Evaluation of the Status of Citizen Participation in Municipal Waste Source Separation Plan and Offering Corrective Strategies

Background and Objectives: To implement source separation plan, awareness of viewpoints and participation of waste producers are necessary. The aim of this research is to assess the status of the source separation of municipal wastes and to offer its corrective strategies from citizens’ point of view. Methods: This descriptive crooss-sectional study was performed through filling 1400 questionnaires by in-person interview in Qom, Yazd, and East Azarbaijan in the form of a waste management master plan. In this study, awareness of population was assessed using a questionnaire consisting of 31 general and specific questions. To examine the relationship between qualitative variables and cross-tabulations, chi-square test was used at a significance level of 5%. Results: Ninety percent of citizens declared their readiness to implement the source separation of municipal wastes. Most important reasons of citizens for implementation of this plan was better recycling with appropriate quality materials (79%), environmental protection and health promotion (65%) and assistance to municipalities (43%), and the important reasons of plan’s failure from citizens point of view were: lack of or irregular implementation the programs by the municipality (45%), inadequate training of citizens (32%), and poor cooperation of people due to cultural and social problems and/or lack of economic justification (25%). Conclusion: According to the results, high percentage of citizens were aware of separation of municipal wastes plan and knew its advantages, so if reforms are made by the municipal authorities, percentage of participation and cooperation of citizens in this project will favorably increase