Knowledge, Attitude, and Performance of Contributors to the Waste Recycling Program in Hassanabad City, Iran in 2017

One of the major aspects of waste management is recycling. Planning for recycling requires having an accurate estimation of the knowledge, attitude, and performance of the community about waste recycling. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the levels of awareness, attitude, and performance of women of Hassanabad city in Isfahan province, Iran towards waste recycling.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed using a researcher-made questionnaire as the data collection tool. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by Cronbach’s alpha. The samples were selected through cluster sampling from the study population of women in Hassanabad town. For this purpose, two clusters were chosen randomly from five zones of the city (i.e., north, south, east, west, and center). Each cluster included one region and 25 households were selected out of each cluster. It should be noted that the questionnaire entailed five parts, namely demographic characteristics, awareness, attitude, performance, and satisfaction level. All the data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 22.

Our findings showed that the mean age of the subjects was 38.37±10.9 years. Moreover, the knowledge level was weak, moderate, and good in 20%, 38.4%, and 41.6% of the participants, respectively. Approximately 24.8%, 48%, and 27.2% of the women had weak, moderate, and good attitudes toward recycling, respectively. Furthermore, 49.6% of the individuals showed weak performance, while 34.4% were moderate and 16% were of good performance. It should be noted that the socio-demographic characteristics, including age, education, and family size were significantly associated with the awareness, attitude, and performance of the participants. The satisfaction level of women with the performance of waste management plan was evaluated as moderate.

According to the results of this study, The level of awareness, attitude, and performance of women in Hassanabad city was high, moderate, and low, respectively. Therefore, educational workshops and motivational programs for recycling and improving the performance of urban waste management can result in increased participation and better recycling.