Assessment Of Household Waste Segregation And Recycling Practices Under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Abstract

Sustainable municipal solid waste management, as emphasized by national programs such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) in India, relies heavily on domestic garbage segregation and recycling. In the selected urban and peri-urban areas, the study looks at how recycling is practiced, how well households are aware of the need to segregate their trash, and what factors influence people to follow the rules for source segregation. The research design used was descriptive analytical research design where primary survey data on 600 households was used alongside secondary contextual data available on the municipal performance databases. The results suggest that although awareness of waste segregation practices is comparatively high among households, there are not many households that engage in regular segregation behaviour, with the only minority of them fully segregating wet and dry waste streams. The proportion of households engaging in recycling depended on the type of waste: about one-third of households recycled organic waste, and about 28 percent sold dry recyclables to informal collectors, with a large proportion not having a sustained recycling activity. Difficulties with effective practice were poor segregation infrastructure, inconsistent collection services, and misunderstanding of  segregation types as well as challenge of motivation. Quality and reliability of municipal assistance services were significantly related to the compliance of the household, which demonstrates the significance of the institutional facilitation in transforming the awareness into practice. The findings highlight the importance of policy focus on awareness to be supported by enhanced infrastructure, behavioural reinforcers and incorporation of informal recycling networks to attain sustainable waste management results. The research has added to the evidence-based policy discussion with the formulation of actionable recommendations to improve household participation in the segregation and recycling processes with the SBM framework.