Evaluation of Socio-Economic Characteristics of Scavengers in Municipal Solid Waste Management in Adamawa State, Nigeria

This paper evaluates the socio-economic characteristics of waste scavengers as a measure of poverty alleviation in the study area, It is a mixed research based study that employed both primary and secondary data. Using multi stage sampling procedure a total of 50% of the scavengers at each scrap metal depot in nine Local Government Areas (LGAs), out of the 21 LGAs in the State were systematically selected to administer a copy of 587 semi-structured questionnaires. The findings revealed that 53.6% of young adults aged between 18-20 years were involved in scrap metal collection where males constituted 98.2% of those who practice scavenging and the majority were having a First School Leaving Certificate. Just 1% were found to possess a university degree. The percentages of scrap metal scavengers who earned a certain amount between ₦41,000.00 and ₦50,000.00 as average monthly earnings were about 51.9% and those that received less than ₦1,000.00 per month was 1%. The average monthly income of the scavenger’s base on the age groups was analyzed through analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the mean monthly income of the scavengers. The findings revealed that there is no significant difference in the average mean monthly income of the scavengers in the different age groups (F (2, 582) =377.699, P > 0.05). This shows that there was no variation of mean monthly income based on age group. The paper concluded that scavenging is a male dominated profession, as a source of income and poverty alleviation among young adults in Adamawa State