of ewaste was high, students lacked knowledge of policies/laws that regulate environmental and health management. Advanced knowledge of e-waste did not translate into responsible management as e-waste was kept at home, transported and stored with municipal waste, and there were no designated bins for collecting it. Most respondents were unsure of what was happening regarding the generation, handling, storage, transportation and final disposal of e-waste. By analyzing students’ knowledge and practices, universities should intensify e-waste management advocacy by incorporating e-waste matters into their learning curriculum. The government should enact policies that govern the management of e-waste, and this will provide a framework for institutions to set up local-level policies that promote green initiatives