Assessment of Public Awareness and Preferences of Household Hazardous Waste Management

Assessment of public awareness and preferences is the first step in monitoring the implemented training programs, as well as planning for a new training program in order to improve the level of public knowledge about waste management and eliminate existing deficiencies. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to design a scientific and validated questionnaire to assess the knowledge and preferences of people of household hazardous waste management by municipalities. The designated questionnaire was distributed to 971 citizens, and data was collected and analyzed. The results obtained show that more than half of respondents are not aware that personal care products, home cleaners, medicines, vehicles, and home maintenance products are categorized as household hazardous waste. Also, only 5% of citizens are aware of the hazardous waste generation rate in household waste streams. In contrast, the knowledge level of the participants about the impacts of household hazardous waste mismanagement was assessed at an accepted level. Results of the conducted survey indicate that collection through apps and receiving educational content through social media are the most popular methods of waste collection and receiving information methods in relation to household hazardous waste. Furthermore, 67.8 and 92.9% of the respondents agree to pay gate fees and impose fines for violators of hazardous household waste management. Our findings illustrate that a lack of awareness of identifying and information about household hazardous waste quality and quantity could be improved by planning a training program and presenting it on social media.