Community’s Existing Practices and Knowledge on Recycling at Kundasang, Sabah

Abstract

Recycling is known as the best approach to reduce disposal costs and prolongs the lifespan of landfill sites. However, the ignorance and negligence on the importance of recycling have lead to various solid waste management problems. This paper investigates the community willingness to participate in recycling practices through community waste bank in Kundasang, Sabah. Prior to the implementation of waste bank in Kundasang, a questionnaire survey was conducted to 300 households in four main villages. About 66.7% of respondents has agreed on the implementation of community waste bank as the community recyclables collection. The existing recycling activities were low as only 34.2% of the respondents practice solid waste separation at source. Other findings revealed that community’s recycling practices was influenced by their socio-economic background. Respondents’ education level was shown to influence their knowledge on solid waste separation and recycling practices. Although the majority of the respondent had completed their education in secondary school, about 61% of respondents were willing to participate in the waste bank.  Moreover, 63% of respondents were interested in the waste bank program if incentives were given to the respondents as a reward. Additionally, the findings revealed younger generation in range 19 years old and below were likely to involve with the recycling activities compare to age range 20 years old to 49 years old. Hence, these findings suggested a positive community’s acceptance on waste bank implementation in Kundasang. The community waste bank was expected to create positive attitude towards recycling practices and therefore contribute to the local environmental conservation.