Volume 4, Issue 8, August – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice

of Segregation and Disposal of Solid Waste at
Household Level in a Suburban Area of Chennai
Author : Kesav Narayan.S
Coauthor : Dr. Alice Matilda Mendez
Department Of Community Medicine Saveetha Medical Collage

Abstract:- I. INTRODUCTION

 Introduction The product of human and animal activities results in

Solid waste is a by product of human activities. the generation of solid waste (1). These can be classified in
These can be classified according to their use their terms of their original use, the material, their physical
physical nature and their composition. Due to properties, their origin and safety parameters. Due to
urbanization and changing lifestyles and increase in urbanization and the increasing standards of the modern
human population, this has lead to rapid generation of people and a rise in the population have led to increased
human solid wastes. The government although generation of solid wastes in the environment. The total
responsible for this cannot do this altogether because of municipal solid wastes generated in urban india alone has
lack of infrastructure. So in many countries people been estimated to be 64 million tons per year (2). In india an
have started participating in the segregation of wastes. individual produces an average of 0.8kg/waste/person
daily(3). So this has led to a most challenging problem in
 Aim and Objective the today’sworld. The government however who is
To assess the knowledge attitude and practice of responsible for this situation due to lack of infrastructure
segregation and disposal of solid wastes at the and financial hardships can’t do this alone altogether. So
household level and perceived impact of plastic ban on in many countries the community have participated and
the society in a suburban township in Chennai made a drastic change in the process of disposing the solid
wastes even starting at the household level. Even for
 Materials and Methods recycling the wastes the process of separation has to be
A cross sectional study was conducted among the done.
households of suburban population in Avadi municipal
area. 10 out of 48 wards of Avadi were randomly The purpose of this research is to access the
selected and 30 households from each ward were knowledge, attitude and practise of the households in
included in the study. Data was collected by segregation and disposal of the wastes at their level and
interviewing the head of family using a structured also the knowledge and practise of recycling. This study
questionnaire. Data was entered in MS excel and was looks at the characteristics that are related to waste
analysed. separation activities. Another important objective of this
study is to know the awareness of the plastic ban on the
 Results lives of the people and whether they accept this current ban
From the study 63% of the head of the family had and also thinks that the current plan would benefit for the
higher education(above 12 grade) . 33% were betterment of the society.
professionals. 95% lived in a nuclear family. 99% had
good knowledge on the segregation and disposal of II. METHODOLOGY
wastes. 90% gained the knowledge of segregation of
wastes at the household level from the social media. A cross sectional study was done from march 2019 to
But only 66% of them has a good practice score. Among June 2019. The study area is AVADI(municipal area) with
those who practised, 80% had the practise of a area of 39km 2 with a population of 345,996.It has
segregation of the wastes in different coloured bins. totally 48 wards. The data for the study was collected from
36% had practise of preparing manure pit. 21% of the 300 households in AVADI. According to the formula
people burn plastics. 74% of the people were aware of 4pq/l2 where p = 51.3 , q= 100-p and l= 20% of p the
the plastic ban . sample size is 150. From reference [4]. The sampling effect
is 2 , so the final sample size was 300. Cluster sampling
 Conclusion was done and 6 wards out of the 48 wards were selected
The study clearly depicts that even though the randomly and out of that 6 wards 50 houses were selected
people had knowledge on segregation of the wastes randomly by applying PROBABLITY PROPOTIONAL
many did not practice the segregation of the wastes. SIZE (PPS) . A structured questionnaire was used to collect
the information. The questionnaire was designed in such a

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Volume 4, Issue 8, August – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
way as it covered questions related to knowledge such as -
have you heard about the term segregation and do you and Education of head of Frequency(n=300) Percentage
your family members have a knowledge about the bio and family
non biodegradable wastes. Attitude questions such as- do Primary 14 4.6%
you feel that streets should be clean and free of solid wastes Secondary 102 34%
and - have you ever thought of solid waste segregation at Higher 184 61.3%
home. Practise questions such as - do you burn the plastics , Type of family
do you practise segregation of the wastes. And questions on Nuclear 286 95.5%
the awareness of the plastic ban such as are you aware of Joint 14 4.7%
this plan and are you happy with is action. And also the Occupation
questionnaire had some basic demographic questions. All Professional 100 33.3%
individuals who took part in this study were included and Sem iprofessional 50 16.7%
those who were not willing to take part were excluded. A Skilled 60 20%
set of questions were used to assess the knowledge, attitude unskilled 80 26.6%
and practice and scores were awarded to each household. Table 1:- Basic Demographic Details
III. RESULTS
Frequency(n=300) Percentage
Knowledge
 A total of 300 households were included in the study.
Good 297 99%
The demographic and sociodemographic profile of the
Intermediate 2 0.5%
study population from table 1 shows that among the 300
Low 1 0.5%
households 61% had higher education(12 grade and above)
95% of the people lived in nuclear family and only 5% of
Attitude score
the people lived in joint family. 100 out of 300 people
Good 140 46.6%
about 33% were professionals. This depicts the good
Intermediate 152 50.67%
education status of the locality. 98% of the people had the
Low 8 2.6%
knowledge of segregation of the household wastes from
social media and only 2% of the people from other sources. Practice score
Good 198 66%
As the purpose of the study is to assess the knowledge Intermediate 67 22.33%
attitude and practice of segregation and disposal of wastes Low 35 11.6%
at the household level separate scores were given each to Table 2:- Level of knowledge, attitude and practice
knowledge attitude and practice. 6 questions in each regarding solid waste disposal
knowledge attitude and practice were taken for awarding
the scores. The scores were entered in ms excel and Frequency Percentage
analysed. Good corresponds to 6, intermediate corresponds Practice Segregation
to 5 and 4 and poor score corresponds to 3 and below. of wastes 290 96.6%
Every household was taken as a unit and the scores were Yes 10 3.2%
awarded. No
Do you segregate in
99% of the people had good knowledge about the different bins 242 80.6%
segregation and disposal of the wastes which is seen from Yes 58 19.4%
the table 2. It is seen from table 2 that the practice and No
attitude scores were less when compared to their Come and collect
knowledge. This clearly depicts that the people of the waste 227 75.6%
locality even though they have good knowledge they aren’t Yes 73 24.33%
practicing the segregation and disposal of the household No
wastes. Do you Prepare
manure pit 108 36%
36% of the people prepare manure pit in their homes Yes 192 64%
as depicted from the table 3.This idea of manure pit reduces No
the amount of the solid waste generated and also this would Do you Burn plastics
serve as a manure for the plants grown in their homes. 28 % Yes 85 28.3%
of the people burn plastics which is not good for the No 215 71.67%
environment. Do you sell old
bottles to scrap 84 28%
A separate set of questions were asked to know the Yes 216 72%
awareness of plastic ban which was implemented in the No
current year 2019. 224 out of the 300 households did not Table 3:- Practice of solid waste disposal in households
face any difficulty in their daily lives do the
implementation of the plastic ban.

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Volume 4, Issue 8, August – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Frequency Percentage [4]. Dr Jagna Trivedi etal, A study on household
Aware of this ban management practices in Gandhinagar city , NMIMS
Yes 222 74% Management Review Volume XXVII April-May 2015
No 78 26% ISSN: 0971-1023
Difficulties in your [5]. MH Ehrampoush, MH Baghiani Moghadam, Survey
daily lives 76 25.33% of knowledge, attitude and practices of yazad
Yes 224 75.7% university of medical sciences students about solid
No waste disposal and recycling , Journal of
Table 4:- Awareness of plastic ban Environmental Health Science & Engineering 2005.
2(2):26-
IV. DISCUSSION [6]. CD Licy, R Vivek etal , Awareness, attitude and
practices of school students towards household waste
From this study we have accessed the attitude, management , Vivek et al / Journal of Environment
knowledge and practice of segregation and disposal of (2013), Vol. 02, Issue 06, pp. 147-150
wastes at the household level. Many had the knowledge [7]. Electrical and electronic waste management practices
about the segregation of the wastes from social media. This by household in shah alam malasia JA kalana-
is similar the study done in Gandhi nagar (4). Also from the international journal of environmental sciences, 2010-
reference articles and comparing the results (4,5,6), the people indiajournals.com
of this locality had more knowledge about the waste [8]. Suwarna Madhukumar, Ramesh G, Study about
segregation. This is very high when compared to other awareness and practices about health care waste
studies(5) may be this is due to their level of education very management among hospital staff in a medical college
high.(64% higher education). According to this study many hospital management banglore ,int journal of basic
had knowledge but did not practice the segregation of medical sciences, April 2012, Vol : 3, Issue : 1
wastes which is similar to the study done by C.D Lincy etal [9]. Awareness, knowledge and practices on bio- medical
(6)
. Many had awareness about the plastic ban from this waste management among health care professionals in
year and many gave a welcoming response to that action. manglore A cross sectional study F pullishery, GS
They too said that the plastic ban didn’t have any major panchmal, S Siddique, A Abraham IAIM, 2016-
difficulty in their lives. researchgate.net

V. CONCLUSION

The study thus concludes that the household of the

AVADI municipal corporation has a good education
profile. The people of the locality have good knowledge
about the segregation and disposal of the wastes. But
compared to their knowledge their practice was less as it
was depicted by the practice score as compared to their
knowledge score. About 36% have the habit of preparing
manure pit in their homes. The people of the locality were
aware of the plastic ban which was implemented in the year
2019. About 75% of the people of the locality did not face
any difficulty in their daily lives due to the plastic ban.

REFRENCES

[1]. Banga, Margaret, "Household Knowledge, Attitudes

and Practices in Solid Waste Segregation and
Recycling: The Case of Urban Kampala," Zambia
Social Science Journal: 2011, Vol. 2 : No. 1 , Article
4.
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/zssj/vol2/iss1/4
[2]. Tapas Kumar Ghatak, Municipal Solid Waste
Management in India: A Few Unaddressed Issues,
Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 35, 2016,
pp. 169-175
[3]. India Water Portal ,2019; Safe, sustainable water for
all https://www.indiawaterportal.org/

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