Willingness to practice waste separation-at source: a case study in Putrajaya

Solid waste management is one of many challenging environmental issues especially in urban areas. Public concerns and human behaviour is important to support waste management program as the commitment and willingness of the public to participate can influence positive result in waste recycling and Waste Separation at Source (WSAS) programme. The aim of this research was to evaluate the sociodemographic of householder, determine the level of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) and the association of sociodemographic and KAP of the householder towards WSAS program. The research was conducted in residential area (Jalan P9A and Jalan P9B) in Precinct 9, Putrajaya. Convenient sampling technique was used to distribute the questionnaire to 217 residents in Precinct 9, Putrajaya. A set of questionnaires is distributed to map the sociodemographic distribution of the residents as well as their take on recycling and WSAS. The sociodemographic that were investigated in this study which are age, gender, education level, occupation and household income. There were three elements covered in the questionnaires which are KAP. The questionnaires were comprised from five sections which focused on demographic, household waste information, waste isolation on source, psychological aspects of behavioural recycling and environmental attitude. Descriptive analysis and Chi-Square of association was measured. The results shown that the sociodemographic factors do play a role in KAP in WSAS program except for the occupation factor. Age, gender, education and household income have the significant value for chi square test except for occupation factor. The result also revealed that there was 53% of the residents have a willingness to separate the waste at source in Putrajaya. As the conclusion, the WSAS program in this study area in Putrajaya is still not in the satisfactory level as there still a high number of people that have not practices the WSAS in their household. This study is a success as all the objectives were achieved by the end of the study, and there are suggestion on ways how to improve the understanding of the public about waste segregation.