Consumer demand and municipal waste compost product life cycle in Uganda

Abstract

Composting of municipal waste produces a marketable compost product that has various benefits to society. The performance and size of the Municipal Waste Compost (MWC) product in Uganda is currently not well understood. The market dynamics for Municipal Waste Compost can, however, be well demonstrated by the underlying consumer demands and perceptions. The study therefore attempts to: assess and identify the predominant consumer perceptions and attitudes towards Municipal Waste Compost product in Uganda; determine factors that influence consumer demand for municipal waste compost, and also assess the product life cycle of municipal waste compost. Systematic random sampling, with a random start, was used to select 150 households from the comprehensive list of consumers of Municipal Waste Compost. The list was obtained from the respective composting facilities in each of the three randomly selected municipalities, namely: Mbarara, Jinja and Mukono. Principal factor analysis (PFA) was used to identify constructs that „factor‟ well together with remarkable loading magnitudes in absolute terms. A multiple linear regression model was estimated to assess determinants of consumer demand, while a Markov chains approach was adopted to generate a forecast of the MWC product life cycle. The study findings show that consumers of municipal waste compost prioritise attributes of quality and image (appearance) of the product. Furthermore, the price of municipal waste compost, perceived quality of municipal waste compost and the region of the municipal waste composting facility significantly influence the demand for municipal waste compost. However, animal manure has a slightly higher market share among the sampled households than Municipal Waste Compost, which in turn has slightly higher share than inorganic fertilizers. It was explicitly clear that the market share of Municipal Waste Compost will reduce over time by 10 percent mainly due to consumers switching to the use of animal manure.