Determinants of municipal solid and hazardous waste management in the occupied Palestinian territory: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundIn the occupied Palestinian territory, accumulation of municipal solid waste is a serious problem, with substantial political and occupational issues needing to be resolved, despite limited resources. We assessed attitudes, knowledge, and practices related to hazardous and municipal solid waste and views on how waste should be managed. MethodsQualitative data were collected from 15 focus groups with men and women older than 18 years from different localities (urban, rural, and camps) and regions (north, middle, and south) of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 2011, we implemented a quantitative study in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on 1882 people representative randomised stratified three-stage sample The data were collected through a structured questionnaire including questions (derived from the focus group discussions) about the respondents’ role in disposing of their household solid waste, satisfaction of the collecting services, awareness regarding household hazardous waste, and willingness to treat organic waste. χ2 testing was used to check for significant associations of those variables with region, locality, age, sex, number of family members, educational attainment, employment, marital status, home ownership, socioeconomic status, region, and locality. Binary logistic regression was done to identify confounders. Data were analyed with SPSS (version 17.0). FindingsThe qualitative findings showed that lack of skilled manpower, irregular collection services, inadequate equipment, inadequate legal provisions, and resource constraints all compromised waste management in the occupied Palestinian territory. Quantitative results revealed that residents of the Gaza Strip were the least satisfied with municipal solid waste management (OR 2·410, 95% CI 1·627–3·569) and the least interested in encouraging composting (3·604, 2.679–4·849) or reusing solid waste (6·277, 4·587–8·589), but were most active in cleaning indoors (0·625, 0·431–0·905), and less likely to have basic knowledge of hazardous waste (1·626, 1·222–2·16) than residents of the northern West Bank. Compared with urban dwellers, rural and camp dwellers were more likely to clean their houses (0·738, 0·561–0·971 and 0·295, 0·157–0·552, respectively), and to know more about hazardous waste (0·616, 0·414–0·917 and 0·719, 0·576–0·987) and camp dwellers were more likely to encourage reusing solid waste (0·454, 0·296–0·695) whereas rural dwellers were more likely to compost organic waste (0·502, 0·402–0·626). Affluent respondents were less interested in encouraging composting municipal solid waste (1·769, 1·161–2·696). A positive association was found between completion of university education and participants’ ability to encourage reusing (0·490, 0·267–0·897) and composting (0·417, 0·242–0·720) municipal solid waste and their awareness of hazardous waste (0·378, 0·204–0·703) compared with uneducated participants. Three-member households were less willing to compost municipal solid waste (1·66, 1·009–2·730) than households with one to two members. Middle aged participants (age 25–34 and 35–44 years) were more likely to participate in cleaning indoors (0·572, 0·368–0.889 and 0·584, 0·338–0·889, respectively) and moving solid waste to outside (0·519, 0·370–0·726 and 0·486, 0·337–0·700) compared with the youngest participants (aged 18–24). Women were less likely to move solid waste outside than were men (2·551, 2·014–3·230). House owners were less likely to have basic knowledge of hazardous waste compared with house renters (1·431, 1·100–1·861). InterpretationAn implementation of existing policies for solid waste management is required on the national scale, combined with support for public education and training. In Gaza, there is a need for rehabilitation of the whole municipal solid waste system. FundingNone.