Investigating the knowledge, attitude and perception on microplastic pollution: a comparison between residents in Temerloh living in urban and rural areas

This study investigates the knowledge, attitude, and perception of residents in Temerloh living in urban and rural area toward microplastic pollution by interpreting the results of questionnaire. Due to high of prevalence of plastics wastes, a lack of knowledge of their ecological effects, and poor attitude toward where the waste generated ends, microplastic pollution is now considered as the greatest threat to livelihoods., biodiversity, and public health on a global scale. The method that has been used in this study is descriptive correlational study. The data was collected from November 2022 to December 2022. The number of respondents that was indicated in this study were 384 by random sampling method. Data were gathered, coded, and analysed using descriptive statistics and independent t-test using IBM SPSS 28 Version. Findings in this study showed that residents living in urban and rural areas has good knowledge with overall mean and median (mean=3.55850±.46675), (median=3.80) (mean=3.4953±.47276), (median=3.80) respectively. From this study, attitude mean (3.5164±.37367) and median (3.33) knowledge score for residents living in urban areas while the overall mean (3.5908±.42049) and median (3.50) is for residents living in rural areas. Both respondents from residents living in urban and rural areas typically have a positive attitude toward microplastic pollution and have a strong desire to reduce the threat it poses. Average mean and median perception score 2.5337±.57027 and 2.50 respectively for respondents in urban areas while the mean and median for respondents in rural areas were 2.8624±.68986 and 2.80 respectively. It showed that residents in urban and rural areas have poor perception on microplastic pollution. Hence, the significant of this study was that the results gave a significant positive impact of social change among the community by raising awareness of microplastic pollution. Also, can build knowledge and perception about microplastic and its effects toward environment and human health.