Household solid waste management - perception and practices during COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Ernakulam

ABSTRACT

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered panic buying of food, face masks, gloves, cleaning products and hand sanitizers. Change in food practices, dynamics of plastic and biomedical waste generation during the pandemic has, however, stirred the woes of household solid waste management. The virus loaded waste from indiscriminately discarded face masks, gloves and other biomedical waste with the regular waste stream could cause serious health risks. The present study was undertaken to find out the situation of waste management systems during pandemic outbreak by the households. An online survey was conducted via Google form using well-structured questionnaire. The study covered a sample size of 100 homemakers using simple random sampling technique. Only 45% of households agree with the satisfaction in current waste management system. A majority of 59% of the respondents are burning the household medical waste, 70% of respondents saw the need to avoid mixing of household waste with the PPE products, 64% of respondents are not educated by local authorities on proper waste disposal, and 81% of respondents think there is no sufficient waste management information to the public. Of respondents 54% received awareness regarding the disposal of household medical waste during COVID19 outbreak via social media. Household solid waste management training is important to improve the hygiene and sanitation practices of community people. The current study showed that participants who received training on household solid waste management were significantly correlated with good hygiene practices.