MAJCAFE

Zuroni Md Jusoh, Syuhaily Osman, Afida Mastura Muhammad Arif, Roslina Mat Salleh
Department of Resource Management and Consumer Studies, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia

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Abstract

Zero waste management generally involves activities geared towards maximising recycling efforts and minimising waste generation. Accordingly, this study was primarily aimed at examining the factors affecting solid waste management behaviour among urban households located in eight states in Malaysia as gazetted and implemented under the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleaning Act 2007 (ACT 672). A total of 605 respondents were involved in this study following their recruitment via multistage random sampling and the data required were collected through a set of self administered questionnaire and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 software. Pearson’s correlation test was then utilised to examine the relationships between variables, whereby the results indicated a significant relationship between knowledge, attitude, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms, respectively, with household solid waste management behaviour towards zero waste. Meanwhile, the outcomes of multiple regression analysis revealed that the factors of solid waste management behaviour, namely knowledge, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms contributed 36.3 per cent of the explained variance (Adjusted R2 = 0.363, F = 86.974, p < 0.001). In particular, perceived behavioural control emerged as the most influential variable predicting the solid waste management behaviour at (β = 0.365, p ≤ 0.001). Hence, it can be concluded that knowledge, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms serve as significant factors in shaping the solid waste management behaviour towards zero waste, wherein perceived behavioural control poses the strongest effect. Therefore, each household should shoulder their key role in waste management as their actions are controllable in this particular context. Besides, the entire community, including the government, needs to work together for the purpose of realising the national aspirations of a developed nation and lessen the household waste towards becoming a zero waste country.

Keywords: Attitude, Household, Perceived behavioural control, Solid waste management, Subjective norms