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Household Waste Disposal in the Municipality of Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
Abstract:
The social dimension of solid waste management at the household level was the main purpose of this study. Household waste disposal practices in the municipality of Los Baños were classified and analyzed by looking into the individual and institutional levels in the context of the prevailing sociocultural setting. This aimed to depict an overall scenario of the garbage problem in the municipality. A multimethod research design was used which included a descriptive analysis of the overall waste management schemes in the municipality, key informant interviews, and social survey. Five barangays were purposively chosen based on population and type of surroundings or environment. There were 405 respondents in the survey.
An overview of Los Baños waste management concerns and disposal system was presented. A comparison between the past and present Los Baños administrations showed that some programs, policies, and ordinances in the past were also being implemented at present.
Despite relatively high scores on environmental awareness, knowledge, and attitude, most respondents had low environmental behavior scores. Half of the respondents recycled their wastes. While 72 percent practiced reusing, more than half of them did not segregate their wastes. These methods of disposal and reuse of household wastes depended upon the lifestyle, class, and value system of the household members.
The Transactional Approach in environmental psychology was applied for an overall analysis of the waste problem in Los Baños. It was found that individual results of environmental awareness, knowledge, and attitude cannot be directly linked with behavior since the latter is the sum of the household’s environmental behavior. There are underlying factors that have to be analyzed in order to understand the inconsistent relationship that exists between each of the three (awareness, knowledge, and attitude) and environmental behavior. Among these are the lifestyle and value systems existing within the household, as well as the existing norms in society.