Abstract
Solid waste mismanagement is a social burden that requires the introduction of reliable public policies, including recycling principles and technological facilities. However, the development of recycling plans is a real issue for municipal governments, since it involves psychological and cultural factors, both in developed and developing countries. Questionnaire survey is an important tool for evaluating which solid waste management policy is suited for each specific study area, involving citizens and stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to evaluate what approach should be applied for social surveys in higher education institutes, comparing developing and developed countries. Italy is the developed country analyzed, where two universities in different cities are compared, while La Paz (Bolivia) is the emerging reality considered. The research conducted in La Paz led us to understand that, although recycling rates are low (about 8%), many students (56.96%) separate up to half of the waste produced at home. At the same time, about 53% of those interviewed do not know the recycling practices implemented by the informal sector which is the one that constantly act for improving the recycling rates of the city. Low technological acceptance is instead underlined in the high income country, since there is a common negative opinion concerning the introduction of landfills and incinerators near residential areas (49% disagree). A comparison of the methodologies adopted for the two case studies is introduced whereas investigations results are presented.
Highlights
The lack of solid waste management (SWM) activities is an environmental and social burden worldwide [1,2] public attention in environmental aspects is an increasing behavior [3]
Since final disposal is viewed as a secondary actor in the future scenarios of municipal solid waste (MSW) [4], nations’ key policies are introducing concepts as reduce, reuse, and recycle (3Rs), integrated management, and industrial ecology, in developed [5] as in emerging countries [6]
The objective of the work was to evaluate the suitability of the surveys in higher education institutes, comparing the methods applied with a qualitative approach
Summary
The lack of solid waste management (SWM) activities is an environmental and social burden worldwide [1,2] public attention in environmental aspects is an increasing behavior [3]. The improvement of 3R principles within the community can reduce the usage of land for waste disposal, decreasing expenditure on SWM and minimizing the generation of waste [7], at the same time improving the useful life and the environmental sustainability of the final disposal sites [8]. The implementation of this approach has not been currently developed in the majority of low income countries due to the low financial sustainability, lack of public awareness, and lack of reliable polices [9,10,11,12,13]. The introduction of recycling policies is a real public issue [17] and includes psychological and cultural factors [18] besides environmental, climatic, and economic variables [3]
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