اطلاع رسانی و آگاهی عمومی در مورد جداسازی زباله: مطالعه موردی شهر Niš (صربستان) Informing and public awareness on waste separation: a case study of the City of Niš (Serbia)

Introduction Environmental pollution by waste (wastewater, solid substances, waste gases, etc.) is one of the causes of distortions in the environmental capacity, with a negative impact on human health and the development of new social challenges. Scientists are trying to reduce or eliminate the unfavourable effects of waste by proposing diverse methods and procedures for detecting and eliminating pollutants. In recent years, electrochemical and other methods have been used intensively to determine environmental pollutants. For example, nanosensors have been used to determine hydrazine, hydroxylamine, phenol and sulphite (Sadeghi et al. 2013; Karimi-Maleh et al. 2014; Golestanifar et al. 2015; Gupta et al. 2015) in water and wastewater samples. Air quality monitoring (Mead et al. 2013; Li et al. 2015; Cavellin et al. 2016) is a measure suggested to control the presence of NO2, PM10, O3, NO2, NOX, CO2 and other pollutants which, if found in elevated concentrations, adversely affect human health, as well as flora and fauna. The amount of solid waste is rather difficult to determine (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata 2012), while its improper disposal is a particular problem. In this sense, waste management is becoming a significant issue worldwide due to the fact that waste generation goes beyond the capacities of the living environment. The above-mentioned facts highlight the necessity to introduce an efficient waste management system. Almorza et al. (2002) addressed the problems of growing environmental crisis as a consequence of waste accumulation, reflecting that a possible solution might be adequate waste management resulting from the in-depth study of these issues, and an adequate waste management policy. A significant element of waste management is not only the systematic collection and separation of waste for further treatment or disposal in order to preserve human health and the environment, but also avoidance of the unattractive image of waste on the one hand and making financial savings on the other. The economic importance of integrated waste management is undoubted, which is evidenced by the comparative analysis of the municipal waste management in some European countries (Antonioli and Massarutto 2012). According to Sujauddin et al. (2008), the amount of waste generated in households depends on family size, the educational level of family members and their monthly income. Attitudes related to household waste separation depend on the active support and financial investment of utility companies (Timlett and Williams 2009), as well as on the fees for the collection service based on the waste volume or weight (Scheinberg et al. 2011). As Ors (2012) points out, gender, peer influence, land size and the household location, as well as membership in environmental protection organizations, influence the degree of recycling and utilization of household waste and the waste separation behaviour of the household members.