Abstract
The spread of COVID-19 is posing significant challenges to the household (HH) waste management sectors putting waste personnel and concerned bodies under massive pressure. The chain of collection, segregation, recycling, and disposal of household generated wastes is interrupted. This study aimed to assess how the household waste management chain was disrupted by novel coronavirus in Nepal and find the perception of the people towards the existing household waste management system (HHWMS). A descriptive online survey was carried out among 512 people using a cross-sectional research design and data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire method. Both descriptive, as well as inferential tests, were conducted using SPSS software. The finding of this study showed that 62.3% of respondents were not satisfied with the present HHWMS. Furthermore, there was a significant association of the satisfaction level of household waste management during coronavirus outbreak with gender, waste volume change in lockdown, PPE for waste collectors, and education on waste handling techniques provided by the government sector at 5% level of significance (p < 0.05). Proper HH waste management has become a challenge, and to address this some innovative works such as awareness programs for people, health and hygiene related support to waste workers, and effective policy formulation and implementation should be done by the Government of Nepal.
Highlights
The present COVID-19 disease initially named 2019nCOV, is known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) which is similar to two previous outbreaks, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (Perlman 2020)
Currently, the COVID-19 cases are declining and the vaccination has been started in Nepal; still there is a threat of pandemic and its impact in the waste management sector
Household waste as usual is a great challenge to manage and address all issues raised during pick point of outbreak and current situation
Summary
The present COVID-19 disease initially named 2019nCOV, is known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) which is similar to two previous outbreaks, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (Perlman 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic portrays this era’s major global public health concern as it has taken the life of 2.45 million; 62.3 million people recovered defeating the Covid-19 (Coronavirus (COVID-19) 2021). In total 111 million, people are affected. The impact extended to the waste-to-energy (WTE) and waste-tomaterial (WTM) industries (Zhou et al 2021). The outbreak has added extra sources of waste products which have triggered even more complexity in the management of SW to governments and waste workers (Sharma et al 2020a, 2020b; Tripathi et al 2020)
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