'Nothing can be done to make our markets clean': A qualitative study of attitudes of the African marketplace users toward waste

The African marketplace is a space with deep cultural significance and is considered to be a fundamental focal point of economic and social life. One significant challenge faced by market stakeholders is solid waste management (SWM). Waste is poorly managed contributing immensely to the pollution of the physical environment and poses risk to public health. With sanitation being one of the priorities of the Sustainable Development Goals, this paper aims to investigate the attitudes of the users of African markets toward waste. Based on an in-depth qualitative approach; observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted in four markets in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. Findings of this study revealed that the provision of modern infrastructure in traditional marketplaces creates an identity that is valued by its users and results in improvement of their waste management practices. On the contrary, users of the old traditional marketplaces were under the impression that the cleanliness of the market environment is an unattainable goal. The study provides a much needed understanding of SWM practices in an under researched area in Sub-Saharan Africa: the urban marketplace.