Attributes facilitating solid waste separation at source practice among household

Abstract

This study aims to identify a set of attributes to facilitate source separation practice of solid waste among households. Solid waste management has approached major environmental challenges all around the world, particularly in developing countries. Municipal solid waste generation is expected increase up to 1.8 million tons of waste per day by year 2025 in Asia countries such as China, South Korea and Malaysia. Increasing trend of solid waste generation contributed by various factors including increase of population, urbanization process, changes in consumption patterns and improvement in lifestyle. To support a more sustainable solid waste management and resources use, one of the immediate paths is to reduce overall solid waste generation by increasing the recycling rate, through solid waste separation at source. This study is focusing on external factors that likely to facilitate solid waste separation at source.practice among the households in Langkawi Island, Malaysia. The PEST model is used as the fundamental basis in formulating the attributes to facilitate source separation practice in present context. There are four attributes identified: Regulation, Incentive, Information and Infrastructure and Support. Each attributes made up of two to three sub attributes. Questionnaire survey was conducted among households in Langkawi Island, Malaysia. A total of 472 convenience sample were accumulated from the household population. Raw data gathered was analyzed using Choice based conjoint analysis performed by Sawtooth Sofware. The results indicate that most preferred attribute is Infrastructure and Support. The set of attributes identified in this study may serve as a reference for governance consideration in formulating strategy to motivate source separation practice.