Willingness to pay for sachet water plastic waste management through a deposit-refund system

This study was conducted in order to ascertain whether residents in Accra-Tema are willing to pay for sachet water plastic waste management using the deposit refund system (DRS), how much they are willing to pay as well as their concerns on the implementation of this policy instrument. It also correlated the willingness to pay amount (WTPA) against socio-economic variables of the respondents. Through accidental sampling technique, respondents were randomly approached to participate in the questionnaire administration, and their responses analysed in SPSS. The result showed a high level of WTP (64.8%) among participants. The minimum WTPA is 1 GHp and the maximum is 20 GHp, the same amount it costs to purchase sachet water. The mean WTPA per a sachet is approximately 8 GHp (7.75 GHp), that is, 40% of the current unit cost of the product. The result also showed that lower income earners were willing to pay a higher amount as deposit-refund than the high-income earners. Some concerns about DRS implementation were also raised.