A STUDY ON AWARENESS AND ATTITUDE OF HOUSEHOLDS TOWARDS WASTE MANAGEMENT

A STUDY ON AWARENESS AND ATTITUDE OF HOUSEHOLDS TOWARDS WASTE MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

          Wastes are unusable or unwanted materials. Waste is any substance which is discarded after primary use, or is worthless defective and of no use. Waste management or waste disposals are all the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes amongest other things collection, transport, treatment, and disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation.Waste can take any form that is solid, liquid, or gas and each have different methods of disposal and management. Waste management normally deals with all types of waste whether it was created in forms that are industrial, biological, household, and special cases where t may cause a threat to human health. It also encompasses the legal and regulatory framework that relates to waste management encompassing guidance on recycling. Waste management normally deals with all types of wastes whether it was created in forms that are industrial, biological, household and special cases where it may pose a threat to human health.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

          Countries overtime experience development with the growth of industrialization and globalization. With increasing population, the waste management in the country has emerged as a severe problem not only because of the environmental and aesthetic concerns but also because of the sheer qualities generated every day. One of the greatest risk is that there wastes will contaminate water supplies. The mechanism of disposal of hazardous wastes lacks proper enforcement resulting in abandoned hazardous waste dumps.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM     

            Since waste is a severe problem to the humanity we need to seriously take care of it. It is good enough to care from home itself. So, this study aims to concentrate on waste management among households. This study concentrates to check the awareness and attitude of households towards waste management with special reference to Ayamkudy village in Kottayam district.

OBJECTIVES

1. To assess the level of awareness among households regarding waste management.

2. To understand the various disposal methods used by the households.

NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

            Thousands of years ago humans dug a hole and buried their refuse and waste. This was an effective technique for these early people because of their population were relatively small and they did not produce waste on the same scale or with the levels of complexity that modern humans do. In the modern world burring all of our rubbish is not a sustainable solution. While primitive humans produced very little waste, and that which was produced would biodegrade quickly, modern humans produce much larger amounts of waste, much of which is not biodegradable. Additionally, many types of wastes may be damaging to the soil, ground water and surrounding habitat. Rubbish and waste can cause air and water pollution. According to some research reports every year 62 million tons of waste is generated out of which only 28% of waste is recycled and 72% is left on roads and the landfill areas for years to years which is very bad.

METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

               The data required for the study were collected from both primary and secondary sources.  Respondents are conveniently selected. Personal interview methods are also adopted n certain circumstances. Secondary data are collected from various journals, websites, and books. Percentage analysis, diagrams are used for the purpose of analysis.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

·         From the study it is evident that majority of the respondents usually don’t store the rubbish. About 25% of the respondents store rubbish in plastic bags. And the 20% of respondents store rubbish in bin drum.

·         Majority of respondents argue that plastic waste is more generated in their home. 35% agree to that. And 25%of respondents opinion that food waste is more generated.

·         Majority of respondents are not aware about the waste management mechanism. Only 40% of the total respondents are aware about the waste management.

·         65% of respondents opinion that they don’t usually separate wastes. And majority doesn’t know how to make use of the wastes.

·         And about the plastic wastes they are not aware about the proper disposal methods. And they dispose plastic in such a way that is harmful to the society. They deposit domestic waste in open spaces. Only a few use it for compost pit or biogas.

·         55% of the respondents are interested to install a biogas plant or compost pit for converting wastes into usable purposes. Most of them are not aware about the proper functioning and advantages of the biogas plants.

SUGGESTIONS

              Organize awareness programs at household level to make understand about the proper waste management mechanism. And make use of the biodegradable wastes through composting, vermin composting, anaerobic digestion, or any other appropriate biological process of stabilizing waste. For organic waste, using a kitchen waste disposer is an excellent option. Use cloths bags instead of plastic. This will help you to reduce the amount of waste you bring. The items that can’t be recycled should be thrown out with the trash or disposed of at a hazardous waste facility. Make available sufficient storage facilities in accordance to the quantities generated.

CONCLUSION

            Waste separation from the household level, proper storage, more efficient waste collection systems and sustainable recovery and disposal practices are identified as needed process in the study area. Considering the nature and components of waste generated by households the waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting process would be more suitable in managing the challenge. These management options should be integrated in a sustainable framework. Public education and properly planned waste management programs also need to be introduced into the current system. Especially, awareness programmes must be conducted in order to improve the knowledge about the importance of solid waste management for sound environmental development in the area.