Article written by Jim Wright
As the world urbanises, lifestyles are changing rapidly and the basket of goods that people are consuming is evolving. This includes products linked to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), such as water sold in plastic bottles or bags (called sachets or pure water in West Africa) and disposable diapers. In many ways, this is understandable as an estimated billion or so people worldwide are affected by piped water interruptions. However, micro-plastics are now being found not just in the environment but even in human tissue samples such as mothers’ breast-milk, making safe disposal of waste a priority worldwide.
Back in 2017, we published an analysis that showed how household expenditure surveys could be used to monitor bagged or bottled water consumption among households lacking waste services. These surveys are used widely by governments worldwide to understand household welfare, expenditure and food consumption patterns. The survey questionnaires ask a representative sample of households about their spending on food and beverages such as water in plastic bags and their access to basic services.
We realised that if we knew how much people were spending on bagged or bottled water every week and whether or not they had water collection services, then we could use existing data to monitor where that waste was coming from. Was it being collected, burnt, dumped or buried? That could then help with identifying products being consumed by people without any means of waste disposal, providing evidence for negotiating with manufacturers to help tackle the environmental consequences of such consumption.
The water and waste team from Ghana School of Public Health survey an environmental transect in Accra
Disposable diapers form part of a waste dump in Accra
Since our 2017 study, the Water and Waste team have been exploring just how far household expenditure surveys can be used to track consumption not just of bagged or bottled water, but other products too. We started with vegetable and cooking oils, but found that they were sold in a very wide range of packaging, making it hard to track the fate of packaging. Then, through fieldwork, we came across another product whose consumption had taken off in off-grid urban neighbourhoods – the disposable diaper.
Diapers are hard to burn outdoors, so often in off-grid areas, we would find piles of used diapers that people had tried but failed to burn. We turned to the household expenditure surveys and realised that at least some African surveys recorded diaper purchases. We found signs of disposable diaper consumption among households without any waste collection services.
For example, of the 16.1% of urban Nigerian households who reported diaper purchases, most either dumped their waste indiscriminately, burnt or buried it. From the perspective of a mother in an off-grid urban neighbourhood without proper sanitation or toilet facilities, the convenience of diapers is very understandable.
However, if diapers are now being sold to lower income households, is it time for diaper manufacturers to step up and work with urban planners to provide solutions for their disposal? More generally, household expenditure surveys could shed light on other products being sold to off-grid neighbourhoods that pose waste management challenges.