Waste Management Practices, Behaviour and Perceived Stakeholders’ Environmental Impacts During Football Kenya Federation Premier League Games

Abstract

Sports fulfils important functions in promotion of good health and peace. However, sports activities can also have detrimental effects to the environment particularly through generation of solid waste. Despite Kenya having a waste management policy draft which has generalized waste management in counties, there remains a gap in waste management during sport events. The key objective of the study was to assess solid waste management practices, behaviour and perceived environmental impact during Football Kenya Federation premier league. Structured questionnaires administered through Kobo Collect and key informant interviews were used for data collection and 228 out of 251 questionnaires were completed and returned. Quantitative data was organized in SPSS and analyzed by use of frequencies, percentages, and tabulations whereas content analysis was used for qualitative data analysis. The study found that more than one third of the participants, practices waste dumping with lack of waste segregation. Plastic water bottles are the most common type of solid waste found before and after games. Participants demonstrated positive attitude on their role in waste management despite lack of sensitization from club and stadium. Findings on stakeholders’ behaviour also raised the concern of ignorance as a challenge of littering during FKF games. The study concludes that littering and poor waste management behaviour is a common practice during Football Kenya Federation Premier league games. This practice is occasioned by lack of spectator waste management awareness and distribution of waste collections bins. This finding on backyard burning highlights a significant concern on the knowledge of environment effect and its deleterious effect on human health and climate change. The study recommended stakeholders’ collaborative sensitization programs to promote awareness and use of refill water points to reduce use of single use plastic bottles. Further policies can be developed on banning of single use plastic water bottles during sport events to help reduce quantities of plastic waste generated during sport events.