Market Survey of Food and Beverage Purchase Behaviours, Commodity Packaging and Plastics in Off-Grid Greater Accra, Ghana and Kisumu, Kenya, 2021

This data set comprises a market survey of foods and beverages
and their packaging as sold at a sample of retail outlets in
urban Greater Accra, Ghana and Kisumu, Kenya. It also
comprises responses to a short shopper questionnaire and
all data were collected in areas classified as slums. The data
set was collected with the aim of quantifying packaging
waste associated with food and beverage purchases. It also
aimed to develop and evaluate a low-cost method for
identifying plastic resin types in resource-poor settings
lacking laboratory facilities. At each sampled retail outlet,
observations were made of vendor or consumer packaging
behaviours when food or beverage purchases took place.
Short interviews were conducted with shoppers. Where
foods or beverages were wrapped in plastics, packaging
samples were collected and further characterised in a basic
laboratory. Alongside recording labelling and other
packaging characteristics, the laboratory protocol also
completed a simple observation checklist (e.g. testing if
packaging floated; how it behaved on cutting), so as to infer
the packaging's plastic resin type. The data set should thus
be of interest to researchers wishing to understand waste
generation and packaging in urban Africa.