Domestic Separation and Collection of Municipal Solid Waste Opinion and Awareness of Citizens and Workers.docVIP

Sustainability 2010, 2, 1297-1326; doi:10.3390/su2051297 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 /journal/sustainability Article Domestic Separation and Collection of Municipal Solid Waste: Opinion and Awareness of Citizens and Workers Giovanni De Feo * and Sabino De Gisi Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, via Ponte don Melillo, 1–84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy; E-Mail: sdegisi@unisa.it * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: g.defeo@unisa.it; Tel.: +39-089-964113; Fax: +39-089-964045. Received: 24 March 2010; in revised form: 13 April 2010 / Accepted: 4 May 2010 / Published: 11 May 2010 Abstract: The state of the art on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is based on the domestic separation of materials produced. After domestic separation, the resident has to transfer the separated materials to the MSW manager through the hands of collection workers. It is exactly at this stage that an end-use product changes its status and property becomes waste. This paper analyzes and compares the opinions and awareness of citizens and kerbside collection workers on this subject by means of two structured questionnaires in the city of Mercato San Severino (about 22,000 people), in Southern Italy. Keywords: awareness; resident; MSW; opinion; questionnaire; separate collection; worker 1. Introduction Modern society is becoming a ―waste society‖ rather than a well-to-do society: the waste that people produce litters our streets and is not always in the bins. As stated in De Feo and Napoli (2005) [1], about 600 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) per year, corresponding to a daily production of 1.6 kg per capita, are produced in the countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The generation intensity is continuously growing in these countries, with the highest values in the richest countries, testifying an indivisible li