A survey and statistical analysis of the awareness, practice, attitude, and the satisfaction of the public towards household solid waste management across major cities in India.

Abstract

The paper focuses on the awareness and the attitudes of the respondents across various demographic, and socioeconomic variables in the major cities of India. The data were collected using a descriptive survey questionnaire. The survey was conducted by undergraduate students under supervision to give a first-hand understanding of the subject, enabling them to put their learnings into practice and gain new research skills in the field of environment. The findings aim at simplifying the awareness of the public on solid household waste management, and in addressing the grievances related to open dumping grounds in their vicinity. The collected data were inferred using frequency, percentage, chi-square, descriptive statistical analysis and correlations tests. The study shows a significant relationship between awareness, practice, and attitudes (APA) to age, gender, occupation and the source of information to the respondents. The study aims to investigate and comprehend the factors that facilitate the knowledge and participation of the respondents. Moreover, their satisfaction level and willingness to participate in paying their services towards waste management. The findings of the paper validate the importance of awareness through education, campaigns and media in people’s awareness on waste segregation and recycling, and in leading their behavior towards waste disposal, and willingness to participate in various solid-household waste (SHW) awareness programs.

Keywords: Awareness, Solid-household waste, Waste segregation, Pearson test, Spearman test.

1.     Introduction

In the rapidly urbanized cities in developing countries, it is important to address the problem of solid-household waste management (SHWM) (Song, Wang et al. 2016). The management of solid-household waste remains to be a challenge and needs improvements. In the study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in India, an urban population of 377 million people generates 62 million tonnes (mt) of solid waste annually. Only 43 mt of solid waste is collected, out of which 12 mt is treated and the rest stays in the dumping sites (Down to Earth newsletter, 2017). With the rapid growth in the population and urbanization, this is likely to be upshot by 3.4 billion tonnes in 2050 (Singh 2020). Due to improper management of the waste, it has sent the public health and the environment of the cities to peril. In addition, open dumping and landfills are common in India. This has negatively affected the health of the residents and their surrounding environment living close to these regions. The generation of solid-household waste depends on various factors, including population, incomes, and changing consumption patterns (Singh 2020), which is reflected in the awareness, attitude and willingness of the people in segregating the waste at the source and recycling it. Segregation of the waste at the source and ensuring that it goes through different streams of recycling, recovering and reprocessing, is the key to efficient solid waste management (Down to Earth newsletter, 2017).

Several works of literature have reported people’s attitude, awareness and practice towards waste management through surveys. Sarbassov et al., 2019, have surveyed household-solid waste and investigated the behavioral attitudes of the citizens of Nur-Sultan city of Kazakhstan towards its management. The result showed 24 % of the respondents were involved in waste sorting (Sarbassov, Sagalova et al. 2019). In another survey-based study, Song et al., 2016 (Song, Wang et al. 2016) discussed and analyzed residents’ attitudes and willingness to pay for solid waste recycling in Macau, China. Results showed 96 % of the respondents were willing to sort the solid waste at home. The results were important in understanding the attitudes of the residents for the policymakers and managers in promoting the recycling of the waste. Yet in another study, Warunasinghe et al., 2016 (Warunasinghe and Yapa 2016) examined the willingness of the people’s participation in the upgraded program and the level of awareness on household solid waste management at peri-urban areas in Columbo, Sri Lanka. The survey showed 26 % of the respondents were not aware of the recycling practices, while 96 % agreed to co-operate by participating in the waste awareness programs. Similarly, Indira et al., 2015 (Indhira, Senthil et al. 2015) study the attitude and awareness of the people in understanding the behavioral pattern of the people towards household solid waste management.

The present study dissects the findings similar to the previously reported literature on the relevance, importance and impacts of people’s awareness, practice, and attitude in the selected cities in India in response to the demographic variables age, sex, education and occupation. The cities were selected randomly from where the students belonged namely Delhi, Kolkata, Ghaziabad, Noida, Bhopal, Indore, and Patna. The study aims at giving the first-hand experience to the students on conducting surveys by collecting the data on environmental awareness. Second, it aims at simplifying an understanding of the demographic impacts on the attitudes, practice. It explains the public awareness and willingness towards waste management. It also offers understanding and recommendations that will help the policymakers and managers in improvising the sorting, segregation and recycling of the solid-household waste management (Madrigal and Oracion 2017).

2.     Methodology

Two hundred eighty-eight (288) respondents from major cities across India participated in the survey. The sampling method was ‘random’. Based on the previously reported surveys (Asuamah, Kumi et al. 2012, Babaei, Alavi et al. 2015) and research papers, the questionnaires were prepared by the undergraduate students in supervision. The questionnaire contained 48 variables, which are divided into 13 sections (questionnaire attached). It contained questions about their knowledge, practice and attitude towards waste management. These questions were broadly categorized into demographic information which included age, gender, occupation and source of information, and the second part included information on SHW separation, recycling, collection, of solid waste (Table 1 and 2). The data were assessed and analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequency and percentage, correlation, and non-parametric statistical tests. The survey data were coded and transferred into SPSS (IBM SPSS data analyzer) and were analyzed. The sample size was collected at a 95 % confidence level. The mean (M), standard deviation (SD), frequency and percentage were used to analyze the degree and extent of the 1) awareness, 2) practice and 3) attitude (APA) in the respondents based on their i) age, ii) gender, iii) occupation, and iv) source of information. The Chi-square value (χ²) test was used to compare the categorical variables. Moreover, Karl Pearson correlation (r) and Spearman correlation coefficient (ρ) were used to evaluating the strength of the linear relationship between continuous variables and the relationship between the variables taken on the ordinal scales, respectively. However, the existence of a correlation value between two variables may, may not explain the causation between them. Thus, the correlation coefficient measured the strength of the relationship between two variables, which may/may not have cause-effect. While comparing most of the variables it was not clear whether their scatter plot was linear or monotonic. Hence, to validate the relationship between two variables both Pearson and Spearman tests were conducted.

3.     Results and Discussions

In the current study, age has been taken as an independent factor in analyzing the APA of the respondents. The demographic distribution of the age, gender, occupation, and source of the information is given in table 1 and figure 1. The survey contained 105 (~36 %) males and 184 (64 %) females in 289 respondents. The respondents were divided into different age groups, and occupations (Table 1, Figure 1). ~60 % of the respondents are students/researchers (~71 %) belonging to the age group of 19-28 yrs, which is followed by 58 % of respondents as job holders ( ~20 %) in the same age group (Figure 2). 97 % of the respondents were homemakers ( ~8 %), followed by ~47 % as job holders in the age >28 yrs. Moreover, in the age group of 13-18 yrs, all the respondents were students (~36 %) (Figure 2). The source of information on waste management for ~50 % of respondents comes from the educational institute, ~30 % from the media (traditional, social, mass media), ~9 % from drives, campaigns, and awareness programs, and the remaining ~4 % have obtained information from other sources which include NGOs, friends, peers etc. (Table 1, Figure 1).

Table 1. Frequency and percentage of the characteristic variables of the respondents.

Demographic characteristics		Frequency	Percent	Total
i.     Gender	Male	105	36.3	289 (100%)
	Female	184	63.7
ii.   Age	13-18	63	21.8	288 (99.7%)
	19-28	172	59.5
	>28	53	18.3
iii. Occupation	Student/Researcher	205	70.9	289 (100%)
	Job	59	20.4
	Home-maker	23	8.0
iv.  Source of Information	Educational Institute (School/College/Research)	145	50.2	265 (91.7%)
	Drives and Campaigns	26	9.0
	Media (Social, Traditional, Mass Media)	83	28.7
	Others	11	3.8

Figure 1. Pie-chart percentage distribution of the respondents in the following demographic variables: a) age, b) Occupation and c) Source of Information

Table 2. Structure of the Questions

Components	Questions	Question Nos.
1.      Awareness	Types of waste generated	Q5
	Do you recycle and reuse	Q10
	Are you aware of any open landfill/dumping site in/close to the vicinity	Q11
2.      Practise	Do you have a separate bin for the dry- and wet-waste	Q6
	The type of container used for collecting waste	Q7
	How often do you empty your bins	Q8
	Where do you dump your waste	Q9
3.      Attitude	Problems faced by open dumping sites	Q12
	Satisfaction level with the MCD services	Q13
	Willingness to participate in the awareness campaigning	Q14

 Table 3. Descriptive statistical values for the variables a) frequency (N), b) mean (M), and c) standard deviation (SD).

Variables	a)     N	b)     M	c)      SD
Age	288	1.9653	.63480
Gender	289	1.6367	.48179
Occupation	287	1.3659	.62742
Source of information	265	1.8491	1.00371
Q5	287	2.9582	2.13160
Q6	289	1.2941	.48591
Q7	289	2.1107	.63590
Q8	289	1.5017	.92092
Q9	289	1.6713	.82868
Q10	289	1.5329	.67169
Q11	289	1.6920	.64976
Q12	143	2.6573	1.23394
Q13	276	1.4312	.59602
Q14	289	1.7024	.95817
Valid N (listwise)	132

 

Figure 2. Bar-graph showing occupation-wise percent distribution of the different age groups of the respondents.

Table 4 shows the variation in correlation coefficients, chi-square values in the respondent's answers to awareness, practice and attitude (APA) based on their demographic characteristics i.e. age, gender, occupation and source of information. ~72 % and ~70 % of the respondents indicated their practice and awareness on using separate bins, and recycling and reusing waste, respectively. It is noteworthy that women have been more effective as compared to men in the separation, recycling and reusing (women, ~61 %; men, 49 %; χ² =1.267), as well as their willingness (women, ~59 %; men, 52 %, χ² =4.535) in participating in SHW management programs (Figure 4). Moreover, the r (recycle-reuse: 0.052, p<0.044; willingness: 0.199, p<0.025) and ρ correlation coefficient (recycle-reuse: 0.124, p<0.035; willingness: 0.052, p<0.022) values show the existence of the relationship between these two variables (Table 4). This observation is consistent with the previously reported works (Nixon and Saphores 2009, Babaei, Alavi et al. 2015). This is reasonable as the women take responsibility for the domestic household. Thus, educating women can be suggested as the potential area for enhancing their awareness and practice on recycling, reduction and managing SHW. In terms of giving away the waste, men gave it to the municipal corporation disposals (MCD) (men, ~64 %; women, 46 %) and women preferred giving it away to the dedicated waste collectors (women, 39 %; men, 20 %).

This affirms the pivotal role of educational institutes in environmental education and sustainability. Thus, through non-academic courses, academic institutes can raise awareness in the students, teaching, and non-teaching staff. Moreover, they can transcend boundaries from college learning to creating public awareness and citizens' encouragement and help them mitigate the problem of household waste management. The drives, campaigns, and waste management programs are the potential areas that can raise awareness amongst people’s attitudes and willingness in managing their wastes.

In the current study, occupation also showed imperative prediction on the knowledge and attitude towards SHW. Amongst occupations, students were more aware (64 %) than jobholders (~39 %) and homemakers (~39 %). Moreover, students (~75 %) showed a significant percentage towards practicing source separation as compared to jobholders (~65 %) and home-makers (~61 %) (Table 4, Figure 5). This again validates the importance and efficiency of the role of educational institutes in creating awareness and motivating respondents towards solid waste management.

Several studies have been conducted to find the impact of demographics characteristics on APA. While conducting investigations, most of the demographic variables found a poor correlation to APA. However, some of the variables that reported a high correlation coefficient do not necessarily mean that a meaningful conclusion or cause-effect can be drawn. For instance, sources of information derived from educational institutes provided a significant correlation (r, 0.172, p<0.005) and set of the cluster (χ², 17.687) towards practicing the frequency of emptying the dustbins (Table 4). However, the exact impact of education here remains unclear. Also, sources of information derived from an educational institute with a poor correlation coefficient (r, 0.061, p<0.322) on the contrary reported a significant percentage (~64 %) (Figure 6) of respondents towards practicing source separation (using separate bins). This can be attributed to the education enabling the development of the knowledge that enhances the responsibility towards SHW management. However, the source of information had little or no impact on the significance of the respondents to their willingness in participating in awareness programs on SHW.

On the percentage satisfaction levels of the respondents towards MCD services, the majority of respondents (~62 %) showed that they were satisfied.

Figure 3. Percent relationship of the age of respondents in A) awareness, B) practice, and C) attitude towards solid-household waste management

 

Figure 4. Percent relationship of the gender of respondents in, A) awareness, B) practice and C) attitude towards solid-household waste management

 

Figure 5. Percent relationship of the occupation of respondents in A) awareness, B) practice and C) attitude towards solid-household waste management

Figure 6. Percent relationship of the source of information of respondents in A) awareness, B) practice and C) attitude towards solid-household waste management

*MCD- Municipal Corporation Development

Table 4. Correlation and variation in the respondent's answers to awareness, practice and attitude based on their age, gender, occupation and source of information

Question	Demographic Characteristics	Groups	Variables (%)				Chi-square value χ2	Pearson Correlation coefficient r	Significance (2 tailed) p-value	Spearman Correlation coefficient ρ	Significance (2 tailed) p-value
Awareness
			Yes (%)	No (%)	Can’t say (%)
Do you recycle and, or reuse?	Age	13-18	67	25	8		12.934	0.166	0.005	0.18	0.002
		19-28	60	30	10
		>28	35	51	13
	Gender	Male	49	39	12		4.535	0.199	0.044	0.124	0.035
		Female	61	30	9
	Occupation	Student/Researcher	64	28	7		18.141	0.198	<0.001	0.230	<0.001
		Job	39	42	19
		Homemaker	39	52	9
	Source of Info.	Educational institute	59	28	12		5.691	-	-	-	-
		Drives/Campaigns	65	35	0
		Media	57	34.5	10
		Others (friends, peers, NGOs.)	64	36.4	0
Practice
			Yes (%)	No (%)	Don’t know (%)
Do you have separate bins?	Age	13-18	67	25	8		12.221	-	-	0.129	0.028
		19-28	60	30	10
		> 28	36	51	13
			MCD (%)	Dedicated waste collector (%)	Community bins (%)	Just throw them away (%)
Where do you dump your waste?	Gender	Male	64	20	12	4	11.874	-	-	-	-
		Female	46	39	11	4
			Yes (%)	No (%)	Don’t know (%)
Do you have separate bins?	Occupation	Student/Researcher	70	30	0		19.554	-	-	-	-
		Job	65	10	5
		Homemaker	61	35	4
			Daily (%)	Alternately (%)	Random (%)	Never (%)
How often do you empty your dustbins?	Source of Info.	Educational institute	76	13	10	3	17.687	0.172	0.005	0.134	0.030
		Drives/Campaigns	69	12	8	12
		Media	71	11	7	12
		Others (friends, peers, NGOs.)	36	27	9	27
Attitude
			Yes (%)	No (%)	Maybe (%)	Want to but busy (%)
Willingness to participate in the awareness program on solid-household waste management.	Age	13-18	57	9	29	5	3.321	-	-	-	-
		19-28	59	9	23	9
		>28	49	11	28	11
	Gender	Male	52	10.5	29	9	1.267	-0.052	0.025	-0.056	0.022
		Female	59	9	24	9
	Occupation	Student/Researcher	58	8	27	7	5.772	-	-	-	-
		Job	58	13	19	14
		Homemaker	43.5	13	30	13
	Source of Info.	Educational institute	62	18	9	10	9.289	-	-	-	-
		Drives/Campaigns	61.5	28	4	10
		Media	52	29	12	7
		Others (friends, peers, NGOs.)	64	36	0	0

4.     Conclusion

The survey has successfully assessed the respondent's awareness in terms of knowledge and information, practice in terms of the extent of sorting, segregation and recycling waste at source, attitude in terms of extent and degree of willingness to properly dispose of and to take part in the recycling programs. Respondent’s knowledge and attitude towards solid-household waste management are positive and good. The studies also validate the importance of education and the source of information in dissipating the awareness and information on waste management. Moreover, the role of women and students is apparent in solid-household waste management and shows a positive impact on the opportunity score. Thus, empowering activities that utilize assess to education, dedicated awareness drives and programs, convenient accessibility to waste disposal bins, and involvement of women and students in waste management training programs will help at building more sustainable household waste management activities. This will help in bringing the change for a good living environment.

5.     Acknowledgement

The group of 1^st-year students namely Aehsaas Roy, Nisha Singh, Preksha Jain, Samishtha Pandey, Shraddha Agarwal, Shruti Srivastava, Tridha Patta, Ria Chauhan, Shivam Rathi, Priya Sharma, Preksha Uniyal, Akshara Sateesh, Mahima Chaudhary and Kiran Rawal are greatly acknowledged for conducting the surveys. The support of the Department of Environmental Studies, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women is greatly acknowledged. Special thanks to the teacher in charge Dr. Rekha Mehrotra and the principal Dr. Payal Mago for their constant support and motivation.

6.     References:

Asuamah, S. Y., et al. (2012). "Attitude toward recycling and waste management." Science Education Development Institute 2: 158-167.

              

Babaei, A. A., et al. (2015). "Household recycling knowledge, attitudes and practices towards solid waste management." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 102: 94-100.

              

Indhira, K., et al. (2015). "Awareness and attitudes of people perception towards to household solid waste disposal: Kumbakonam Town, Tamilnadu, India." Archives of Applied Science Research 7(3): 6-12.

              

Madrigal, D. V. and E. G. Oracion (2017). "Solid Waste Management Awareness, Attitude, and Practices in a Philippine Catholic Higher Education Institution." Recoletos Multidisciplinary Research Journal 5(2).

              

Nixon, H. and J.-D. M. Saphores (2009). "Information and the decision to recycle: results from a survey of US households." Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 52(2): 257-277.

              

Sarbassov, Y., et al. (2019). "Survey on household solid waste sorting at source in developing economies: A case study of Nur-Sultan City in Kazakhstan." Sustainability 11(22): 6496.

              

Singh, S. (2020). "’ Solid Waste Management In Urban India: Imperatives For Improvement’." Observer Research Foundation.

              

Song, Q., et al. (2016). "Residents’ Attitudes and Willingness to Pay for Solid Waste Management in Macau." Procedia Environmental Sciences 31: 635-643.

              

Warunasinghe, W. A. A. I. and P. I. Yapa (2016). "A Survey on Household Solid Waste Management (SWM) with Special Reference to a Peri-urban Area (Kottawa) in Colombo." Procedia Food Science 6: 257-260.