Socio-economic determinants of household solid waste management in Kandy municipal area

Abstract

Introduction Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is an important role of urban authorities and it is directly related with the protection of environmental wellbeing, human health and living standards of people. The recent literature shows that, the rapid increase in solid waste generation due to accelerated urban population growth, unplanned urbanization, and increasing economic activities, has become a crucial problem in all countries regardless of the development status of them (Kwetey, 2014). In fact, the services related to solid waste management are far from satisfactory level in many developing countries due to some financial and social problems (Wang, 2011). With the current phase of rapid urbanization, relevant authorities in Sri Lanka are also experiencing serious difficulties in addressing this problem. In 2005, the estimated average solid waste generation in Sri Lanka was 2838.46 tons/day and it has increased to approximately 7,250 tons/day by 2009. In 2005, the average per capita MSW generation was 0.62 kg/cap/day and it has been predicted to reach 1.0 kg/cap/day by 2025.3According to the database of MSW in Sri Lanka (2005), the gross weight of the solid waste, collected by the Kandy 3Database of Municipal solid waste in Sri Lanka, 2005 ( Ministry of environment and natural resources) Municipal Council (KMC) is 145.04 tons and per capita waste collection per day is 0.62kg.4 During the past few decades solid waste generation in Kandy area has also increased rapidly, thus KMC requires more efficient and effective solid waste management system. However, as KMC state, lack of funds is one of the major constraints for implementing such a service. To the best of our knowledge, no any systematic research has been conducted focusing this issue and consequences of not drawing attention to this problem may be aggravated in the future in many folds than it is today unless alternatives are designed to address it. Therefore by conducting a primary survey, this study mainly expects to achieve the following objectives.