Abstract:
The presence of waste is an indication of overconsumption and inefficiency of removing used materials.
Sustainable approaches need to be adopted for a proper waste management system. As an attempt to
address this issue, Kam burupitiya Pradeshiya Sabha has introduced a poly-plastic collecting program in
Matara district As an initial step, M apalana ihala Grama N iladhari (GN) division was selected to introduce
the program. It focuses on collecting polythene and plastic waste for recycling. Hundred households were
randomly selected and subjected to this programme. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was
administered to find out the effectiveness of the current waste disposal system, and the relationship
between socioeconomic factors with the current waste disposal system. Descriptive and Cramer's V
correlation co-efficient analysis were used for the statistical analysis. In the sample, 56% of respondents
were male and 44% were female. 8% of respondents stated that wives as amenable person in disposing
waste. The results revealed that, 58% of the respondents had been adapted to the proper waste
management after introducing the new program. It further revealed that there is a moderate association
between effectiveness of poly-plastic disposal programme with the age, education and income of the
target group. Increments in above socioeconomic factors moved them towards polythene/plastic
recycling method from burning them at home. In addition, there is a significant association (p< 0.05)
between land extent and effectiveness of the poly-plastic collecting programme. However, there was a
weak relationship and low association with socioeconomic factor such as the gender. The present study
concludes that the program has not reached to its highest effectiveness thus recommends to take more
efforts to increase the effectiveness of the waste management system by monitoring the waste collection
in the study area.
