Motivations and Barriers to Minimize Household Kitchen Waste in Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah: A Preliminary Study

Mei Xue Yap, Isaac Wayne Witus, Leong Wan Vun

Abstract


Kitchen waste discarded from households contributes to the high proportion of organic waste that ends up in its designated landfills. This poses negative impacts to the environment, social and economy in the long run. To tackle this problem, efforts are needed to minimise kitchen waste generated from households. However, for this initiative to be successful, the residents play an important role. The main objective of this study was to identify the possible motivations and barriers of the residents in minimising household kitchen waste, and also to provide recommendations to further motivate and overcome the barriers in reducing kitchen waste. A combination of open- and close-ended questionnaire was used to conduct this preliminary survey. One hundred household residents staying in Kota Kinabalu City were randomly selected as the respondents for this study. The identified major motivations for the respondents to minimise kitchen waste were (1) personal habits of not wasting food, (2) financial concern, (3) being the right thing to do and (4) to avoid from attracting rodents, ants or cockroaches into the house. To minimise household kitchen waste in the study area, most respondents agreed to enforce household kitchen waste segregation, install kitchen grinder, participate in kitchen waste minimization campaigns, and wiliness to use composting materials made from kitchen waste. However, these efforts are not without prior conditions. In conclusion, to reduce the generation of household kitchen waste, suitable efforts are required based on the identified factors of generation of household kitchen waste in the study area.

Keywords


Household Kitchen Waste, Waste Management, Motivation and Barriers

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v20.2.1758

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