Assessment of the Applicability of Implementing Municipal Solid Waste Separation at Source in Jordan

Abstract

Mismanagement of municipal solid waste results in risks to human health, threats to the environment, and other socioeconomic issues. Currently, most countries have realized that they are managing their waste in a traditional way, utilizing open dumping, and this way does not achieve sustainable development goals. Therefore, these countries, including Jordan, which is the case study for this paper, decided to manage their solid waste in a more integrated way. Waste separation at the source is an effective way to reduce the amount of waste produced and is essential for Jordan to achieve environmentally friendly and integrated municipal solid waste management. This paper aims to identify citizens' attitudes and readiness to be part of a proposed MSW source separation plan by dividing solid waste into two categories: wet waste in a green bag is disposed of daily for six days of the week, and dry waste in a blue bag is disposed of on the seventh day of the week. That was done through an online questionnaire with the participation of 150 respondents. The results showed that 68.7% shared their vision and strong readiness to start separation of household waste at source, and 28.7% agreed. The study further demonstrated that there is an urgent need to focus on solid waste separation at source and make efforts by local authorities to raise the citizens' commitment towards this methodology by introducing sound public awareness campaigns.

Keywords: Solid waste management, Source Separation, Municipal Solid Waste, Jordan.

DOI: 10.7176/CER/14-5-05

Publication date:September 30^th 2022