research design example of solid waste management

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• J Environ Health Sci Eng

Design and implementation of integrated solid wastes management pattern in industrial zones, case study of Shahroud, Iran

Nazemi saeid.

1 Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran

Aliakbar Roudbari

2 Center for Health-Related Social and Behavioral Sciences research, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran

Kamyar Yaghmaeian

3 Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health and Institute for Environmental Researches, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

The aim of the study was to design and implementation of integrated solid wastes management pattern in Shahroud industrial zone, evaluates the results and determine possible performance problems. This cross - sectional study was carried out for 4 years in Shahroud industrial zone and the implementation process included:1- Qualitative and quantitative analysis of all solid waste generated in the city, 2- determine the current state of solid waste management in the zone and to identify programs conducted, 3- Design and implementation of integrated solid wastes management pattern including design and implementation of training programs, laws, penalties and incentives and explain and implement programs for all factories and 4- The monitoring of the implementation process and determine the results.

Annually, 1,728 tons of solid wastes generated in the town including 1603 tons of industrial wastes and 125 tons of municipal wastes. By implementing this pattern, the two separated systems of collection and recycling of domestic and industrial wastes was launched in this zone. Also consistent with the goals, the amount of solid wastes generated and disposed in 2009 was 51.5 and 28.6 kg per 100 million Rials production, respectively.

Results showed that implementation of pattern of separated collection, training programs, capacity building, providing technical services, completing chain of industries and strengthening the cooperation between industrial estate management and industrial units could greatly reduce the waste management problems.

Introduction

Iranian industrial facilities generate and dispose of approximately 1.1 billion tons of industrial solid wastes each year from 17 different industry groups such as organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals, primary iron and steel, plastics and resin manufacturing, stone, clay, glass and concrete, pulp and paper, food and kindred products [ 1 ]. Estimates indicated that the amounts of industrial wastes increased by 6.8% while at the same time municipal wastes has increased by 9.8% per year in Iran [ 2 ]. If not properly managed, the accumulation of industrial wastes within the industrial zones can lead to environmental damages, as well as increased safety problems and health-care costs [ 3 ]. One of the significant challenges facing industrial zone managers is how to minimize the negative impacts of solid wastes while still attempting to promote rapid industrial development [ 4 , 5 ]. Studies show that research conducted in this area in our country just focus on the current status of the production and handling of this material and there is no enforcement mechanism to improve the management of these materials. As an example, study conducted by Binavapour on industrial wastes in Hamadan industrial zone showed that hazardous waste minimization and separation is performed in this zone but there is no special compartment for collecting industrial wastes [ 6 ]. Study conducted by Mesgarof on industrial wastes in Kermanshah industrial zone showed that 76.32% of industries kept their wastes in dumping site, 80% of industrial wastes are recycled and 11% of industries disposed their wastes as unsanitary dumping. They concluded that the implementation of appropriate systems to manage solid wastes in the zone is necessary [ 7 ]. In a study of Sanandaj Industrial zone, Ghavami showed that the current status of solid waste management is not in accordance with the principles of environmental and long-term storage of waste at zone may cause adverse consequences on the environment. However, Bamani’s study was the only study in which it was proposed to have a database of hazardous wastes. However; the study did not provide the solution to solve the problem of all industrial wastes generated in industrial zone [ 8 ]. Many studies have been done at world in the field of industrial waste management. Hogland has provided a model for solid waste management is based on three pillars: economic, energy and environmental impacts. They have concluded that this model can have great advantages with small changes in industrial processes but carbon dioxide emissions will increase slightly [ 9 , 10 ]. To improve the management of industrial wastes in Poland, Malgorzata suggested that Europe Union rules replace Industrial Waste Management Rules in Poland, Industrial production cycle of a product to be considered separately, Industrial waste management budget increase and local industries encourage following solid wastes sustainable management patterns [ 11 ]. Integrated solid wastes management pattern is a method can integrate industrial development programs with environmental rules and prevent adverse environmental impacts associated with solid wastes without interrupting the industrial development. The aim of the study was to design and implementation of integrated solid wastes management pattern in Shahroud industrial zone; evaluate the results and determine possible performance problems.

Shahroud industrial Zone (SIZ) located in Semnan province in north east of Iran (Figure  1 ) which is approximately 5 km from the city center of Shahroud. It has a planned area of nearly 410 hectare and at the end of 2011, approximately, 1235 workers or managers travel every day between the city of Shahroud and the zone. Through almost one decade of development, SIZ has established seven groups of industries: electronic (7 units), foodstuffs (9 units), metal (12 units), chemicals (9 units), nonmetal (6 units), textile (3 units) and Cellulose industry (3 units). Iran industrial estates have the responsibility for managing SIZ and set up an administrative agency to oversee the daily administration of the zone [ 12 ]. This agency is called the Semnan industrial estates office (SIEO); it is comprised of a CEO, two deputies and four departments [ 13 ]. The main functions of this office include enforcing national laws and regional regulations, monitoring environmental protection, levying tax, stipulating economic and social development policies, and managing public financial resources [ 14 ].

Map of Iran and Shahroud city.

Materials and methods

This cross-sectional study was carried out for 4 years in Shahroud industrial zone and the implementation process included: 1- Qualitative and quantitative analysis of all solid wastes generated in the zone according to the guidelines listed in the book of industrial wastes management, theory and practices By John Pitchel.

2- Determine the current state of solid wastes management in the zone and to identify programs conducted. For this purpose, a team of experts under the auspices of academic specialists were trained. They collected detailed information on how each plant’s solid wastes management using various methods such as interviews with industrial zone manager, Fill out the questionnaire and in-place measurement of parameters. Table  1 shows the questionnaire.

Questionnaire used for data gathering

3- Design and implementation of integrated management pattern including design and implementation of training programs, laws, penalties and incentives and explain and implement programs for all factories. The new industrial solid wastes management plan is composed of four activities include: a. Development of a solid wastes management system that serves the zone’s long-term strategy to become a center of manufacturing in the North east of Iran (Nor against it) [ 15 ], b. Establish a system of environmental information on ways to reduce the production and reuse and recycling of solid wastes [ 16 ], c. Encouraging industry to use new strategies such as environmental management, cleaner production, life cycle management which tries to reduce the lifetime environmental impact of a product and also get ISO14001 certification [ 17 ], d. Construction of new facilities for separating and classifying ecological industrial solid wastes generated in the zone [ 18 ]. In order to implement this new system, industrial zone manager attempted to develop indicators to measure the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives of system. The indicators are listed in Table  2 are: The amount of solid wastes generated per Gross domestic product (GDP), the amount of solid wastes collected and disposed per Gross domestic product, the amount of solid wastes recycled, the amount of paper and plastic recycled and the amount of hazardous wastes disposed safely. These indicators are created using analyzing patterns of solid wastes management in developing countries, interview with experts in the field of industrial wastes management in Iran (Ad-Hoc method), determining the current level of the these indicators in the industrial zone, interview with managers of factories located in zone, Considering the zone technical potential and considering the principle of “Indicators should be consistent with reality”. In general, the purpose of this pattern is reducing the amount of solid wastes generated half the current value and increasing the recycling rate 2.5 times the current amount over a 10 year period.

Goals of solid waste management in SIZ

a. Rial is Iran’s official currency. According to recent exchange rate, 1US$D = 12560 Rial.

b. Gross Domestic Product.

SIZ has tried to reach the objectives of integrated solid waste management through the “Waste Management Hierarchy” strategy, namely, reduction, reuse and recycle, incineration, and land disposal [ 19 ]. This strategy was implemented at two levels (factory and industrial zone).

A. At each factory level

The main activities of each factory were: a. introducing and promoting the idea of cleaner production with technical support, organizing training courses and impose fines and tax incentives, b. Establish a fund to support cleaner production, c. Implementation programs related to cleaner production such as auditing, technical updates and special training programs for managers and employees, d. Implementation of source separation, life cycle assessment and emission treatment, e. Developing incentive, controlling and selling of products mechanisms, f. Construction of facilities necessary to buy expensive wastes such as wasted paper, metals and plastics in zone and granting the privilege to collect the wastes from all factories in zone and g. collection and transport of hazardous wastes such as adhesives, solvents, flammable and toxic materials to hazardous wastes treatment facility located within the zone.

B. At industrial zone level (in general)

The main activities at industrial zone level (in general) were: a. creating a cooperative industrial ecosystem by encouraging by-products exchange among factories; changing factories cycle in zone from producers and consumers into producers, consumers, scavengers and decomposers [ 20 , 21 ], b. Creating a website to share information and encourage by-products exchange and creating clusters of industrial cooperation between factories such as cluster of East Environmental company with Parishad dairy industry. Figure  2 shows the components of this cluster. c. Legislation with the goal of having all activities comply with environmental norms such as enforcement of in-source separation and reduction pattern of industrial and municipal solid wastes due to the future expansion of zone and anticipated future increase in solid wastes (Figures  3 and ​ and4), 4 ), Special incentive policies for scavengers and decomposers factories such as providing information about the zone wastes, reduce taxes and subsidies to offset operating costs, implementation of the principle of “Pay off the cost of pollution”, granting tax breaks and economic incentives, supporting research and joint activities in the field of solid wastes management between tenant factories and other organizations and academic units and also adopting measures to deal with accidents and emergencies (called the possible use of the site) and d. Providing technical assistance and training for industries due to the limited environmental management programs, especially for managers and strengthen the relationship between zone and Shahroud city solid wastes management programs because there are some shared facilities for treatment and final disposal of solid wastes.

Components of cluster of cluster of East environmental company with Parishad dairy industry.

A planned sorting, collecting and recycling system for industrial waste in SIZ.

A planned sorting, collecting and recycling system for municipal waste in SIZ.

4- The monitoring of the implementation process and determine the results and trying to fix possible problems. For assessing the effectiveness or non effectiveness of this model to reduce or eliminate the problem of solid waste management, zone manager was determined the level of achievement to goals (Table  2 ) at the end of each year.

Dioxins in ambient air were collected in the glass fiber filters and the polyurethane foams. The samples to be determined were extracted and prepared, and then dioxins were quantified by the HRGC-HSMS.

Results and discussion

A. status of solid wastes management in the industrial zone before implementing integrated solid wastes management pattern.

The total amount of solid wastes produced in SIZ in 2009 was 1728 tons, including 1603 tons of industrial waste and 125 tons of municipal wastes [ 1 ]. Tables  3 and ​ and4 4 present the quantity of solid waste generated in SIZ in 2009. As Table  4 shows organic matter, paper, paperboard and demolition and construction wastes constitute over 80% of total wastes.

Solid wastes quantity generated in SIZ in 2009

Solid wastes composition in SIZ in 2009

Although SIZ is still in the early stage of managing their solid wastes, several solid waste treatment facilities have been established, including an energy-recovery incinerator and a landfill. The SIZ Solid Waste Incinerator was built in 2010. It employs Finland technology and can meet the EU emissions standard. One indicator is that the dioxin concentration of its emissions is less than 10 -10  g/m 3 , while the current Iran standard is 10 -9  g/m 3 . The local landfill, namely, Lajaneh Landfill, was established in 2009 and can accept up to 100 tons of solid wastes per day. This facility locates outside SIZ, but can provide services to SIZ factories and industries. This landfill employs semi-aerobic landfill technology and implements many of the practices, such as leachate and gas collection. However, longer distance between SIZ and the landfill (25.5 km) have impeded some SIZ factories from sending their wastes to the landfill. Some factories especially the national firms such as Moghan Wire and Cable, Turbo Generator and Wasegh Forg Electric factories have already established their own management systems and programs on managing solid wastes include ISO 14001 certification, cleaner production and waste minimization initiatives. For instance, the Moghan wire and cable, has successfully refined copper residue from the wire coating process However, such practices are still few and most factories have not recognized the significance of minimizing their solid wastes [ 2 ].

B. The results of the implementation of the integrated solid wastes management pattern in this zone

Table  5 shows the results of the implementation of the integrated solid wastes management pattern in this zone.

Results of implementation of the integrated solid wastes management pattern in this zone

As Table  5 shows amount of solid wastes generated from 66.68 kg per 100 million Rials production in 2009 has been reduced to 64.2, 59.31 and 56.10 in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively that means, more than 98 percent of the goal has been realized. Also, amount of solid waste disposed from 35.87 kg per 100 million Rials production in 2009 has been reduced to 34.2, 30.10 and 27.54 in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively that means, more than 96.5 percent of the goal has been realized. Based on the data presented in Table  5 , Recycling rate of wasted paper and plastic from 26 percent in 2009 has been increased to 27.81, 32.84 and 36.12 percent in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively that means, more than 97.2 percent of the goal has been realized. Also Recycling rate of wasted paper and plastic from 31 percent in 2009 has been increased to 34.1, 37.85 and 41.69 percent in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively that means, more than 96.6 percent of the goal has been realized.

The results showed that strategies taken in the zone has been largely successful in achieving the goals of integrated solid wastes management pattern and led to the reduction of wastes production and increase recycling of valuable components of solid wastes. however, there is still a gap of 2 to 4% of the targeted amount because of unfamiliarity of factories manager with the pattern, lack of information about it and lack of environmental manager in some of these industries in order to careful monitoring of the implementation of this pattern. Amount of solid wastes production per GDP (goal and level achieved) in the study were 5 and 4.7 percent, respectively but the level achieves by Pires in industrial zone in France was 8 percent. The reasons for this difference are different technology level and the current state of solid waste management in the two countries [ 22 , 23 ]. Amount of solid wastes disposal per GDP (goal and level achieved) in the study were 4 and 3.87 percent, respectively but the level achieves by Mbuligwe in industrial zone in Tanzania was 2.5 percent. The reasons for this difference are different technology level and more accurate monitoring [ 19 ]. Rate of industrial solid wastes reclamation (goal and level achieved) in the study were 4 and 3.87 percent, respectively but the level achieves by Pires and Mbuligwe 6.8 and 2.2 percent, respectively. Also, Recycling rate of wasted paper and plastic (goal and level achieved) in the study were 4 and 3.82 percent, respectively but the level achieves by Pires and Mbuligwe 7.9 and 2.3 percent, respectively. The reasons for this difference are different technology level and more accurate monitoring [ 24 ].

This study showed that the pattern of integrated solid waste management is useful tool for strategic planning and management of solid wastes in an industrial zone because it will creates relations between producers, consumers, scavengers and decomposers such as a natural ecosystem among the factories located in zone to ensure the survival and viability of the zone and in its factories. This pattern is economical and valuable because solid waste back into the production cycle again. Also, it leads to the conservation of natural resources and reduce solid wastes disposal rate and cost of production.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

This study is a part of a research project. The study was directed by Dr. A.A.R who is the corresponding author and made the final preparation of article. Engineer S.N was engaged in sample preparations and laboratory work. Dr. K.Y helped on analytical consulting. The overall implementation of this study including the design, sample collection and preparations, laboratory experiments, data analysis, and manuscript preparation was performed by the corresponding author and the above team. All the authors have made extensive contribution into the review and finalization of this manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Iran Industrial Estates, Semnan province industrial estates, research affair of Shahroud University of Medical Sciences and special thank to Dr. Edrisi for his scientific supports.

• Alavimoghadam MR, Mokhtarani N, Mokhtarani B. Municipal solid wastes management in Rasht City, Iran. Waste Manage. 2009; 29 (1):485–489. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2008.02.029. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zazouli MA, Yousefi Z, Eslami A, Ardebilian M. Municipal solid wastes landfill leachate treatment by photo-fenton and fenton-like processes: effect of some variables. Iranian J Environ Health Sci Engine. 2012; 9 (3):93–98. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Saiiahzadeh AH, Samadi MT. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of Malayer city solid wastes from spring till summer. J Environ Health. 2010; 2 (2):94–103. (In Persian) [ Google Scholar ]
• Askarian M, Heidarpoor P, Assadian O. A total quality management approach to healthcare wastes management in Namazi Hospital, Iran. Waste Manage. 2010; 30 (11):2321–2326. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2010.06.020. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Blengini A, Fantoni M, Busto M, Genon G. Participatory approach, acceptability and transparency of waste management LCAs: case studies of Torino and Cuneo. Waste Manage. 2012. In Press. [ PubMed ]
• Bovea MD, Ibáñez-Forés V, Gallardo A, Colomer-Mendoza FJ. Environmental assessment of alternative municipal solid wastes management strategies: a Spanish case study. Waste Manage. 2010; 30 (11):2383–2395. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2010.03.001. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hasanvand MS, Nabizade R, Heidari M. Analysis of solid wastes in Iran. J Environ Health. 2009; 1 (1):9–18. (In Persian) [ Google Scholar ]
• Zoghi MJ, Ghavidel A. Use of HELP model for estimating of landfill leachte production, case study of Semnan. J Environ Health. 2012; 4 (1):65–76. (In Persian) [ Google Scholar ]
• Moinoddini M, Mehrjerdi MH, Khorasani NA, Darvish AA, Shakeri F. Solid wastes landfill site selection with AHPA method, case study of Alborz province. J Environ Health. 2012; 4 (5):483–492. (In Persian) [ Google Scholar ]
• Consonni S, Viganò F. Material and energy recovery in integrated wastes management systems: the potential for energy recovery. Waste Manage. 2011; 31 (9–10):2074–2084. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Corvellec H, Bramryd T. The multiple market-exposure of wastes management companies: a case study of two Swedish municipally owned companies. Waste Manage. 2012. In Press. [ PubMed ]
• Eriksson O, Bisaillon M. Multiple system modeling of wastes management. Waste Manage. 2011; 31 (12):2620–2630. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2011.07.007. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Daryabeigizand A, Abduli MA. Current situation of used household batteries in Iran and appropriate management policies. Waste Manage. 2008; 28 (11):2085–2090. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2007.09.013. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Najafi G, Ghobadian B, Tavakoli T, Yusaf T. Potential of bioethanol production from agricultural wastes in Iran. Renew Sust Energ Rev. 2009; 13 (6–7):1418–1427. [ Google Scholar ]
• Saghafi MD, Hosseini ZA. Building deconstruction and material recovery in Iran: an analysis of major determinants. Proced Engine. 2011; 21 :853–863. [ Google Scholar ]
• Sharifi M. Integrating multi-criteria decision analysis for a GIS-based hazardous wastes landfill sitting in Kurdistan Province, western Iran. Waste Manage. 2009; 29 (10):2740–2758. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2009.04.010. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Taghipour H, Mosaferi M. Characterization of medical wastes from hospitals in Tabriz, Iran. Sci Total Environ. 2009; 407 (5):1527–1535. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.11.032. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Yuan HP. A model for evaluating the social performance of construction wastes management. Waste Manage. 2012; 32 (6):1218–1228. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2012.01.028. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Yuan HP, Chini AR, Lu YJ, Shen LV. A dynamic model for assessing the effects of management strategies on the reduction of construction and demolition wastes. Waste Manage. 2012; 32 (3):521–531. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2011.11.006. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhu H, Huang GH. SLFP: a stochastic linear fractional programming approach for sustainable wastes management. Waste Manage. 2011; 31 (12):2612–2619. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2011.08.009. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hogland W, Stenis J. Assessment and system analysis of industrial wastes management. Waste Manage. 2000; 20 (7):537–543. doi: 10.1016/S0956-053X(00)00020-9. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ghiani G, Laganà D, Manni E, Triki C. Capacitated location of collection sites in an urban wastes management system. Waste Manage. 2012; 32 (7):1291–1296. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2012.02.009. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hazra T, Goel S. Solid wastes management in Kolkata, India: practices and challenges. Waste Manage. 2009; 29 (1):470–478. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2008.01.023. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Parthan SR, Milke MW, Wilson DC, Cocks JH. Cost estimation for solid wastes management in industrializing regions – Precedents, problems and prospects. Waste Manage. 2012; 32 (3):584–594. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2011.11.004. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

• Research article
• Open access
• Published: 05 January 2022

Household solid waste management practices and perceptions among residents in the East Coast of Malaysia

• Widad Fadhullah   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4652-0661 1 , 2 ,
• Nor Iffah Najwa Imran 1 ,
• Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail 3 ,
• Mohd Hafiidz Jaafar 2 &
• Hasmah Abdullah 1 , 4  

BMC Public Health volume  22 , Article number:  1 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

200k Accesses

119 Citations

10 Altmetric

Metrics details

Poor waste disposal practices hamper the progress towards an integrated solid waste management in households. Knowledge of current practices and perception of household solid waste management is necessary for accurate decision making in the move towards a more sustainable approach. This study investigates the household waste practices and perceptions about waste management in Panji, one of the sub-districts in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.

A stratified random sampling technique using a cross-sectional survey questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 338 households were interviewed in the survey and data were analyzed using SPSS. Chi-square goodness of fit test was used to determine the relationships between categorical variables, whereas Chi-square bivariate correlation test was performed to observe the correlation between the perceptions of waste segregation with socio-demographic background of the respondents. The correlation between perception of respondents with the locality, house type and waste type were also conducted. Principal component analysis was used to identify grouping of variables and to establish which factors were interrelated in any given construct.

The results of the study revealed that 74.3 % of households disposed of food debris as waste and 18.3% disposed of plastic materials as waste. The study also showed that 50.3% of the households segregate their waste while 49.7% did not. About 95.9% of the respondents were aware that improper waste management leads to disease; such as diarrhea and malaria. There were associations between locality, age and house type with waste segregation practices among respondents (Chi-square test, p<0.05). Associations were also found between locality with the perception of improper waste management which lead to disease (Chi-square test, p<0.05). Principal Component Analysis showed that 17.94% of the variance has high positive loading (positive relationship) with age, marital status and, type of house.

This study highlights the importance to design waste separation programs that suit the needs of targeted population as a boost towards sustainable solid waste management practices.

Peer Review reports

Solid waste management (SWM) in the majority of developing countries including Malaysia is dominated by open dumping due to lower capital, operational and maintenance cost in comparison with another disposal method [ 47 ]. This non-sanitary and non-engineered approach are without appropriate liners, gas collection and leachate collection and treatment, thereby exposing the surrounding environment with multiple air, water and soil pollution issues [ 15 , 23 ]. The effects of the ineffective management of household solid waste on public health (Fig. 1 ) can be separated into physical, biological, non-communicable diseases, psychosocial and ergonomics health risks [ 6 , 51 , 77 ]. Contaminated soil, air and water provide breeding ground to biological vectors such as flies, rodents and insects pests. Many diseases are sequentially caused by these biological vectors, such as diarrhoea, dysentery, gastrointestinal problems, worm infection, food poisoning, dengue fever, cholera, leptospirosis and bacterial infection; irritation of the skin, nose and eyes; as well as respiratory symptoms [ 25 , 41 , 42 , 52 ]. Exposure to gases generated by landfill waste such as methane, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide can produce inflammation and bronchoconstriction and can affect the immune cell. Hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride released from the waste if deposited in the respiratory system, may cause cough, chest tightness and breathlessness [ 21 ].

Effect of ineffective household solid waste management on public health

Another category of health effects that can be closely related to household solid waste management is non-communicable diseases. Some studies estimated that the pollutions from the dumpsite might cause cancers (e.g. liver, pancreas, kidney, larynx) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma [ 8 , 31 , 51 ]. Other health effects under this category worth mentioning are birth defects, preterm babies, congenital disorders and Down’s syndrome [ 51 , 52 ]. Apart from physical and biological effects, inefficient household waste management can lead to psychosocial effects such as disturbing odour, unsightly waste, and thinking, cognitive and stress-related problems [ 6 , 51 , 52 , 74 , 77 ]. Ergonomics is the final category of related health effects that is worth mentioning specifically for the working community of household waste management (Fig. 1 ). The risk of ergonomic issues is related to body posture, repetitive movement and excessive force movement [ 6 ].

Majority of the solid waste generated in Malaysia composed of organic waste with high moisture content [ 43 ], hence, the handling and waste separation at source is the most critical step in waste management [ 62 ]. The increasing amount of waste generated annually is also intensified by lack of land for disposing waste, questioning the sustainability of the current municipal solid waste (MSW) practices of using landfills [ 46 ]. Nevertheless, the lack of success in public participation to manage the solid waste is primarily rooted by the NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude and the public perception that solid waste is a local municipal problem is highly prevalent among Malaysians [ 3 ]. Thus, most of the existing waste segregation practices by waste-pickers are mostly done in the informal sector as means of livelihood for the poor and additional source of income. On the other hand, this practice causes serious health problems, aggravating the socio-economic situation [ 10 ].

In Kelantan, the common practice of waste disposal in rural and remote areas is by burying and burning of waste (Kamaruddin et al. 2016) while in urban or semi-urban areas, stationary waste storage containers are provided mainly at the sides of the main road. Kota Bharu Municipal Council (KBMC) is the local authority responsible in providing stationary waste storage container at collection site of waste within Kota Bharu district, collecting the solid waste approximately 3 times a week by compactor vehicles and transporting waste to the dumpsite located in Beris Lalang, Bachok [ 27 ]. However, the flaws of SWM in Kelantan lies primarily in inadequate bin and waste collection provided by local authorities, KBMC mainly constrained by financial issues (Rahim et al 2012). House to house waste collection is also hard to be implemented owing to narrow lanes and alleys which are mostly inaccessible [ 61 ] due to the development practice and geographical area in the state. Therefore, the locals’ resort to burying and burning their wastes within their house compound which has always been the practice since decades ago.

Household waste is one of the primary sources of MSW comprising of food wastes, paper, plastic, rags, metal and glasses from residential areas. Household waste is among the solid wastes managed by KBMC in Kota Bharu covering 15 sub-districts including Panji. Panji has the highest population compared to the other sub-district; therefore, assessment of household SWM among the residents is important to address their awareness and practices for planning an effective form of SWM. Some of the key factors influencing the effectiveness of SWM is by considering the size of the family, their income [ 67 ], level of education [ 19 ] and the location of household [ 1 ]. This factor is also supported by Shigeru [ 66 ] that the characteristics of households determine their recycling behavior and that sociodemographic conditions vary across municipalities. Socio-economic status and housing characteristics also affect the amount of municipal waste and how they manage it [ 20 ]. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the characteristics and needs of various households in designing a suitable waste management program.

Efficient SWM system is now a global concern which requires a sustainable SWM primarily in the developing countries. This study is another effort in gearing towards sustainable waste management practices in Malaysia which is also in line with the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals encompassing SDG3 Good Health and Wellbeing and SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production. So far, limited studies were reported in the East Coast of Malaysia, particularly in Kelantan on waste management practices at the household level [ 61 ] which is highly required to improve the current practices including finding the prospect of whether proper at source-sorting in households is feasible to be implemented. This study provides a case study in Panji, Kota Bharu concerning the current household characteristics and awareness of managing household solid waste in Kelantan. The findings are crucial for the waste authorities in the process of designing and providing an effective and specific action plan in the area.

Figure 2 shows the percentage of households by garbage collection facilities and median monthly household income (MYR) for the districts in Kelantan. Kota Bharu is the district with the highest median monthly household gross income and percentage of garbage collection facilities. Apart from Lojing, which is located in the highlands, Bachok, Tumpat and Pasir Puteh are the districts with the lowest percentage of garbage collection facilities within 100m of the households. Meanwhile, Bachok (34.9%), Pasir Mas (36.6%), and Pasir Puteh (38%) households are without garbage collection facilities. The figure described the problem with household solid waste management in Kelantan. The major issues contributing to the problem are due to insufficient financial resources, lack of human labor, and transportation [ 61 ]. In one of the rural area in Kelantan, it was found that the solid waste management is considered inefficient due to a lack of knowledge in proper waste handling and the importance of segregating waste properly as proper waste handling start at home (Abas et al. 2020).

Percentage of households by garbage collection facilities and median monthly household income (MYR) for the districts in Kelantan

Household SWM is not a new issue, thus, published studies were found using survey and questionnaires and fieldwork studies. Waste characterization process was carried out by Kamaruddin et al. (2016) in 4 landfills in Kelantan. Nevertheless, they did not cover household waste knowledge, attitude and practices. Abdullah et al. [ 1 ] surveyed the household’s awareness on privatization of solid waste management and their satisfaction of the services offered but did not cover the health implications. Saat et al. [ 61 ] surveyed the practices and attitude on household waste management with a small sample size of less than 30 which limits its applicability to other region. Our study aimed to improve these previous studies by covering a wider sample size from the largest sub-district in Kelantan, Malaysia. The objective of this study is to assess the household SWM practices and perceptions among the residents of Panji vicinity in Kota Bharu district, Kelantan. Specifically, the objectives are to assess household SWM practices and perceptions in the Panji sub-district, to determine the association between socio-demographic characteristics or other factors and practices in SWM at the household level and to determine the association between socio-demographic characteristics or other factors and perceptions in SWM at household level.

This study was conducted in Panji, Kota Bharu district, Kelantan, Malaysia (Fig. 3 ), located at the east cost of Peninsular Malaysia and has the highest population among the 15 sub-districts of Kota Bharu, the capital state of Kelantan. A total of 338 respondents were recruited in this study. The population of interest in this study involved residents in Kota Bharu district and considered only residents who have attained 18 years old and above. Sample unit is residents living in Kota Bharu district of more than a year and aged more than 18 years. The target population comprised all the households in Kota Bharu District (491,237); however, it is impossible to conduct a study with such a large number within a limited time period and inadequate financial budget. Therefore, a multi- stage random sampling technique was used in selecting the appropriate sample in order to evaluate the objectives of this study and to ensure that households in the districts had the same possibility of being included in the study (Dlamini et al., 2017). Initially, one district of Kelantan state (Kota Bharu) was selected out of 10 total districts. In the second stage, one sub-district of Kota Bharu District (Panji) was selected out of 15 total sub-districts. Eventually, 338 households were randomly selected as sample size. Convenient sampling was also used to select respondents due to time constraint and response obtained from target population. The localities involved were Kampung Tapang, Kampung Chempaka, Kampung Belukar, Kampung Panji, Taman Sri Iman, Taman Desa Kujid and Taman Bendahara.

Location of the study area in Panji, Kota Bharu district, Kelantan, Malaysia (Source:ArcGis Software version 10.2; source of shape file: Department of Drainage and Irrigation, obtained with consent)

Data collection

A survey was conducted from January to May 2018. The questionnaire was translated from English to Malay language and the translation was done back to back and validated by experts in environmental science and public health field. A pilot test was conducted with a small sample size of ~30 to determine the suitability of the items in the questionnaire and the time taken by respondents to complete the questionnaires (Dlamini et al. 2017). Respondents were interviewed based on a questionnaire adopted and modified from Asante et al. [ 9 ]. The questionnaire involved two phases; the first one was to determine the socio-demographic of the respondents, including gender, age, types of housing, religion, educational level, occupation and the number of occupants in the household. Part two was an assessment to determine the status of household management of solid waste. The questionnaire included both open and closed questions (Dlamini et al. 2017). The closed questions were designed for ease of answering by the respondents with the aim of collecting the maximum appropriate responses, whereas the open questions are intended to encourage respondents to provide further elaboration on certain questions. The reliability of Cronbach’s alpha test of this questionnaire was found to be acceptable (α=0.71). Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Ethic Committee of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM/JEPeM/17100560).

Data analysis

Data were analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24.0. Descriptive analyses were used to report the frequency and percentage of socio-demographic patterns, method of household waste disposal and perceptions of household toward waste management. Chi-square goodness of fit test was used to determine the relationships between categorical variables, which allow us to test whether the observed proportions for a categorical variable differ from the hypothesized proportions [ 24 ]. The null hypothesis of the Chi-Square test is that no relationship exists on the categorical variables in the population; they are independent. Chi-square bivariate correlation test was performed to observe the correlation between the perceptions of waste segregation with socio-demographic background of the respondents [ 29 ]. The correlation between perception of respondents with the locality, house type and waste type were also conducted. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to identify grouping of variables and to establish which factors were interrelated in any given construct, where a set of highly inter-correlated measured variables were grouped into distinct factors [ 24 ]. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkim (KMO) Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was performed to evaluate the data's suitability for exploratory factor analysis [ 69 ].

Socio-demographic Characteristics and Respondents Background in Panji sub-district

We first report descriptive statistics for all variables before discussing results from correlation analysis of socio-demographic factors and respondent’s background with household solid waste management (SWM) practices and perceptions. We then present the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Table 1 represents the socio-demographic background and characteristics of the respondents in this study. Most of the respondents are from Kg. Belukar (N=125, 37%), followed by Kg. Panji (N=61, 18%), the rest are from Kg. Tapang (N=33), Kg. Chempaka, Taman Desa Kujid, Taman Sri Iman (N=30, respectively) and from Taman Bendahara (N=29). Majority of the respondents are female (N=182, 53.8%) and age between 35 to 49 years old (N=91, 26.9%). Most of the respondents have completed secondary education (N=194, 57.4%) and 31.1% have completed their degree or diploma (N=105). Majority of the respondents are married (75.7%), Muslim (97%) and earned between MYR 1000 to 2000 per month. About 32% of the respondents are self-employed and lived in a bungalow house type (30.5%). Most of the household consist of 4 to 6 occupants (53.6%). Majority of them cook at home (91.4%) on daily basis (68.6%). The Chi-square test shows that there is a significant difference among all categorical variables except for gender (χ 2 = 2.000, p = 0.157).

Proportion of Household Solid Waste Disposed by respondents in Panji Sub-District

Figure 4 represents the type of waste disposed of by respondents in the study. More than half (74.38%) of the waste disposed by household is food debris, followed by plastic waste (19.01%) and bottles (5.79%) while the rest accounts for 0.83%.

Types of waste disposed by household in Panji district

Household SWM practices and perceptions among respondents in Panji sub-district

Table 2 shows the household waste management practices and perceptions among respondents in Panji district. In terms of the household SWM practices, about 170 of the respondents (50.3%) segregate their waste at home while the remaining 168 respondents (49.7%) did not practice waste segregation at home. There is no significant difference between those who segregate waste at home and those who don’t (χ 2 =0.12, p=0.91). As shown in Fig. 1 and Table 2 , the major type of waste disposed by respondents are food (N=251, 74.3%). A significant difference was found among the different type of waste disposed (χ 2 =656.56, p<0.001). Out of the 338 respondents interviewed, 75.4% of the respondent themselves normally carries their household waste to the allocated bin or waste collection point provided by the local authority. Majority of the respondents (323 respondents) agree that the waste disposal site provided by the local authorities were appropriate (95.6%) relative to 15 respondents who disagree (4.4%). A significant difference was found between those who responded that appropriate waste disposal site was provided and those who do not (χ2=280.66, p<0.001).

Most of them also have the perception that proper waste management is important (99.7%). More than half (62.4%) of the respondent agrees that it is their responsibility to clean the waste in their residential area while 24.3% suggested that it is the responsibility of the district council. Another 3.3% suggested it is the responsibility of the community members followed by private waste operators (1.5%). The majority (95.9%) of the respondents suggested poor waste management can contribute to disease occurrence, whereas 2.7% suggested it does not cause diseases and another 1.5% were unsure if it causes any diseases.

In terms of the household SWM perceptions, 40.8% of the respondents have responded that other diseases than diarrhea, malaria and typhoid are related to improper waste management. This is followed by diarrhea (30.5%) and malaria (21.9%). Majority of the participants responded that they have awareness on proper waste management (92.9%) and 81.4% responded that cleanliness is the main factor which motivates them to dispose the waste properly. The chi-square test shows that all variables under respondents’ perception differ significantly from the hypothesized values (Table 2 ).

Relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, respondent’s background and household SWM practices (waste segregation practices)

Chi square analysis was performed to find out what factors contribute to waste segregation practices among the respondents (Table 3 ). Results indicate that waste segregation practice was correlated with the locality (χ 2 = 43.35, p<0.001). For instance, out of 29 respondents in Taman Bendahara, all of them segregate their waste (100%). This trend was also observed for Taman Desa Kujid where most of the respondents segregate their waste (22 out of 30, 73.3%). In contrast, most of respondents from the village, did not segregate their waste. For example, out of 125 total number of respondents in Kg Belukar, 53 of them segregates their waste (42.4%) while 72 of them did not (57.6%).

A significant correlation was found between waste segregation practice and age (χ 2 =11.62, p<0.001). Based on the age range of the total number of respondents, respondents at the age of 50-65 years old are those who segregated more than the rest (N=43) and those at the age of 35-49 are those who did not segregate their waste the most (N=52 in Table 3 ). The type of house was significantly correlated with waste segregation practice (χ 2 =12.73, p=0.03). The respondents who live in bungalow houses are those who segregate the most (N=58). Those who live in semi-detached houses also have more respondents (N=24) segregating their waste than those who did not (N=13). Meanwhile those who live in other type of houses, terrace, village and others have more respondents who did not segregate their waste (Table 3 ). Other variables, gender, education level, marital status, monthly income, occupation, the number of persons per household and the practice of cooking at home did not show any significant correlation with waste segregation practice (p>0.05, Table 3 ).

Relationship between respondent’s background and household SWM practices (the type of waste disposed) from the household in Panji sub-district

The chi-square test was also conducted to determine the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, respondent’s background and the type of waste disposed. There is a significant correlation between locality with the waste type disposed in Panji district (Table 4 ). All localities showed that food waste was the major type of waste being disposed of from the households. A significant correlation was also found between respondents living in different house types with type of waste disposed. Most of the respondents who live in bungalows (N = 81) and other type of house (N = 78) disposed of food as the main waste from their households. Other characteristics were not significantly correlated with type of waste.

Correlation between respondents’ background (locality and/ or house type) and the perception in household SWM (appropriate site of household waste disposal provided by the local council and improper waste management contribute to disease occurrence)

Correlation analysis was also performed to determine what factors contribute towards the perception of household SWM in Panji district. No significant correlation was found between different locality with the appropriate waste disposal site provided (p = 0.152) as most of the locality has an appropriate disposal site (Table 5 ). There was also no significant relationship between type of house with appropriate disposal site provided by the local council (p=0.131). On the other hand, significant correlation was found between locality and the respondent’s perceptions on improper waste management which contribute to disease occurrence (p=0.042). Out of all localities, majority of the respondents from Kg Belukar has the perception that improper waste management contributes to disease occurrence (Table 5 ).

Principal component analysis (PCA)

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a dimension-reduction tool that can be used to reduce a large set of variables to a small set that still contains most of the information in the original large set [ 24 ]. It converts a set of observations of possibly correlated variables (entities each of which takes on various numerical values) into a set of values of linearly uncorrelated variables called principal components [ 37 ]. This transformation is defined in such a way that the first principal component has the largest possible variance (that is, accounts for as much of the variability in the data as possible), and each succeeding component in turn has the highest variance possible under the constraint that it is orthogonal to the preceding components.

PCA in this study was performed to determine the variables that influence or related to waste segregation behavior among respondents. Table 6 highlight the PCA analysis to illustrate the component factors that influence waste segregation behavior among respondents in this study. Only 13 significant variables were highlighted in the table with the factor loading of more than 0.5. Only factor loadings value >0.5 are considered for selection and interpretation due to having significant factor loadings influence the acceptable KMO value that represent a significant correlation for the PCA model in the study. The PCA generates four principal components that represent 48.26% of the total variance in the variables dataset and produced an acceptable KMO value of 0.603 (more than 0.5). Bartlett’s test of sphericity showed that PCA could be applied to the data at the p< 0.001 level. This approved that the data met the requirements for factor analysis [ 24 , 69 ].

The component matrix produced in PCA showed that PC1 represents 17.94% of the variance with high positive loading (positive relationship) on age, marital status and, type of house (Table 6 ). This pattern indicates that age, married and type of house were the group that segregates their waste the most. This group of community can be proposed as the target to actively participate in waste management practices within the district. In contrast, locality and education have negative loading or negative relationship with the segregation activity. As a result, policy makers should increase educational activities on proper household waste practices and management related issues to minimize both the environmental and health impacts of household waste practices among the population.

PC2 represents 10.93% of the variance with high loadings on cooking at home and cooking frequency. This pattern implies that those who cook at home and frequently cook were among the most respondents who practice waste segregation. However, no consequences can be drawn about individual factors as these may have the opposite relationship to the observed factor in other components. Similar trend was observed for PC3 whereby 9.96% of the data variance has high loading on the perception of the respondents towards waste management. High loading was observed on perception that improper waste management contributes to disease occurrence and the cleanliness is the main element that motivates them to segregate. PC3 has high negative loading with monthly income. This result suggests that respondents with low income are those who segregate more.

Meanwhile, PC4 represents 9.42% of the data variance. Variables that have high positive loadings were the respondents who brought the waste to the communal bin themselves, indicating that this group of respondents are those who segregate more. High positive loading was also found on the perception that residents are among those responsible for cleaning the residential area. The number of persons living in a household has negative loading in PC4, indicating that the higher the number of people lives in the household, the lesser chances of them to segregate the waste.

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

a 4 components extracted.

b Only cases for which Practice of waste segregation = Yes are used in the analysis phase.

This study explores the behavioral perspective in view that the way people manage waste is associated with their attitude and perception. Individual perception is governed by their background and present situation, shaped by values, moods, socials circumstances and individual expectation (Kaoje et al 2017). The results of this study are discussed from three aspects: (1) characterization of household solid waste management practices and perceptions among respondents (2) correlation between socioeconomic and respondent’s background with waste segregation practices and (3) correlation between socioeconomic and respondent’s background with household waste management perceptions. One of the primary intentions of acquiring the respondent’s characteristics was to understand the correlation between level of involvement in household SWM practices and the characteristics of the respondents.

Food waste was found as the major type of waste disposed by the communities in Panji sub-district (Fig. 1 and Table 2 ). Food waste has high moisture content and causes smell, which subsequently attracts disease vectors, such as flies, mosquitoes and cockroaches, and the proliferation of rodents, such as rats and mice, which pose threats to public health [ 68 , 75 ]. Majority of the respondents were found to cook at home (N=309, 91.4%) and cook on a daily basis (N=232, 68.6%; Table 1 ) which suggests that composting should be incorporated as one of the main approaches for proper waste management practices in the community. Individual compost bin should be provided in each household coupled with adequate training on simple compost technique can be organized within the locality as a stage by stage process. Alternatively, community scale composting can be proposed to focus solely on food waste management which is currently a growing practice among Malaysians [ 38 , 56 ]. This approach is gaining attention because of their lower energy footprint, ease of operation, need for lesser resources, lower operation and maintenance costs which have higher chances of public acceptance [ 32 ]. Food waste is organic waste which can decomposed and degraded into organic matter [ 33 ], which in turn can be used by the public to fertilize their garden soil. Most importantly, the training should emphasize on the practicality and feasible option of composting which is otherwise seen as a time-consuming and burdensome process [ 33 ].

Composting is beneficial to the environment by reducing greenhouse gases emissions and improvement of soil quality when applied to land. Furthermore, it is also in line with the circular economy concept by closing the loop of the system [ 14 ]. On the other hand, there are issues pertaining to its quality such as the nutrient and trace metal content. So, sorting the waste at source play a crucial role in minimising these impurities and collection systems play a fundamental role in removing some pollutants from wastes, especially organic fraction of municipal solid wastes, and improving compost quality [ 13 ]. One way to overcome this is by accommodating the waste collection and composting facilities with easy and convenient measurement of these contents which may be accessible by the community. Community composting programs should incorporate not only the step-by-step procedure of how to do composting but at the same time introducing easy to use kit or techniques applicable to the public and community such as test strip to measure the nutrients and trace metal [ 11 ]. In addition, by adding composting accelerators, the nutritional quality of the compost can be overcome. This factor can be done by developing a manual for public use.

The case of local composting at homes reduces transportation and collection cost by decreasing the amount of domestic waste carried to centralized composting facilities [ 76 ]. At the same time, household waste contains impurities and are widely distributed which hinders the efficiency of centralized composting facilities in disposing them. Centralized composting facilities in Asia suffer from low compost quality and poor sales [ 32 ]. As a result, community composting system at a smaller scale is more convenient within this region.

Composting is linked to diseases such as Aspergillosis, Legionnaire’s disease, histoplasmosis, paronychia and tetanus. In the case of Aspergillosis and Legionnaire’s disease, it may cause higher potential risk in large scale composting facilities compared to the smaller scale composting at home due to massive handling and agitating process in the former [ 26 , 59 ]. Histoplasmosis have been associated with chicken manure used in composting, however it is not able to survive in a well-done composting process [ 39 ]. Therefore, disease spread can be minimised by having local composting at homes and community composting system at a smaller scale than centralized composting facility. The most important thing in minimising disease spread would be the practise of wearing gloves and face mask during this composting activity.

In this study, there was not much difference between the respondents who separated their waste and who did not (Table 2 ), which implies there is room for increasing the practice of waste segregation. Waste segregation practice is lacking in developing countries, most prominently in Asia ( [ 15 , 48 ]; Vassanadumrongdee and Kittipongvises 2018) and African continents (Dlamini et al. 2017; Yoada et al. 2014). Since respondents lack adequate knowledge on the critical importance of waste separation at source in general, the volume of municipal solid waste dumped in landfill sites are progressively increasing, thus jeopardizing the remaining landfill space at a faster rate than initially planned. Therefore, to alleviate this environmental problem in the developing countries in general and in Panji sub-districts, specifically, more focused and sustained public awareness programs, integrated with an enabling infrastructure, are required to change residents’ perceptions toward improved waste separation at source rates [ 49 ]. Additionally, the outcome of the waste segregation activities should be similarly emphasized and how waste minimization in the first instance, and waste segregation at source, will benefit and enhance the standard of living or life quality of households ([ 44 ]; Yoada et al. 2014 [ 49 ];).

The perceptions of the respondents towards waste management were generally good. About 99.7% reported that waste management is important, 62.4% report that it is the responsibility of them to manage waste (Table 2 ). Resident’s participation in waste management activities is one of the ways in maximizing the capture of source-segregated materials which can be facilitated by providing an associated infrastructure [ 58 ]. Nevertheless, there are still some respondents who felt that waste management is not their responsibility, but instead lies mainly on the district council, which highlights the general perception of some Malaysians that waste is a local municipal issue [ 46 ]. About 95.9% of the respondents were aware that improper waste management leads to sicknesses or diseases, which implies that most of the households were aware of the health implication of waste. The management of MSW in developing Asian countries is driven by a public health perspective: the collection and disposal of waste in order to avoid the spread of disease vectors from uncollected waste [ 5 ]. The perception of the remaining 2.7% that waste management does not cause disease and 1.5% who were unsure need to be changed by targeting this group as a follow up program focusing on waste management and health issues. The respondents also have adequate level of awareness and knowledge about proper waste management (92.9%). This high level of awareness is because of several reasons for properly disposing of waste, including cleanliness as the major factor (81.4%), followed by fear of illnesses (12.4%), and odor (6.2%).

Most of the respondents thought that improper waste management could lead to diarrhea and malaria (Table 2 ). Diarrhea and waste management is associated with environmental factors such as waste disposal mechanism. House-to-house waste collection has been shown to decrease the incidence of malaria compared to other waste collection method [ 7 ]. Hence, this implies the possibility of malaria incidence in areas which burn their waste and areas which are inaccessible by any waste collection. Other diseases could be related to typhoid, dysentery, cholera, respiratory infections and injury [ 42 ]. Proper waste management can lead to improvement in the quality of the environment and public health while, mismanagement of waste can be implicated with water, soil and air pollutions [ 1 ], breeding of mosquitos, which in turn, causes disease [ 15 , 68 ]. Although knowledge and awareness are acceptable among the respondents, this perception did not inculcate into waste segregation practices. In order to bridge the gap between awareness and behavior change, it is necessary for individuals to understand the importance of their role in how to do it and why it is important to do so [ 34 ]. More focused, detailed and continuous awareness and knowledge should be emphasized on this aspect specifically in the topics of environmental cleanliness, drainage systems, the recycling process in theory and practice, and a proper way to dispose of wastes [ 61 ].

Our findings have reported that socio-demographic factors (age, marital status) and respondents’ background (locality and house types) have influenced the household waste practices and perceptions in Panji sub-district (Tables 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 ). Age is associated with the maturity of the person which plays a significant factor in impacting their level of awareness on environmental health and sanitation ([ 12 , 17 ]; Meneses and [ 40 , 45 ]). The result of our study is consistent with the findings by Fan et al. [ 22 ] that older individuals prefer to engage more in waste sorting activities than young people in Singapore.

On the other hand, the number of children in the household may be a significant factor that influence waste separation. This for instance has been mentioned in Xu et al., (2017), where the intention of middle-aged adults towards behaving a more eco-friendly system was affected by critical social reference groups around them, such as the interaction with family or the motivation, especially children, and/or the consideration of the health situation of the whole family.

However, in other studies such as in Ittiravivongs [ 28 ] and Vassanadumrongdee & Kittipongvises (2018), socio-demographic variables became insignificant factors that influenced waste segregation participation. Knussen et al., [ 36 ] & White & Hyde [ 73 ] also indicate that the strongest variable influence participation in waste segregation program was past behaviour on regular source separation at home or recycling habit. Having waste separation in the office also could have positive influence on source separation intention, which is consistent with the study of Saphores et al. [ 64 ].

Considering number of children in the analysis is beyond the scope of this paper. Our result indicates that there is no significant difference in the waste segregation practice by the number of occupants in the household (χ 2 = 2.36, p = 0.31). For instance, the results show 54.2% of household with more than 6 occupants practice waste segregation, as compared to those who are not at 45.8%. This would suggest that the number of children in the house could be less influence on the waste segregation practice or vice versa. Future study may consider number of children in the family as one of the variables to be tested to confirm the hypothesis.

It was interesting to note that the types of housing in the case study were found to contribute heavily to the practices and perceptions of household waste management. Respondents who lived in bungalows (30.5%) and other type of houses than semi-detached, terrace and village (28.4%) are most likely to segregate their waste. Bungalows are associated with high income areas in Malaysia [ 53 ], which could be related to waste collection services are provided from these areas and possibly these households subscribe to this service. Potentially, these types of houses also have more space to be allocated for waste sorting than the other type of houses.

Other socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, education level and monthly income did not influence the practices and perceptions of the respondents. There were no significant associations between gender and waste segregation practices (χ 2 =0.596, p=0.440). Our finding is contrasting to the study by Ehrampoush and Moghadam [ 18 ] which reported that gender is likely to have an influence on the perceptions of household SWM. This view is supported by Mukherji et al. [ 48 ] who found that women, because of traditional gender roles associated with their household activities, have a closer engagement with waste management at household level.

The level of education has been reported as an important factor that could influence people’s perception of household waste management [ 40 ]. In this study, most of the respondents received their education until secondary school (57.4%), followed by diploma or degree (31.1%) but this did not influence their household SWM practices and perception (χ 2 =6.188, p=0.19), in particular waste segregation practice (Table 3 ). The poor average income of respondents is considered a very important variable that could influence people’s perception and attitudes negatively on solid waste management system (Parfitt et al. 1994 [ 40 ];). But, this is not the case in our study as economic consideration appears not to play a major role in the respondent’s perception as well as attitude to solid waste management practices (χ 2 =4.55, p=0.47).

The outcome from the PCA analysis showed that age, marital status and type of housing are the factors which contributed the most to waste segregation practices at home. Our finding agrees with the study by Vassanadumrongdee and Kittipongvises (2018) which found that age and family with children have a positive influence on respondent's source separation. Age was also a determinant factor in waste management practices in other studies [ 2 , 15 ]. With aging and married respondents, this could be highly related to the increasing sense of responsibility towards the environment and the importance of increasing the quality of life among household members. Types of housing could be related to either waste collection services were provided in these areas or that limited number of households subscribe to their service. Other studies in the literature have reported on the positive relationship between residence types and waste separation practices ([ 15 ]; Vassanadumrongdee and Kittipongvises 2018).

The high loadings on cooking at home and cooking frequency towards waste segregation practices indicate that these groups of respondents can be chosen for further interventions in terms of adopting proper waste management practices such as small-scale composting, recycling and waste minimization practices. The lifestyle of the respondents plays a significant role in the daily waste disposal practices in households (Yoada et al. 2014 [ 15 ];). The link between improper waste management practice and disease occurrence was also reported in studies in Ghana (Yoada et al. 2014 [ 2 ];). Their studies also reported that cleanliness was the main factor which motivates them to segregate the waste which is concurrent with the findings in this study.

Education is negatively related to waste segregation activity (Table 6 ), indicating that people with lower education are more willing to segregate their waste as compared to those with higher education. The likely reasons could be related to different lifestyle and time constraint to allocate purposely for waste sorting activities [ 15 ]. People with higher education level may be spending most of their time at the workplace, and not at home. However, more educational campaign should be promoted by emphasizing on the benefits of waste segregation activities. Sufficient knowledge, such as clear instructions provided in a communication and collection campaign, can increase the probability of waste separation behavior (Vassanadumrongdee and Kittipongvises S 2018).

The higher number of occupants living in the household is associated with a less likely chance of segregating the waste (Table 6 ). The result of our study is consistent with the study by Addo et al. [ 2 ] which reported that household sizes of 4 to 6 and above 7 were less likely to engage in the practice of waste management as compared to household size below 4 people. This is probably due to the household size tends to reduce the quantity of household waste and the practice of waste management. In contrast, studies by Osbjer et al. [ 54 ], indicate that waste management practice is associated with a higher number of people in the households, which could possibly be due to the need to handle waste generated by larger populations within the household.

One of the objectives of this study was to determine variables that influence waste segregation behavior among respondents. The PCA was adapted for this objective rather than correlation analysis for several reason. The correlation coefficient assumes a linear association where any linear transformation of variables will not affect the correlation. However, variables X and Y may also have a non-linear association, which could still yield a low correlation coefficient [ 30 ]. In addition, the correlation coefficient cannot be interpreted as causal.

It is possible that there is a causal effect of one variable on the other, but there may also be other possible explanations that the correlation coefficient does not take into account. Since several variables may influence respondent’s behavior on waste segregation activity at one time, the correlation coefficient analysis may not adequate to identify the significant variables and the connectivity between them accurately. Therefore, PCA was used to help us understand the connection between these variables as it can identify the correlation among the features efficiently.

There are thousands of features in the dataset that possible to highlight some trend or the influence of one factor to another. There are challenges to visualize the algorithm on all features efficiently especially when the performance of the algorithm may reduce with the bigger dataset. The PCA improve the algorithm performance by getting rid of correlated variables which don't contribute to the model and the analysis of the algorithms reduces significantly with less number of features. The Principal Components are also independent of one another. There is no correlation among them. It also reduces overfitting by reducing the number of features where it mainly occurs when there are too many variables in the dataset.

The scenario of the covid-19 pandemic contributes to a significant challenge in managing household waste management globally and specifically in developing countries. Waste management in the pandemic scenario requires consideration in SARS-CoV-2 transmission through MSW handling that includes survival time of the virus on the surfaces: population density and socioeconomic conditions [ 35 ]. In general, waste management phases (waste packing and delivering by the users; waste withdrawal; waste transport; and waste treatment) exposed the community and workers to direct contact with contaminated objects and surfaces; as well as contact with airborne droplets at a distance that may lead to the covid-19 [ 16 ]. Due to these reasons, waste management practices are designed to respond to the pandemic through changes in the collection system, allocation of treatment options, safety measure and priority separation, and functionality of circular economy strategies [ 72 ].

As a developing country, it is predicted that the effect of covid-19 on the waste management practices are more crucial due to the increase in disposable personal protective equipment at the household level and changes in eating habits, as a consequence of lifestyle disruptions and psychological stress due to lockdowns [ 4 , 55 ]. Developing countries have a higher risk of waste and wastewater contamination, leading to significant public health issues [ 71 ]. Inefficient waste management practices such as insecure landfills, lack of technical knowledge, scientific and economic resources, and lack of waste emergency policies produce severe consequences to the community and workers [ 63 , 65 , 71 ].

In order to improve the level of household solid waste management in the study area and Malaysia in general, it is important to empower the key drivers. The key drivers can be categorized as institutional-administrative, technological, economical, and social drivers [ 70 ]. A strong policy that implements direct regulation and enforcement; provide economic incentives or disincentives; and inform, interact and engage with the community are required [ 60 ].

Household solid waste management technologies that are being practised globally are landfilling, incineration, pyrolysis, Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), gasification, and anaerobic digestion [ 57 ]. As a developing country that focuses on solid waste management through landfilling, it is important to put extra attention on: i. decentralization of household solid waste management; ii. segregation at the source; iii. hygienic and safe handling; iv. flammable landfilll gasses handling; v. soil salinity from compost application; vi. Sustainable landfill management; vii. alternative markets for energy products; and viii. Implementation of the “pay as you throw” system [ 50 ].

Practical Implications, Study Limitations and Future Perspectives

This study highlights that waste segregation practice among respondents are still low and food waste are mixed with other household waste. This study provides as a baseline data in the region where less study was emphasized.

Quantitative and qualitative approach were used in this study by adopting descriptive and statistical analysis to improve the significance of the issue. Despite the significance of some aspects of this study, further studies should be done to incorporate children and teenagers as the participants and a more detailed questionnaire incorporating detailed health implications. Apart from that, a cross-sectional survey using random sampling technique was used to assess the household SWM practices and perceptions among the residents. This study is also limited to only Panji sub-districts which requires a wider region to generalize the findings of the study. The survey questionnaires depend on self-reporting manner, which may be subject to bias. Further study is recommended to engage observation at houses or at the waste collecting points to complement the survey. Moreover, the association between household socio-economic factors and health implications were limited. Future study should address this factor for a more focused and sustained public awareness programs.

Conclusions

The study found that the waste segregation practice among respondents can be considered as low, where the number of respondents who segregate their waste was equivalent to those who did not, which implies there is room for improvement. The main component of solid waste generated at home was largely food debris that has the potential to be composted and plastics that can be recycled, which were mainly disposed without separation. The local solid waste management authority should focus on utilizing this organic waste through a larger scale and wider involvement of the locals in composting program. The growth of small-scale community-based waste composting can act as a potential start up venue in accelerating this program, without the necessity of extensive investment by the local authority. The authority in the study area has provided appropriate waste disposal sites, but there are also some that were disposed in inappropriate sites. Majority of the respondents were also aware that improper waste management can lead to diseases. Age, marital status and, type of house was found to be the group that segregate their waste the most, indicating that respondents which fall under this category can be the target for further intervention programs. This study suggests the local authorities to design waste separation programs that suit the needs of targeted population, to ensure high participation rate among the community. Marketing and campaigns should emphasize the positive perception and attitude towards waste separation at home and also negative perception of non-participants. This study may provide authorities in Malaysia with baseline information to set the future implementations of waste segregation activities in households. This study also suggests focusing on inculcating community involvement in doing waste separation at source, waste reduction and recycling as a habit and way of life. The local authority may facilitate this activity by providing bins to segregate wastes, establishing waste banks and recycling facilities at a wider scale than the scattered existing ones. Both a top-down and bottom-up approach should work hand in-hand to realize the sustainable solid waste management as a success.

Nevertheless, acknowledging the limitations of the current study, a more detailed and thorough study should incorporate a wider region, in-depth association of waste separation programs and health implications. Combining survey questionnaire with statistical analysis act as a stepping stone to expand the study by engaging the community in actual waste separation activities. This can be done by initiating a collaboration between the local authority, the leader in a community and the residents itself as a pilot study. In addition, the findings of this study will serve as baseline evidence and pave the way for other researchers and policymakers to conduct more rigorous studies on this arena.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the supplementary material section.

Abbreviations

Statistical Package for Social Science

Solid Waste Management

municipal solid waste

not in my backyard

Kota Bharu Municipal Council

Sustainable Development Goals

Malaysian Ringgit

Principal component analysis

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkim

Refuse Derived Fuel

Abdullah Z, Salleh MS, Ismail KNIK. Survey of Household Solid Waste Management and Waste Minimization in Malaysia: Awareness, Issues and Practices. International Journal of Environmental & Agriculture Research (IJOEAR). 2017;3(12):38–48.

Google Scholar  

Addo HO, Dun-Dery EJ, Afoakwa E, Elizabeth A, Ellen A, Rebecca M. Correlates of domestic waste management and related health outcomes in Sunyani, Ghana: a protocol towards enhancing policy. BMC Public Health. 2017;17(1):615. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4537-8 .

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Agamuthu P, Fauziah SH. Challenges and issues in moving towards sustainable landfilling in a transitory country-Malaysia. Waste Manag Res. 2011;29:13–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X10383080 .

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Aldaco R, Hoehn D, Laso J, Margallo M, Ruiz-Salmón J, Cristobal J, et al. Food waste management during the COVID-19 outbreak: a holistic climate, economic and nutritional approach. Sci Total Environ. 2020;742:140524.

CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Aleluia J, Ferrão P. Characterization of urban waste management practices in developing Asian countries: A new analytical framework based on waste characteristics and urban dimension. Waste Manag. 2016;58:415–29.

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Aminuddin MSH, Rahman HA. Health risk survey for domestic waste management agency workers: Case study on Kota Bharu Municipal Council (MPKB), Kelantan. Malaysia Int J Environ Sci Dev. 2015;6(8):629.

Amoatey PK, Winter J, Kaemph C (2008) Solid Waste Disposal and the Incidences of Malaria: Any Correlation? Proceedings of the Second IASTED Africa Conference September 8-10, 2008 Gaborone, Botswana Water Resource Management (AfricaWRM 2008).

Ancona C, Badaloni C, Mataloni F, Bolignano A, Bucci S, Cesaroni G, et al. Mortality and morbidity in a population exposed to multiple sources of air pollution: A retrospective cohort study using air dispersion models. Environ Res. 2015;137:467–74.

CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Asante KP, Kinney P, Zandoh C, Vliet EV, Nettey E, Abokyi L, et al. Childhood Respiratory Morbidity and Cooking Practices Among Households in a Predominantly Rural Area of Ghana. Afr J Infect Dis. 2016;10(2):102–10.

PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Aweng ER, Fatt CC. Survey of Potential Health Risk of Rubbish Collectors from the Garbage Dump Sites in Kelantan, Malaysia. Asian J Appl Sci (ISSN: 2321 – 0893). 2014;2(1):36–44.

Ayilara MS, Olanrewaju OS, Babalola OO, Odeyemi O. Waste Management through Composting. Challenges Potent Sustain. 2020;12, 4456:10.3390/su12114456.

Bradley CJ, Waliczek TM, Zajicek JM. Relationship between environmental knowledge and environmental attitude of high school students. J Environ Educ. 1999;30(3):17–21.

Cesaro A, Belgiorno V, Guida M. Compost from organic solid waste: quality assessment and European regulations for its sustainable use. Resour Conserv Recycl. 2015;94:72e79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2014.11.003 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Chen T, Zhang S, Yuan Z. Adoption of solid organic waste composting products: A critical review. J Clean Prod. 2020;272:122712.

CAS   Google Scholar  

Choon SW, Tan SH, Chong LL. The perception of households about solid waste management issues in Malaysia. Environ Dev Sustain. 2017;19:1685–700.

Di Maria F, Beccaloni E, Bonadonna L, Cini C, Confalonieri E, La Rosa G, et al. Minimization of spreading of SARS-CoV-2 via household waste produced by subjects affected by COVID-19 or in quarantine. Sci Total Environ. 2020;743:140803.

Eagles PFJ, Demare R. Factors influencing children’s environmental attitudes. J Env Education. 1999;30(4):33–7.

Ehrampoush MH, Mogahadam MB. Survey of knowledge, attitude and practice of Yazd University of Medical Sciences students about solid wastes disposal and recycling. Iranian J Env Health Sci Eng. 2005;2(2):26–30.

Ekere W, Mugisha J, Drake L. Factors influencing waste separation and utilization among households in the Lake Victoria crescent. Uganda Waste Manag. 2009;29(12):3047–51.

Emery AD, Griffiths AJ, Williams KP. An in-depth study of the effects of socio-economic conditions on household waste recycling practices. Waste Manag Res. 2003;21(3):180–90.

EPQS (Expert Pannel on Air quality standards) (2009) Adendum to Guidelines for Halogens and Hydrogen Halides in Ambient Air. London; The stationary office.

Fan B, Yang W, Shen X. A comparison study of ‘motivation–intention–behavior’ model on household solid waste sorting in China and Singapore. J Clean Prod. 2019;211:442–54.

Fauziah SH, Agamuthu P. Trends in sustainable landfilling in Malaysia, a developing country. Waste Manag Res. 2012:1–8.

Field A (2009) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. 3rd Edition, Sage Publications Ltd., London.

Gutberlet J, Uddin SMN. Household waste and health risks affecting waste pickers and the environment in low-and middle-income countries. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2017;23(4):299–310.

Huss A, Derks LAN, Heederik DJJ, Wouters IM (2020) Green waste compost as potential reservoirs of Legionella in the Netherlands. Clin Microbiol Infection 26 (2020) 1259.e1e1259.e3.

Idris A, Inanc B, Hassan M. Overview of waste disposal and landfills/dumps in Asian countries. J Mat Cycl Waste Manag. 2004;6(2):104–10.

Ittiravivongs A (2011). Factors Influence Household Solid Waste Recycling Behaviour In Thailand: An Integrated Perspective. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment. Volume 167, Pages 12. Paper 10.2495/ST110391.

Ismail SNS, Zainal Abidin E, Hashim Z, Rasdi I, How V, Praveena SM, et al. Disaster Debris Management during the 2014-2015 Malaysia Flood Incident. Mal J Med Health Sci. 2018;14(SP2):112–9.

Janse RJ, Hoekstra T, Jager KJ, Zoccali C, Tripepi G, Dekker FW, et al. Conducting correlation analysis: important limitations and pitfalls. Clin Kidney J. 2021;1–6. https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfab085 .

Jarup L, Briggs D, de Hoogh C, Morris S, Hurt C, Lewin A, et al. (2002) Cancer risks in populations living near landfill sites in Great Britain. Br J Cancer. 2002;86:1732–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6600311 .

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Joshi P, Visvanathan C. Sustainable management practices of food waste in Asia: Technological and policy drivers. J Environ Manag. 2019;247:538–50.

Karim Ghani WAWA, Rusli IF, Biak DRA, Idris A. An application of the theory of planned behaviour to study the influencing factors of participation in source separation of food waste. Waste Manag. 2013;33:1276–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2012.09.019 .

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Kirakozian A. Selective Sorting of Waste: A study of Individual Behaviours. GREDEG WP No. 2014:2013–49.

Kulkarni BN, Anantharama V. Repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic on municipal solid waste management: Challenges and opportunities. Sci Total Environ. 2020;743:140693.

Knussen C, Yule F, MacKenzie J, Wells M. An analysis of intentions to recycle household waste: the roles of past behaviour, perceived habit, and perceived lack of facilities. J Environ Psychol. 2004;24:237e46.

Li L, Ararel E, Jeuland M. The drivers of household drinking water choices in Singapore: Evidence from multivariable regression analysis of perceptions and household characteristics. Sci Total Environ. 2019;671:1116–24.

Lim WJ, Chin NL, Yusof AY, Yahya A, Tee TP. Food waste handling in Malaysia and comparison with other Asian countries. Int Food Res J. 2016;23(Suppl):S1–6.

Londoño LFG, Leoń LCP, Ochoa JGM, Rodriguez AZ, Jaramillo CAP, Ruiz JMA, Taylor ML, Arteaga MA, Alzate MdPJ (2019) Capacity of Histoplasma capsulatum to Survive the Composting Process. Appl Environ Soil Sci. Volume 2019, Article ID 5038153, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5038153 .

Longe EO, Longe OO, Ukpebor EF. People’s Perception On Household Solid Waste Management in Ojo Local Government Area in Nigeria. Iran J Environ Health Sci Eng. 2009;6(3):201–8.

Maheshwari R, Gupta S, Das K (2015) Impact of Landfill Waste on Health: An Overview. IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicol Food Technol 1(4): 17-23. e-ISSN: 2319-2402, p- ISSN: 2319-2399.

Mamady K. Factors Influencing Attitude, Safety Behavior, and Knowledge regarding Household Waste Management in Guinea: A Cross-Sectional Study. J Environ Public Health. 2016:1–9.

Manaf LA, MAA S, NIM Z. Municipal solid waste management in Malaysia: Practices and challenges. Waste Manag. 2009;29:2902–6.

Matter A, Dietschi M, Zurbrügg C. Improving the informal recycling sector through segregation of waste in the Household- The case of Dhaka Bangladesh. Habitat International. 2013;38:150–6.

Meneses G.D, Palacio AB (2005) Recycling behavior: A multidimensional approach. Environ Behav 37: 837–860.

Moh YCA, Manaf L. Solid waste management transformation and future challenges of source separation and recycling practice in Malaysia. Resour Conserv Recycl. 2017;116:1–14.

Moh YC, Manaf LA. Overview of household solid waste recycling policy status and challenges in Malaysia. Resourc, Convers Recycl. 2014;82:50–61.

Mukherji SB, Sekiyama M, Mino T, Chaturvedi B. Resident Knowledge and Willingness to Engage in Waste Management in Delhi. India Sustain. 2016;8:1065. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8101065 .

Mwanza BP, Mbohwa C, Telukdarie A. Levers Influencing Sustainable Waste Recovery at Household Level: A Review. Procedia Manufact. 2018;21:615–22.

Nanda S, Berruti F. Municipal solid waste management and landfilling technologies: a review. Environ Chem Lett. 2021;19(2):1433–56.

Ncube F, Ncube EJ, Voyi K. A systematic critical review of epidemiological studies on public health concerns of municipal solid waste handling. Perspect Public Health. 2017;137(2):102–8.

Norsa’adah B, Salinah O, Naing NN, Sarimah A. Community health survey of residents living near a solid waste open dumpsite in Sabak, Kelantan, Malaysia. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(1):311.

PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Omran AL, Mahmood A, Abdul Aziz H, Robinson GM. Investigating Households Attitude Toward Recycling of Solid Waste in Malaysia: A Case Study. Int J Environ Res. 2009;3(2):275–88.

Osbjer K, Boqvist S, Sokerya S, Kannarath C, San S, Davun H, et al. Household practices related to disease transmission between animals and humans in rural Cambodia. BMC Public Health. 2015;15(476):1–10.

Oyedotun TDT, Kasim OF, Famewo A, Oyedotun TD, Moonsammy S, Ally N, et al. Municipal waste management in the era of COVID-19: perceptions, practices, and potentials for research in developing countries. Res Glob. 2020;2:100033.

Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MBPJ) (2010) Composting closing the loop at home. A household home composting program in Petaling Jaya Municipal Council. http://www.ecoideal.com.my/danidaurban/swmc/download/SWMC_CI_Composting%20at%20MBPJ.pdf .

Potdar A, Singh A, Unnnikrishnan S, Naik N, Naik M, Nimkar I. Innovation in solid waste management through Clean Development Mechanism in India and other countries. Process Saf Environ Prot. 2016;101:160–9.

Rispo A, Williams ID, Shaw PJ. Source Segregation and food waste prevention activities in high density households in a deprived urban area. Waste Manag. 2015;44:15–27.

Roca-Barcelo A, Douglas P, Fechta D, Sterrantino AF, Williams B, Blangiardo M, et al. Hansell AL (2020) Risk of respiratory hospital admission associated with modelled concentrations of Aspergillus fumigatus from composting facilities in England. Environ Res. 2020;183:108949.

Rodić L, Wilson DC. Resolving governance issues to achieve priority sustainable development goals related to solid waste management in developing countries. Sustainability. 2017;9(3):404.

Saat NZM, Hanawi SA, Subhi N, Zulfakar SS, Wahab MIA. Practice and attitude on household waste management in Tumpat and Kuala Krai, Kelantan. Res J Social Sci. 2018;11(1):14–7. https://doi.org/10.22587/rjss.2018.11.1.3 .

Samah MAA, Manaf LA, Ahsan A, Sulaiman WNA, Agamuthu P, D'Silva JL. Household Solid Waste Composition in Balakong City, Malaysia: Trend and Management. Pol J Environ Stud. 2013;22(6):1807–16.

Sarkodie SA, Owusu PA. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on waste management. Environ Dev Sustain. 2021;23(5):7951–60.

Saphores JDM, Ogunseitan OA, Shapiro AA. Willingness to engage in a proenvironmental behavior: an analysis of e-waste recycling based on a national survey of U.S. households. Resour Conserv Recycl. 2012;60:49e63.

Sharma HB, Vanapalli KR, Cheela VRS, Ranjan VP, Jaglan AK, Dubey B, et al. Challenges, opportunities, and innovations for effective solid waste management during and post COVID-19 pandemic. Resour Conserv Recycl. 2020;162:105052.

Shigeru M. Waste separation at home: Are Japanese municipal curbside recycling policies efficient? Resour Conserv Recycl. 2011;55(3):325–34.

Sujauddin M, Huda SMS, Hoque AR. Household solid waste characteristics and management in Chittagong. Bangladesh Waste management. 2008;28(9):1688–95.

Suleman Y, Darko ET, Agyemang-Duah W. Solid Waste Disposal and Community Health Implications in Ghana: Evidence from Sawaba, Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly. J Civil Environ Eng. 2015;202. https://doi.org/10.4172/2165-784X.1000202 .

Tekler ZD, Low R, Chung SY, Low JSC, Blessing L. A Waste Management Behavioural Framework of Singapore’s Food Manufacturing Industry using Factor Analysis. Procedia CIRP. 2019;80:578–83.

Tot B, Srđević B, Vujić B, Russo MAT, Vujić G. Evaluation of key driver categories influencing sustainable waste management development with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP): Serbia example. Waste Manag Res. 2016;34(8):740–7.

Tripathi A, Tyagi VK, Vivekanand V, Bose P, Suthar S. Challenges, opportunities and progress in solid waste management during COVID-19 pandemic. Case Stud Chem Environ Eng. 2020;2:100060.

Van Fan Y, Jiang P, Hemzal M, Klemeš JJ. An update of COVID-19 influence on waste management. Sci Total Environ. 2021;754:142014.

White KM, Hyde MK. The role of self-perceptions in the prediction of household recycling behavior in Australia. Environ Behav. 2012;44:785e99.

Yang H, Ma M, Thompson JR, Flower RJ. Waste management, informal recycling, environmental pollution and public health. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2018;72(3):237–43.

Yatim SRM, Arshad MA. Household Solid Waste Characteristics and Management in Low Cost Apartment in Petaling Jaya. Selangor Health Environ J. 2010;1(2):58–63.

Zhou X, Yang J, Xu S, Wang J, Zhou Q, Li Y, et al. Rapid in-situ composting of household food waste. Process Saf Environ Prot. 2020;141:259–66.

Ziraba AK, Haregu TN, Mberu B. A review and framework for understanding the potential impact of poor solid waste management on health in developing countries. Arch Public Heal. 2016;74(1):1–11.

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to everybody who completed the questionnaires and to Miss Aisyah Ariff, Miss Zetty Hiddayah binti Zuharizam and Mr Wan Izulfikri bin Wan Mohd Roslan for assisting in data collection.

This study was financially supported by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (Postdoctoral Fellowship SLAB) and Universiti Sains Malaysia. None of the funders were involved in the design of the study, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in the writing of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Environmental and Occupational Health Program, School of Health Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia

Widad Fadhullah, Nor Iffah Najwa Imran & Hasmah Abdullah

School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, USM, 11800, Penang, Malaysia

Widad Fadhullah & Mohd Hafiidz Jaafar

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail

Biomedicine Program, School of Health Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia

Hasmah Abdullah

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

WF contributed in conceptualization and writing the manuscript. NINI collected the data, contributed to the literature review and execute the project. SNSI contributed in the formal analysis, methodology, data curation and the tables and figures. MHJ contributed to editing of the manuscript. HA contributed in supervision, project administration and planning. All authors have read and approved the final version of this manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Widad Fadhullah .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Ethic Committee of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM/JEPeM/17100560). Written informed consent was obtained from each participants, after the participants received adequate information from the research about the aim and procedure of the study. All the data obtained from the subjects was kept confidential for research purpose only.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

Authors report that there is no competing interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Additional file 1., additional file 2., rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Fadhullah, W., Imran, N.I.N., Ismail, S.N.S. et al. Household solid waste management practices and perceptions among residents in the East Coast of Malaysia. BMC Public Health 22 , 1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12274-7

Download citation

Received : 10 November 2020

Accepted : 22 November 2021

Published : 05 January 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12274-7

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Households’ Practices and Perception
• Waste Segregation and Separation
• Principal Component Analysis
• Public Health
• Solid Waste

BMC Public Health

ISSN: 1471-2458

• Submission enquiries: [email protected]
• General enquiries: [email protected]

Solid waste management for sustainable development

A study of solid waste management for sound environmental development in hambantota municipal council (hmc) in sri lanka..

Methodology

When doing a social research, it is important to thoroughly describe which method is used in order to make it accessible for the readers and to be able to process it in scientific manner (Teorell & Svensson, 2007, p.54).  The Research method is a supporting subject which is used to accomplish in a variety of research paradigm in many academic disciplines (Kumar, 2010, p.18).  It is a system of models, procedures and techniques used to find the result of a research problem (Panneerselvam, 2004, p.2).  According to Henn et al (2006, p.21), the research method encourages the researcher to investigate a particular research area from a variety of different types of data, analyze these data using different techniques and interpreting the results from a variety of different positions. However, Choices about the method are a matter of rummaging in the tool bag for the best equipment for the task in hand (Roger, 2009, p.32).  Finding these best tools was necessary to carry out the research in order to precede the study successfully.

A methodology for any research study is designed in a very cautions manner and by careful examination of the related literature (Khan, 2011, p.70).  Hence, the researcher could identify many different factors related to research objectives and questions of the study with the reviewed literature in the previous chapter. Based on those readings the researcher developed the methodology which include finding the research problem, creating research questions, formatting the theoretical framework in a pre-empirical stage; while designing method, data collection, data analyzing and data interpretation in the Empirical stage (see figure 5).

Source: Author Edited by using Punch (1998, p.42)

Mixed Method Strategy

The first step of developing the methodology was to decide the research strategy. According to World Health Organization (WHO, 2001, p.9), the selection of a research strategy is the core of a research method and is probably the most important decision the researcher has to make. Research strategy is the general orientation to the conduct of social research (Bryman, 2012, p.34). Many researchers focus on using a qualitative research strategy or quantitative research strategy for their studies. Nevertheless, in some situations, a second research method can be added to the study to provide an enhanced understanding of some phase of the research and enhance a primary method so that the research objectives can be best address in the study (Creswell & Clark, 2011, p. 10).

As this study focus on how Solid Waste Management (SWM) practices impact on sound environmental development, the researcher decided to use a mixed method strategy. Mixed method strategy integrates quantitative and qualitative research in a single project (Bryman, 2012, p.628). The mixed method approach collects and analyzes data, integrates the findings and draws inferences by using both qualitative and quantitative approaches in a single study (Taskkori & Creswell, 2007, p.4). However, the research largely relied on the qualitative approach which is sequentially followed by a quantitative approach within the entire research process. The decision towards a mixed method developed because the two methods together result in a better understanding of the problem of the study (Heise-Biber & Leavy, 2008, 365). Especially, the Research Questions were suited for mixed methods as one data source was insufficient to answer all questions. According to Creswell & Clark (2011, p. 8), one type of evidence may not tell the complete story, or the researcher may lack confidence in the ability to address the problem. Therefore, using mixed methods provided an opportunity to conduct the research with confidence.

At the outset of selecting the approach, the researcher needed to know advantages of mixed methods. These advantages can be used to convince readers about the value of mixed methods (Creswell & Clark, 2011, p. 12). The mixed method provided strengths that equalize the weaknesses of both qualitative and quantitative approaches.  It provided more relevant data to answer the research problem than using either qualitative or quantitative approaches alone. Moreover, a mixed method approach is likely to increase the acceptance of findings and conclusions. Yet, some disadvantages were identified with this method. When data collection methods are duplicative, the costs for gathering information were essentially doubled. Same time as pointed out by Roberts (2000), it was problematic with the possible statistical measurement limitations of qualitative data when it has been quantitized as the result is moving in the same line.

Case Study Design

“Research design essentially refers to the plan or strategy of shaping the research” (Henn et al, 2006, p.46). It is a procedure plan that is adopted by the researcher “to answer questions validly, objectively, accurately and economically” (Kumar, 2011, p. 94). A research design is a statement of the object of the inquiry and the strategies for collecting the evidences, analyzing the findings and reporting those (Singh & Nath, 2007, p.154).  As pointed out by Khan, (2011, p. 69), selection and formulation of a proper research scheme is very important and essential for the successful accomplishment of a research.

This study was conducted under case study design. As Stake (1995) cited in Bryman (2012, p.66), a case study research is concerned with the complexity and the particular nature of the case in the research question.  The design involves detailed and intensive analysis of the case (Bryman, 2008). It is related to the criteria that are employed when evaluating social research and build a frame work for the generation of evidence that is suited both to a certain set of criteria and to the research question in which the investigator is interested (Bryman, 2012, p.45).  In this Study, the benefit of conducting a case study was that it enabled an examination of the impact of SWM on Sound Environmental Development in Hambantota Urban Council (HUC). The case study investigated the practice of SWM, perspectives of local population about SWM and impact of SWM for sound environmental development.  However, SWM practices are highly contextual. Therefore, this case study will not necessarily find the same findings as a similar case study in another social setting.  As Bryman (2012) stated, the purpose of the case study is not to make generalizations, but rather to generate theoretical assumptions on the basis of the findings of that particular case.

3.1.  Research design .

3.2.  Data Collection Methods

3.3.  Sampling Method .

3.4.  Data analysis

3.5.  Ethical consideration.

References:

Boyatzis, R.E. (1998). Transforming quantitative information: thematic analysis and code development. SAGE publication.

Bryman (2008) Social Research Methods (3rd ed.), New York: Oxford university Press.

Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods, 4th edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cargan, L. (2007). Doing social research. Rowman & Littlefield publication.

Creswell, J.W., (2011). Designing and conduction mixed method research. SAGE publication.

Daly, Kellehear, & Gliksman (1997). The public health researcher: A methodological approach. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press. pp. 611–618.

Devi, L. (1998) Areas and tools of social research. Anmol publication.

Henn, M. Weinstein, M & Forard , N. (2006) A short introduction to social research. New Delhi: Vistaar publication

Kemper, A. E; Stringfield , S. & Teddlie , C.(2003) mixed methods sampling strategy in social science research in Tashakkori, A. & Teddlie,C.(ed) Handbook of mixed method in social and behavioral research. London: Saga publication

Klenke, K (2008). Qualitative research in the study of leadership. Emerald group publication: Bingle publication Kumar, R. (2010) Research Methodology: A Step by Step Guide for Beginners, 3rd Ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd

Kumar, R., (2011). Research methodology: A step by step guide for beginner. Sage publication.

Neuman, L.W. (2007). Social research method: qualitative and quantitative methods. 6th Ed .Pearson education

Onwuegbuzie, J.A. & Tebblis, C. (2003) ‘A frame for analyzing data in mixed method research. In, Tashakkori, A. & Teddlie, C. (Ed) Handbook of mixed method in social and behavioral research. Saga publication.

Punch, F.K. (1998) introduction to social research: qualitative and quantitative approaches. Saga publication

Roberts, C.W. 2000 A Conceptual Frameworks for Quantitative Text Analysis. Quality and Quantity. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~carlos/papers/q&q2000.pdf Accessed on 2013/ 11/ 24.

Sing, Y.K & Nath, R., (2007). Research Methodology. APH Publication

Vartanian, T.P. (2010).  Secondary Data Analysis. Oxford University Press

WHO (2001). Health research methodology: a guide for training in research methods. WHO publication.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Introduction to Solid Waste Management

• First Online: 01 January 2022

Cite this chapter

• Hamidi Abdul Aziz 6 , 7 ,
• Salem S. Abu Amr 8 ,
• P. Aarne Vesilind 9 ,
• Lawrence K. Wang 10 &
• Yung-Tse Hung 11  

Part of the book series: Handbook of Environmental Engineering ((HEE,volume 23))

985 Accesses

4 Citations

An increase in population growth, industrial development, and urbanization has led to increasing solid waste generation. Complications associated with solid waste can be dated back to ancient history. The waste produced and collected in an urban area is called municipal solid waste (MSW), mainly associated with the wastes produced from domestic, industrial, commercial, and institutional areas. The amount and composition of waste vary by country. New and effective strategies are generally needed to design urbanization models, and policies are required for effective solid waste management. All aspects of waste storage, collection, transportation, sorting, disposal, and related management are included in solid waste management. It does not stop after collection only, but what needs to be done with the wastes is part of the important aspects of the whole management protocol. Basic waste data are included in this chapter. These include their types, sources, quantity, and compositions. Next, the functional elements of the waste management system are discussed, which among others, includes the aspects of storage, collection, transportation, recovery and processing, composting, thermal treatment, and the final disposal. The legislation related to waste is also discussed, followed by the descriptions of the integrated solid waste management.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Durable hardcover edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Abbreviations

Air Pollution Control Residues

American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Commercial and industrial

Construction and demolition

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Brominated flame retardants

Chlorofluorocarbons

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons,

Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Protection Act

European Union

Humic and fulvic acids

Integrated solid waste management

Life Cycle Assessment

Municipal solid waste

Material Flow Analysis

Pneumatic waste conveyance system

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Risk Assessment

Rubber Modified Asphalt

Strategic Environmental Assessment

Socio-economic Assessment

Sustainable Assessment

Solidification/stabilization

Tyre-Derived Aggregate

United Nations Environment Programme

United States

US Environmental Protection Agency

United Kingdom

Volatile fatty acids

American dollar

head/person or individual

USEPA-US Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). Waste-hazardous waste-waste minimisation [Online]. Available from http://www.epa.gov/waste/hazard/wastemin/index.htm . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

USEPA-US Environmental Protection Agency. (2021a). Criteria for the definition of solid waste and solid and hazardous waste exclusions [Online]. Available from https://www.epa.gov/hw/criteria-definition-solid-waste-and-solid-and-hazardous-waste-exclusions . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

USEPA-US Environmental Protection Agency. (2020). Advancing sustainable materials management: 2018: Tables and figures , November.

Google Scholar  

HKEPD-Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department. (2020). Monitoring of solid waste in Hong Kong Waste statistics for 2019 , Statistics Unit, Environmental Protection Department, Hong Kong, December 2020.

IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, the 2019 Refinement was considered in May 2019 during the IPCC’s 49th Session (Kyoto, Japan) and adopted/accepted on 12 May 2019 (Decision – IPCC-XLIX-9 – Adoption and Acceptance of 2019 refinement). Accessed online on 26 July 2020.

OECD-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2021). Municipal waste generation and treatment [Online]. Available from. https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=WSECTOR . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Eurostat. (2021). Municipal waste statistics [Online]. Available from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?%20title=Municipal_waste_statistics&oldid=343958%20 . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Kaza, S., Yao, L., Bhada-Tata, P., & Van Woerden, F. (2018). What a waste 2.0: A global snapshot of solid waste management to 2050 (Urban Development Series). World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1329-0 . License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO.

Book   Google Scholar  

UNEP-United Nations Environment Programme. (2017). Highlights Asia waste management outlook-Summary for decision maker . Nairobi, Kenya.

Abdel-Shafy, H. I., & Mansour, M. S. M. (2018). Solid waste issue: Sources, composition, disposal, recycling, and valorization . Egyptian Journal of Petroleum. (in press).

Buttol, P., Masoni, P., Bonoli, A., Goldoni, S., Belladonna, V., & Cavazzuti, C. (2007). LCA of integrated MSW management systems: Case study of the Bologna District. Waste Management, 27 (8), 1059–1070.

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Hui, Z., AiHong, M., YanQiu, L., QingHai, L., & YanGuo, Z. (2014). An overview of characteristics of municipal solid waste fuel in China: Physical, chemical composition and heating value. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 36 , 107–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.04.024

USEPA-US Environmental Protection Agency. (2021b). Wastes-non-hazardous waste-industrial waste [Online]. Available from https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/web/html/index-5.html . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Pashkevich, M. A. (2017). Chapter 1 – Classification and environmental impact of mine dumps, author links open overlay panel. In Assessment, restoration and reclamation of mining influenced soils (pp. 1–32). Academic.

Collins, R. J., & Ciesielski, S. K. (1994). Recycling and use of waste materials and by-products in highway construction. In National cooperative highway research program synthesis of highway practice 199 . Transportation Research Board.

USEPA-US Environmental Protection Agency (1985). Report to Congress on wastes from the extraction and beneficiation of metallic ores, phosphate rock, asbestos, overburden from uranium mining, and oil shale. Report No. EPA/530-SW-85-033,

Bowdish, L. (2016). Trash to treasure: Changing waste streams to profit streams, U.S (p. 21). Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

Food & Water Watch. (2021). Factory farm map: What’s wrong with factory farms? [Online]. Available from http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/problems/ . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Palese, A. M., Persiani, A., D’Adamo, C., Pergola, M., Pastore, V., Sileo, R., Ippolito, G., Lombardi, M. A., & Celano, G. (2020). Composting as manure disposal strategy in small/medium-size livestock farms: Some demonstrations with operative indications. Sustainability, 2020 (12), 3315. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083315

Article   Google Scholar  

Quest. (2021). [Online]. Available from https://www.questrmg.com/2019/08/08/food-waste-statistics-the-reality-of-food-waste/ . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Simão, L., Hotza, D., Raupp-Pereira, F., Labrincha, J. A., & Montedo, O. R. K. (2018). Wastes from pulp and paper mills – A review of generation and recycling alternatives. Cerâmica, 64 (371).

Labfresh. (2021). [Online]. Available from https://labfresh.eu/pages/fashion-waste-index . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

USEPA-US Environmental Protection Agency. (2021c). Facts and figures about materials, waste and recycling- wood: Material-specific data [Online]. Available from https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-Fig.s-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/wood-material-specific-data . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Ed Suttie. (2004). Wood waste management-UK update, final workshop COST Action E22 ‘ Environmental optimisation of wood protection’ , Lisbon-Portugal, 22nd – 23rd March.

FPA. (2019). State of industry report, flexible packaging association , September 2019 [Online]. Available from https://www.packworld.com/home/news/15693115/fpa-publishes-2019-state-of-the-flexible-packaging-industry-report . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Scotia Bank. (2021). Global economics|Global Auto Report, January 27, 2021 [Online]. Available from https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/about/economics/economics-publications/post.other-publications.autos.global-auto-report.january-27-2021.html . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Statisca. (2019). U.S. paper products market value 2015–2025 , Statisca, November 2019 [Online]. Available from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1066665/us-paper-products-market-value/ . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Statisca. (2021). Waste statistics in Abu Dhabi Emirates , July 2020 [Online]. Available from https://www.statista.com/statistics/895550/uae-total-solid-waste-generated/ . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Poon, C. S., Yu, A. T. W., Wong, A., & Yip, R. (2013). Quantifying the impact of construction waste charging scheme on construction waste management in Hong Kong. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 139 (5), 466–479. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000631 . hdl:10397/6714. ISSN:1943-7862.

Wang, Y., Zhang, X., Liao, W., Wu, J., Yang, X., Shui, W., Deng, S., Zhang, Y., Lin, L., Xiao, Y., Yu, X., & Peng, H. (2018). Investigating impact of waste re-use on the sustainability of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration industry using energy approach: A case study from Sichuan Province, China. Waste Management, 77 , 252–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2018.04.003

European Commission. (2018). EU construction and demolition waste protocol and guidelines . Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs-European Commission [Online]. Available from https://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/eu-construction-and-demolition-waste-protocol-0_en . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

CIS-Construction Industry Scheme. (2021). GOV.UK [Online]. Available from https://www.gov.uk/what-is-the-construction-industry-scheme . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Yu, A., Poon, C., Wong, A., Yip, R., & Jaillon, L. (2013). Impact of construction waste disposal charging scheme on work practices at construction sites in Hong Kong. Waste Management, 33 (1), 138–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2012.09.023 . hdl:10397/6713. S2CID 20266040.

CIDB. (2008). Guidelines on construction waste management . Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia.

Forti, V., Baldé, C. P., Kuehr, R., & Bel, G. (2020). The Global E-waste Monitor: Quantities, flows and the circular economy potential . United Nations University (UNU)/United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)-Co-Hosted SCYCLE Programme, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) & International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), Bonn/Geneva/Rotterdam.

Cho, R. (2018). What can we do about the growing e-waste problem ? General Earth Institute, August 27, 2018 [Online]. Available from https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/08/27/growing-E-waste-problem/ . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs. (2020). Édition 2018 de l’inventaire national des matières et déchets radioactifs l’Essentiel 2020 (p. 15). Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs, April 2020.

JAEA – The Japan Atomic Energy Agency. (2019). White paper on nuclear energy 2019 (p. 276). JAEA, August 2020 [Online]. Available from http://www.aec.go.jp/jicst/NC/about/hakusho/index_e.htm . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

World Nuclear Association. (2021). Storage and disposal of radioactive waste [Online]. Available from https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-waste/storage-and-disposal-of-radioactivE-waste.aspx . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Marine Conservation Society. (2019). Great British Beach clean 2019 report , November 2019.

Mohajerani, A., Burnett, L., Smith, J. V., Markovski, S., Rodwell, G., Rahman, T., Kurmus, H., Mirzababaei, M., Arulrajah, A., Horpibulsuk, S., et al. (2020). Recycling waste rubber tyres in construction materials and associated environmental considerations: A review. Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 155 , 104679.

Morin, J. E., & Farris, R. J. (2000). Recycling of 100% cross linked rubber powder by high temperature high pressure sintering. Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, 37 , 95–101.

ISRI. (2019). Recycling industry yearbook 2019 .

Macie, S., Justyna, K. L., Helena, J., & Adolf, B. (2012). Progress in used tyres management in the European Union: A review. Waste Management, 32 (10), 1742–1751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2012.05.010

Fazli, A., & Rodrigue, D. (2020). Waste rubber recycling: A review on the evolution and properties of thermoplastic elastomers. Materials, 13 , 782. Imbernon, L., & Norvez, S. (2016). From landfilling to vitrimer chemistry in rubber life cycle. European Polymer Journal, 82 , 347–376.

Saha, P. (2018). Rubber recycling: Challenges and developments . Royal Society of Chemistry.

Chatziaras, N., Psomopoulos, C. S., & Themelis, N. J. (2016). Use of waste derived fuels in cement industry: A review. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 27 (2), 178–193.

Mangi, S. A., Wan Ibrahim, M. H., Jamaluddin, N., Arshad, M. F., & Mudjanarko, S. W. (2019). Recycling of coal ash in concrete as a partial cementitious resource. Resources, 8 , 99. https://doi.org/10.3390/resources8020099

Dwivedi, A., & Jain, M. K. (2014). Fly ash-waste management and overview: A review. Recent Research in Science and Technology, 6 (1), 30–35.

Hannan, J. (2021). Chemical makeup of fly and bottom ash varies significantly; must be analyzed before recycled . ThermoFisher Scientific [Online]. Available from https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/mining/chemical-makeup-of-fly-and-bottom-ash-varies-significantly-must-be-analyzed-before-recycled/#:~:text=The%20European%20Coal%20Combustion%20Products,of%20fly%20ash%20at%2043%25.&text=The%20chemical%20makeup%20of%20fly,of%20the%20coal%20being%20burned . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Airquality news.com. (2021). Rule change sought on Air Pollution Control residues [Online]. Available from https://airqualitynews.com/2016/04/14/rule-change-sought-on-air-pollution-control-residues/#:~:text=What%20is%20Air%20Pollution%20Control,to%20a%20non%2Dhazardous%20landfill . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Karagiannidis, A., Samaras, P., Kasampalis, T., Perkoulidis, G., Ziogasa, P., & Zorpas, A. (2011). Evaluation of sewage sludge production and utilization in Greece in the frame of integrated energy recovery. Desalination and Water Treatment, 33 , 185–193.

IWA. (2021). Sludge production [Online]. Available from https://www.iwapublishing.com/news/sludge-production . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Yang, G., Zhang, G., & Wang, H. (2015). Current state of sludge production, management, treatment and disposal in China. Water Research . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2015.04.002

Chandler, A. J., Eighmy, T. T., Hartlen, O., Kosson, D., Sawell, S. E., van der Sloot, H., & Vehlow, J. (1997). Municipal solid waste incinerator residues (Studies in Environmental Science, International Ash Working Group) (Vol. 67). Elsevier Science.

UK Department for Business. (2020). Energy and industrial strategy, digest of UK energy statistics: renewable sources of energy (DUKES 6.4) , July.

Tinmaz, E., (2002). Research on integrated solid waste management system in Corlu Town . Master thesis, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Recyclingbin.com. (2021). Recycling facts [Online]. Available from https://www.recyclingbin.com/Recycling-Facts#:~:text=Recycling%20Facts-,Paper,from%20the%20air%20each%20year . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Tchobanoglous, G. H., & Theisen, S. V. (1993). Integrated solid waste management: Engineering principle and management issue. International Ed . McGraw – Hill Book Co.

Wilson, D. C., Cowing, M. J., Oelz, B., Scheinberg, A., Stretz, J., Velis, C. A., Rodic, L., Masterson, D., Vilches, R., & Whiteman, A. D. (2014). ‘Wasteaware’ benchmark indicators for integrated sustainable waste management in cities. Waste Management, 35 , 329–342.

Waste Collection Report. ISWA Working Group on Collection and Transportation Technology. (2007) [Online]. Available from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Underground-Automated-Vacuum-Waste-Collection-for-(-Dixit-Rastogi/d8a662a748b2e1d19cb8f1962ef9d44b9ea21325 . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Chafer, M., Sole-Mauri, F., Sole, A., Boer, D., & Cabeza, L. F. (2019). Life cycle assessment (LCA) of a pneumatic municipal waste collection system compared to traditional truck collection. Sensitivity study of the influence of the energy source. Journal of Cleaner Production, 231 , 1122–1135. with permission from Elsevier.

Recycling Magazine. (2020). Best practices for construction waste management-trends, analyses, opinions and facts for the recycling industry. Recycling magazine 04/2020 [Online]. Available from https://www.recycling-magazine.com/ausgabe/recycling-magazine-04-2020/ . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

OECD. (2021). Municipal waste, generation and treatment . OECD-The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [Online]. Available from https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=MUNW# . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Parvez, N., Agrawal, A., & Kumar, A. (2019). Solid waste management on a campus in a developing country: A study of the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Recycling, 2019 (4), 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling4030028

USEPA-US Environmental Protection Agency. (2021d). Sustainable management of food- types of composting and understanding the process [Online]. Available from https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/types-composting-and-understanding-process . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Odeh, A., & Al-Sa’ed, R. (2018). Evaluation of windrow composting pilots for domestic organic waste amended by horse manure and biosolids . In 6th Balkans Joint Conference and Exhibition, 7–9 November 2018, Expocity Albania, Tirana, Albania.

Michaels, T., & Krishnan, K. (2018). Directory of waste to energy facilities . Energy Recovery Council US, October 2018.

Tolvik Consulting Limited, UK. (2020). Energy from waste statistics- 2019, May.

Worldatlas. (2019). Largest landfills, waste sites, and trash dumps in the world [Online]. Available from https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/largest-landfills-waste-sites-and-trash-dumps-in-the-world.html . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Eunomia. (2021). Recycling-who really leads the world? Identifying the world’s best municipal waste recyclers [Online]. Available from https://resource.co/sites/default/files/World%20Recycling%20League%20-%20Full%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf . Accessed 22 Mar 2021.

Shehzad, A., Bashir, M. J. K., Sethupathi, S., & Lim, J. (2015). An overview of heavily polluted landfill leachate treatment using food waste as an alternative and renewable source of activated carbon. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 6 , 1–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2015.09.005

Aziz, H. A., & Ramli, S. F. (2018). Recent development in sanitary landfilling and landfill leachate treatment in Malaysia. International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 9 , 201–229. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijee.2018.10018737

Costa, A. M., de Souza Marotta Alfaia, R. G., & Campos, J. C. (2019). Landfill leachate treatment in Brazil – An overview. Journal of Environmental Management, 232 , 110–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.11.006

Pasalari, H., Farzadkia, M., Gholami, M., & Emamjomeh, M. M. (2019). Management of landfill leachate in Iran: Valorization, characteristics, and environmental approaches. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 17 , 335–348. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-018-0804-x

WHO. (2014). Safe management of wastes from health-care activities . WHO.

Emery, A., Davies, A., Griffiths, A., & Williams, K. (2007). Environmental and economic modelling: A case study of municipal solid waste management scenarios in Wales. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 49 (3), 244–263.

Wang, L. K., & Pereira, N. C. (1980). Handbook of environmental engineering, Volume 2, Solid waste processing and resources recovery (480 pages). The Humana Press.

Hung, Y. T., Wang, L. K., & Shammas, N. K. (2014). Handbook of environment and waste management: Land and groundwater pollution control (Vol. 2, 1091 pages). World Scientific.

Wang, L. K., Wang, M. H. S., Hung, Y. T., & Shammas, N. K. (2016). Natural resources and control processes (493–623 pages). Springer.

Hung, Y. T., Wang, L. K., & Shammas, N. K. (2020). Handbook of environment and waste management: Acid rain and greenhouse gas pollution control (Vol. 3, 770 pages). World Scientific.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Civil Engineering, Engineering campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Hamidi Abdul Aziz

Solid Waste Management Cluster, Science & Engineering Research Centre (SERC) Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, Karabuk University, Karabuk, Turkey

Salem S. Abu Amr

Department of Civil Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

P. Aarne Vesilind

Lenox Institute of Water Technology, Latham, NY, USA

Lawrence K. Wang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA

Yung-Tse Hung

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hamidi Abdul Aziz .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Mu-Hao Sung Wang

Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

is the United States federal government agency whose mission is to protect human and environmental health.

is the process of examining the anticipated environmental effects of a proposed project from consideration of environmental aspects at the design stage

is an American professional association that promotes the art, science, and practise of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the world.

is a systematic process that businesses use to analyse which decisions to make.

is a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service.

is an analytical method to quantify flows and stocks of materials in a system.

is the analysis of social, cultural, economic, and political conditions of individuals, groups, communities and organizations.

is the process of identifying and analysing potential events that may negatively impact individuals or the environment and making judgements on the tolerability of the risk on the basis of a risk analysis.

is a systematic decision support process aiming to ensure that environmental and possibly other sustainability aspects are considered effectively in policy, plan, and programme making.

is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste, which was enacted in 1976.

is the leading environmental authority in the United Nations system.

are short-chain fatty acids composed mainly of C2–C6 carboxylic acids produced in the anaerobic digestion process, which does not need sterilization, additional hydrolysis enzymes, or high-cost pre-treatment step.

is typically a mixture of ash, carbon, and lime.

are mixtures of man-made chemicals that are added to a wide variety of products, including for industrial use, to make them less flammable.

are fully or partly halogenated paraffin hydrocarbons that contain only carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F), produced as a volatile derivative of methane, ethane, and propane.

are compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, chlorine, and fluorine.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Aziz, H.A., Abu Amr, S.S., Vesilind, P.A., Wang, L.K., Hung, YT. (2021). Introduction to Solid Waste Management. In: Wang, L.K., Wang, MH.S., Hung, YT. (eds) Solid Waste Engineering and Management. Handbook of Environmental Engineering, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84180-5_1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84180-5_1

Published : 01 January 2022

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-84178-2

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-84180-5

eBook Packages : Earth and Environmental Science Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research