The Relationship between Socio-economic Characteristics of Urban Inhabitants and the Quantity of Domestic Waste Generation in Mattakkuliya Grama Niladhari Division, Colombo

Abstract

The unwanted objects and unusable substances are referred as waste. These are classified as agricultural waste (AW), commercial waste (CW), domestic waste (DW), and industrial waste (IW) based on their source of generation. DW is generated during the household activities like cleaning, cooking, etc. The exodus of DW is comparatively very high in urban areas than in rural. Also, there is a close relationship between the quantity of DW and the socio-economic characterizes of urban inhabitants. The objectives of this study are identifying the generating factors of DW and to explore the relationship between socio-economic characteristics of urban inhabitants and the quantity of domestic waste. To achieve the objective of the study, 150 houses in Mattakkuliya were randomly selected. Providing questionnaire, unstructured interview, and observation were the primary data collection method. Secondary data such as research papers, statistical reports, and the Internet were used for further data. Based on the study, about 3.5-16 kg of DW is produced daily from each household in the study area. Meanwhile, the daily per capita waste production is found to be 0.5-5 kg. Of these, food scraps (45%), paper (20%), glass (5%), plastic bags (18%) and others (12%) were the most important. Results indicated a linear relationship between socio-economic characteristics and the quantity of DW in the study area. Thus, direct and indirect socio-economic characteristics such as family size, income, average age of the family members, sex, occupation, literacy and marital status were the explored by the study.

Keywords: Domestic waste, Socio-economic, Urban inhabitants