Homemakers’ Attitude towards Solid Waste Management in Urban Area of Hubli-Dharwad

Abstract

Proper waste management is a major concern of public health. It is necessary to create positive behavioral changes toward waste management among the public to control diseases. Objectives were to determine the attitude toward solid waste management among the households of Hubli - Dharwad city in Karnataka, India. A community based cross sectional study was conducted in 67 wards of Hubli- Dharwad city located in the Dharwad district of Karnataka state from January 2021 to December 2021. A total of 400 households were studied and multistage sampling was done. Data was collected by direct interview using a pre-questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software. The participants responsible for waste management in the household were women. Out of the 400 participants, 83%, 11% and 6% were Hindus, Muslims and Christians respectively. The majority of them (82%) had an educational qualification of high school and were housewives. About 47% of the study population belongs to the upper middle class. Their major sources of information about solid waste management were Self Help Groups (SHGs). In the study, 93.8% of the studied population had above average attitudes and 6.2% had below average attitudes toward household waste management. Almost 70% had the belief that the government is not doing anything to fix the garbage problem. About 97%, 88.6% and 92% were willing to do composting, segregation and recycling of waste respectively. . Continuous awareness programs have to be conducted on safe waste disposal and efforts should be made to sustain the supervision of household waste management.