Household Knowledge, Attitudes, Awareness and Behaviour towards Solid Waste Management: A Case Study in Kamburupitiya Divisional Secretariat

Abstract

Increasing solid waste generation has caused unprecedented damage to Sri Lanka. Present study was conducted as a case study in Magamure Grama Niladari division (GN 330B) and Mapalana Ihala Grama Niladari division (GN 331 D) of Kamburupitiya divisional secretariat. The main aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, awareness status and behavior concerning solid waste management (SWM) among the households. Further, as a secondary objective it was targeted to compare the two GN divisions on waste segregation as Mapalana GN division has provided facilities for waste segregation by the local authority. To achieve these aims, a questionnaire based survey was conducted for 100 households in these selected GN divisions. The descriptive statistics were used to interpret the household’s knowledge, attitudes, awareness and behavior and the SPSS software was used to compare these two divisions on waste segregation. The results revealed that most of the households (83 %) do not have proper knowledge on SWM. However, most of them strongly believe (98 %) that the improper SWM causes severe environmental pollution. Further, 80% of the households were not exposed to any awareness program on SWM. Seventy six percent and 58% of households do not aware of 3 R concept and recycle number, respectively. Considering the behavior on waste management, most of the households (72 %) used to burn solid waste. Despite the low status of awareness expressed by the households concerning SWM, their behavior and practice to segregate waste were high (80 %). It revealed that there was no significant difference (p=0.128) between two GN divisions on waste segregation, though the facilities were provided only to households in Mapalana GN division for waste segregation. Eighty eight percent households were willing to participate to a proper SWM awareness program as many of them (80 %) were not exposed to such an awareness program. Seventy five percent of the households were willing to pay a tax on waste. Further, by considering the findings of this study, it suggests that considerable changes in knowledge, attitudes and behavior can be addressed by awareness programs towards SWM.