Elevating public awareness of waste management at the household level is
a cost effective and a win-win social, economic and environmental approach on
the table of policymaking. Modern and effective waste management bring about
broader economic efficiency and social equity, mitigate consumerism, thus,
promoting the conservation of natural resources. In this article, a survey study
was conducted among the citizens of Wrocław city, Poland. The city is dynamic,
touristic, and industrial. Through random sampling, 160 respondents filledin the
questionnaire. The results revealed that the participants appeared aware of the
benefits of waste management (WM); however
the current WM systems and infrastructures are not very satisfying. The
participants identified several shortcomings in the current WM systems such as
the lack of sufficient colored bins for glass recycling, overfilled bins and
heavy lids, and irregular waste collection system. The study proposes a public-oriented
outreach campaign targeting waste separation and less-waste behaviors as
economically and environmentally beneficial, accompanied by continuous
development of WM regulations and infrastructures and linked it to
waste-to-energy systems and technologies to assist in achieving the long-term
energy and emissions-reduction targets.
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