Driving Cleaner Practices: Evaluating the Influence of Ring Compost Units and Community Mobilization on Household...

Food waste, which is a component of municipal solid waste, is incinerated or dumped in open area which may cause severe health and environmental issues. A complete and environmentally sound Solid Waste Management requires effective contribution from all those who are involved in this problem.

To evaluate the impact of an organized model of waste management system and community mobilization on food waste disposal practices.

The present Quasi Experimental Study was conducted among 198 households in Thiruvalla. A semi structured, pilot tested questionnaire was used to collect information about the baseline waste disposal methods practiced. An individual ring compost unit was set up for each individual household. The beneficiaries were given training and the survey was repeated to evaluate any change in practices after a year. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for before and after comparison of mean values across groups. p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The number of study participants practicing segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes increased from 18% (before intervention) to 80.3% (after intervention). The change in the household waste disposal practices of the study population after Setting up of a ring compost unit and waste management training was found to be statistically significant.

Provision of ring compost units and training of the community could help in providing a long term solution to the domestic food waste problem.