Status Analysis of Urban Solid Waste Source Separation with an Emphasis on Citizen Participation Case Study: Four Regions of Ardabil Municipality

Participation of citizens in source separation of municipal solid waste is essential due to increase in quantitiy of the produced urban waste. The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the indicators of source separation of waste in four municipal regions of Ardabil city.
This descriptive and analytical study was conducted using survey method. According to the number of households in Ardabil city (about 152,700 households) Cochran method was used to select 386 samples for questioning. 36 experts were also interviewed. Cronbach's reliability of 0.79 confirmed high reliability of measuring tool. SPSS and GIS softwares and descriptive and inferential statistical tests including Measures of Central Tendency, Shapiro Wilk, Smirnov, Pearson correlation, F test, ANOVA, regression and path analysis were apllied for data analysis.
The results of analysis showed significant relationships between participation of citizens in municipal solid waste source separation and enabling and capacity building, cultural, environmental health, infrastructure, spatial accessibility, and social factors. However, there was no significant relationship between economic factors and the level of citizen’s participation.
Urban waste source separation is a social, cultural and participatory issue that requires provision of facilities, infrastructure, capacity building, culture and empowerment of citizens at the scale of the city and four districts of the municipality. It also requires continuous and sustainable time, financial, equipment and human resources planning and managing.