Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) also known as thrash are resulted from diverse human activities is an inevitable part of all society. The rapid increase in population with diverse human activities has led to an alarming increase in municipal solid waste generation. The MSW generated is posing a great threat to the public health, environment and economy of cities in developing countries [1, 2]. Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is a challenging task in cities with high population density. India being a country with diverse culture, many different religious groups and traditions SWM becomes more complex and challenging to be effectively solved. Environmental pollution, spread of diseases, land occupation and unpleasant aesthetics are some of the major negative impacts of poor Solid Waste Management (SWM). Apart from causing air pollution (in the form of inorganic particles and foul odour) MSW constituting non-biodegradable solid waste causes severe soil pollution. A list of pollutants and its impact on air, soil, water has been clearly presented in Table 1. Hence SWM has become a multidimensional issue that involves political, social, environmental and economic aspects [3].
Table 1
Environmental impact summary on account of various waste technologies [9]
| Pollutants origin from respective waste technologies |
Domain | Composting | Incineration | Dumping Landfills | Recycling |
Air | Odour, GHG emissions | SO2, NO2, HC, CO, CO2, GHG,PAHs, VOCs | CO2, CH4, odour, noise, GHGs, VOCs | GHGs (minor) |
Soil | Negligible | Fly ash and slag | Heavy Metals, | Leftover |
| impact | | Organic pollutants | landfilling |
Water | Leachate | Uncontrolled | Leachate, | Processing |
| | emission | heavy metals | wastewater |
MSW has been interpreted in various theoretical definitions. Vergara et al. stated “MSW are one such waste that comprises all solid and semi-solid materials generated from residential and public locality excluding hazardous and wastewater in it” [4]. It is also described as materials that have no value to the holder [5]. Anthropologists view it as a factual evidence of civilizations and their life style [6]. Industrialist describes solid waste as right thing at wrong place [7]. Meanwhile ecologist believes that there is no waste in nature. These MSW are usually made up of organic and inorganic substances and recyclable materials.
Estimating the quantity of MSW generated is the key factor for waste management planning. Especially in developing countries managing solid waste will be a crucial challenge due to changing composition, limited policy frameworks and escalated waste management cost. There are various factors like population density, standard of living, environmental conditions, extent and level of commercial activities, seasons and eating habits deciding the quantity of waste generation in any location. In India waste generation is recorded to be varying from 0.17 to 0.62 kg per capita per day. Table 2 presents the generation of solid waste statistics against the cities grouped according to their population [8].
Table 2
Waste generation rate of Indian cities [8]
Population | Waste generation rate (kg per capita per day) |
Cities with population < 0.1 million (8 cities) | 0.17 - 0.54 |
Cities with population 0.1–0.5 million (11 cities) | 0.22–0.59 |
Cities with population 1–2 million (16 cities) | 0.19–0.53 |
Cities with population > 2 million (13 cities) | 0.22–0.62 |
One of the important aspects to be understood is the characteristics of MSW that govern the waste-processing technologies [9]. Waste characteristics will be directly affected by standard of living, climatic and topographical conditions, cultural rituals, economic status, and kind of energy sources and literacy rate of locality [10]. Especially country like India being diverse in its culture, religion, rituals and fast growing will exhibit extreme variation of MSW characteristics [11]. Recently people are tending towards more of electronic goods, which have led to great increase of e-waste in characterization [9]. The composition of MSW as per recorded by Arceivala and Asolekar (2012) is presented in Table 3. It is comprehensively understood that wet waste (food and kitchen waste) contributes nearly 50% of MSW with highest composition, followed by inert waste and other categories. Indeed, it is also supported by the study recorded by Central Pollution Control Board-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CPCB - NEERI) as shown in Table 4. Here the calorific value indicates the heat produced by complete combustion of respective waste in specific quantity. Whereas percentage of water content in solid waste is recorded as moisture content. High calorific values indicate better and more effective adoption of waste to energy treatment techniques [12]. It is important to be noted in India that 40–50% of recyclable waste is managed by vast informal sector for their livelihood.
Table 3
Representative composition of MSWs in India cities [34]
Sl No.Components | Composition (% by weight) |
1.Food and kitchen waste | 40–65 |
2.Paper | 1–10 |
3.Plastic and rubber | 1–5 |
4.Metals | 0.2–2.5 |
5.Glass and ceramics | 0.5–3.5 |
6.Textiles | 1.5 |
7.Miscellaneous combustible | 1–8 |
8.Inert | 20–50 |
Even-though the concept of solid waste is not new to mankind, complexity in modern era has made SWM a major issue. Advancement in technology and civilization has transformed MSW into a more complex substance. It has been so due to excess generation of e-waste [13]. In an advanced world a product can be developed in one country and discarded in another country. This can cause inconsistency among regulations and policies regarding waste management and disposal [14]. Even though fundamental objective of any SWM system is to reduce the environmental pollution, with sustainable funding and local affordable technologies, lack of participation from public makes it ineffective. Private Sectors Participation (PSP) will only be successful if there is willingness to pay for waste management. Perhaps it could directly impact the integral system of SWM [15]. Primarily individual dwelling will be the starting location of any waste management activity [16, 4, 17].
Table 4
Calorific values and moisture content of MSW in cities of India
Cities with population range | Net calorific values (kcal/kg) | Moisture | (%) |
Min | Max | Mean | Min | Max | Mean |
Cities with population of 1–5 lakh | 1591 | 3,766 | 2,162 | 24 | 63 | 50 |
Cities with population of 5–10 lakh | 1591 | 2,391 | 1,481 | 17 | 64 | 48 |
Cities with population of 10–20 lakh | 1520 | 2,762 | 1,411 | 25 | 65 | 41 |
Cities with population of above 20 lakh | 1834 | 2,632 | 1,772 | 21 | 63 | 47 |
Source: CPCB-NEERI (2006) |
What public think about waste plays a significant role in SWM [18, 19]. Community involvement in activities like recycling, encouraging participation in decision making, waste segregation at source are some key factors in SWM. Understanding the concept of MSW generation and management that includes control of generation, collection, transportation, treatment and disposal play a vital role in deciding people’s perception and attitude towards SWM facility. Illegal waste dumping on streets, open spaces, drains is noticeable if basic waste collection facility at source is not provided by Urban Local Bodies (ULB). Although there exists several policies, rules and schemes regarding MSWM in India, it is the public participation that extensively decides the success of SWM. Table 5 presents various prominent rules, policies, schemes and financial plans on solid waste management in India.
Table 5
Important Rules, Policies, Schemes and Financial Schemes of SWM in India
1989 | The Hazardous Waste Rules |
1994–1995 | MSWM Strategy paper by NEERI J. S. Bajaj committee (Urban Solid Waste Management) |
1998 | Bio-medical Waste Rules Supreme Court appointed Burman Committee |
2000 | MSW Rules (management and handling) CPHEEO Manual on MSW |
2005 | Report on Technology Advisory group on MSW |
2006 | Strategy and action plan for use of Compost in cities |
2007 | 11th Five Year Plan (Rs. 2,210.00Cr for MSW) |
2008 | National Urban Sanitation Policy Hazardous Waste Management Handling Transboundary movement Rules Service Level Bench Mark (SLBs) |
2011 | Plastic Waste Rules E-Waste Rules Draft Bio-medical Waste Rules |
2014 | Swatch Bharath Mission |
2016 | Waste Management Rules |
| Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules |
Perception can be described as how a person sees himself and world around him with its governing behavior [20]. Similarly, attitude can be expressed as individual way of thinking. A positive attitude can be developed through imparting knowledge and educating public regarding environmental conditions. Citizens worldwide not willing to participate in source separation program can be a serious threat to environment [21]. Public assume that waste thrown on streets would be picked by local municipality. This mindset leads to unscientific system of waste management throughout India. For instance, cities with more citizen’s involvement during planning process recorded higher rate of participation in product recycling [22]. Studies have recorded more that 91% of MSW collected across India find their way to dumping site either on open lands or dumps [23]. Hope still prevails in India if the citizens choose to manage waste within home and reduce the excess load of MSWM.
In order to understand the functionality of environmental governess and practices of MSWM, in the present study we explored people’s attitude, perception and knowledge in connection with the present SWM system in Mangaluru city. Overall objective of study is also focused on investigating the concern of citizens towards SWMS. This study will help as an evidence for law making, governing bodies to implement effective SWMS and to bring awareness among communities. The outcome of the study also manifests behavioral variations that enrich citizen’s response towards their responsibilities in developing city like Mangaluru. Furthermore, it encourages and educates the public for better SWM practices and increase the efficiency of the system. Collaboration among public and policy makers is very crucial to educate and provide innovative and most effective SWM system. Even the eminent International Organization (UNEP, 2004 and USEPA, 1995) outlook the citizen’s perceptions, opinion and attitude raised through education.
The paper is organized as follows: A descriptive introduction on municipal solid waste, importance of waste management and brief about public attitude, perception is presented in first section. Second section presents the details of study area. It is followed by comprehensive discussion on the present status of solid waste management at Mangaluru in third section. Fourth section illustrates the methodology adopted for this study. A detailed case study is discussed along with results in fifth section. Finally, section six provides inferences and recommendations of the work carried out.