Background:- Environmental challenges have presented themselves in various forms and they needed a proactive and bottom-up approach in addressing them. Municipalities have a mandate of collecting and disposing solid waste, but they may not be able to do it effectively on their own. Partnership in waste management is the way forward in the 21st Century.
Methods:- Ethnographic method of collecting data was used and this method was relevant in that the researcher would be among the respondents for a long time interacting, living with them while collecting the data. Views and perceptions of residents in Gwanda were captured through unstructured interviews and remote sensing devices.
Results and Discussion:- The wide usage of diapers is because of the development that caught up with societies in both developed and developing countries. Modern mothers prefer using disposable diapers compared to the traditional none disposable nappies that were used in the past decade. The un-comfortability in washing nappies may have influenced the adoption of using disposable diapers. Data was generated, analyzed and discussed. Diapers are convenient when traveling and working mothers who have no time to wash nappies and more favorable during the rainy season. It was established that breaking away from using traditional nappies was easy. Some respondents were not aware of the environmental impact of disposable diapers while some were able to come up with their perceptions on how the disposable diapers impact the environment. It was found that they are a mess to the environment and use of bins proved not to work as dogs spread them around. The disposable diapers have polluted the environment in Gwanda suburbs.
Keywords : Environmental Pollution, Health, Usage of diapers, Disposal of Diapers, Urban.