Role of general people in solid waste management in Khorramabad city

Abstract

Background: Management of solid waste is a set of regular and coherent acts on production control, storage and collection, handling, processing and disposal of solid waste. These activities should be in accordance with best conditions of public health, economy, and protection of industries, aesthetical and other aspects of environmental and public requirements. People cooperation in solid waste management is a process that everyone is responsible for ones activity. This condition causes improvements in municipal task and culture of the city. Materials and methods: In this study, Khorramabad city was divided to 8 districts. In every district, 50 houses selected as a sampling cluster. So, 400 houses were sampled and questionnaires about conditions of collection, storage and hazards of unsanitary disposal of solid waste, and recovery of solid waste were distributed among them. Results: All houses were used waste bag for storing their solid waste. Solid waste was collected by municipality daily. But, separation of different kinds of solid wastes was not done in any houses. People had a weak knowledge on the location of waste disposal. 33 to 70 percent of people had a good knowledge about the hazards of unsanitary disposal of waste materials. 5 to 20 percent was familiar with waste material recovery term. 11-60% of people were satisfied with municipality performance regarding waste material collection. Conclusion: We figured out that a majority of Khorramabad citizens had a good attitude but a weak knowledge and performance on solid waste management. Therefore we suggest that the knowledge and performance levels of the community can be increased via adopting good educational programs by related organizations and social media.