Practices for managing household solid waste
Background
Ineffective waste disposal practices hinder the development of integrated solid waste management for households. Understanding current patterns and perceptions about household disposal of solid waste is crucial for a sound decision-making process to move towards an environmentally sustainable method. This study examines ways that households manage their waste and their perceptions of garbage management in Panji an area of one subdistrict located in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Methods
A stratified random sample technique employing a cross-sectional survey questionnaire was employed to gather information. 338 households were surveyed during the survey. Data were analysed by using SPSS. Chi-square goodness of fitting test was utilized to assess the relationship between categorical variables. Chi-square bivariate correlation tests were conducted to examine the correlation between perceptions about waste segregation and the social and demographic backgrounds of the people who took part. The correlation of perceptions of respondents in relation to their locality of their house, the type of home and waste kind was also examined. The principal component analysis method was utilized to determine the grouping of variables as well as to determine what factors are interrelated to each construct.
Results
The findings of the study showed that 74.3 percent of households dispose of food waste and 18.3 percent of households used plastics as waste. The study also found that 50.3 percent of households segregate their waste, while 49.7 percent didn’t. Around 95.9 percent of respondents knew that poor waste management can lead to diseases like malaria and diarrhea. There was a link between location, age and type of house and waste segregation practices for respondents (Chi-square test; p<0.05). The study also identified associations in the area of residence with perceptions of poor waste management that could causes diseases (Chi-square test; p<0.05). Principal Component Analysis showed that 17.94 percent of variance is highly positive loaded (positive relationship) with marital status, and the kind of house.
Conclusion
This study highlights the need of creating waste separation programs that meet the requirements of the population targeted as a way to promote sustainable practices for managing solid waste.
Background
Management of solid waste (SWM) throughout the major developing nations including Malaysia is mostly dominated by open-dumping due to the lower operational, capital and maintenance expenses when compared to a different disposal technique [47]. The non-sanitary and un-engineered methods does not have the proper liners, gas collection or leachate treatment and collection, leaving the environment to multiple pollution issues, including air, water and soil pollution concerns [15,23and 23. The negative effects of ineffective treatment of household waste on health of the public (Fig. 1.) are classified into biological, physical, non-communicable illnesses psychological and ergonomic health hazards [6 51, 777[6, 51, 77]. Polluted air, soil and water are breeding grounds for biological vectors, such as rodents, flies and other pests. A variety of diseases are caused by these vectors, including dysentery, diarrhoea and dysentery, digestive issues, worms the dengue virus, food poisoning
