Appraisals of the Socio- Economic Characteristics of Waste scavengers in Mubi Metropolis, Nigeria

The study examines the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of waste scavengers, practitioners of a common form of solid waste resource recovery practices in Mubi metropolis. A total number of two hundred sets of questionnaire were administered to waste scavengers and eight waste merchants out of which 176 sets of the questionnaire were retrieved and analysed. The purposive and Snowball Sampling Techniques were employed to identify the respondents. Tables, percentage Charts, point bisereal correlation, t-test and one way ANOVA technique were used for the analysis. The results revealed that majority of the scavengers within Mubi metropolis are male (93.2%). The female counterparts do not partake much in these types of trade. The reason could not be far fetched from the unwholesome nature of the business and its demands. Generally, the educational status of respondents’ shows that majority of practitioners 44.3% pass through formal education or may not have attended any school system. This attest to the fact that they may not be knowledgeable with regard to the rudiment of resource recycling or reuse. Further result revealed that practitioners were overwhelmingly pushed into scavenging business (93.8%) by poverty/unemployment. Be as it may, all (100%) scavengers revealed that scavenging has increased their income and consequently their standard of living. The Pearson's point-biserial correlation coefficient shows a very weak negative linear relationship between both variables of income and impact of scavenging on health of scavengers. (rpb = -0.071, n = 176, p = 3, At p > 0.05) This relationship goes to show that there is no significant relationship between monthly income and impact (positive and negative) of scavenging on health of Merchants and scavengers in Mubi metropolitan area of Adamawa State. Conclusively, scavenging practice plays a greater role in poverty alleviation and creation of employment especially among those categories of scavengers that attended informal education or not any other school system. However, most scavengers (61.4%) affairs to be urgent need of capital to sustain and boost their businesse.