International Research Journal of Biological Sciences ___________________________________ ISSN 2278-3202Vol. 3(12), 86-91, December (2014) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 86 Survey of effective Parameters in People participation in Sorting the Waste (case study Tehran, IRAN, Region 1) Monireh Majlessi Ph.D. Aida Vaezi2* Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public health. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, IRANDept. of Environmental Science, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, IRAN Available online at: www.isca.in, www.isca.me Received 21st May 2014, revised 7th July 2014, accepted 2nd August 2014Abstract At present the solid waste of district 1 of Tehran with approximate daily weight of 2678 tons is collected by a contracting company equipped with 24 pickup trucks from door to door, also 17 prefabricated connex chambers have been placed in various locations in district, to receive the solid waste recyclable being delivered by the residents, the approximate daily weight of the solid waste is 103 tons. In this research the participation and cooperation of the district residences for separation and sorting of solid waste from outset have been assessed and their feedback concerning their training, their level of satisfaction on the position, volume and quality of the waste containers, the efficiency of mechanized collection, the information and the knowledge of residents about the implementation of the overall plan, its flaws and its advantages, have been fully studied. The results indicate that the degrees of citizens participation in separation and sorting of solid waste depend on their knowledge and awareness, the practical capabilities of the contraction, their satisfaction of mechanized collection, and the training rendered. Keywords: Participation, awareness, training, mechanized collection.Introduction The state of our environment today is such that it needs all the help that we can give it. There are numerous ways to help the environmental.one of them is recycling of waste. Recycling reduces pollution and preserve the environmental condition,save energy, preserve natural resources,save the space that is used for waste disposal, can help reduction of waste togo to the land filland reduces emission of green house gases to atmosphere. Waste sorting is first step and an important process in recycling and safe disposal of waste material. In recent years, human being has changed the nature which is the base of his life by use of various technologies and has used it in order to satisfy his overgrowing needs. The human being without considering the major factors of environment and its tolerance limit has highly damaged the natural environment and has endangered the survival, growth and health of present and future generations. But if human being base his activities on logical framework and scientific and practical principles, he can possess a growing and dynamic social life. In field of previous studies we can mention research entitled:as “project of surveying the residents about the performance of mechanized waste collecting system in Tehran city”. In this research they analyzed the satisfaction level of residents based on age, gender, job and education in 1, 10 and 20 regions of Tehran city. The other research in this field is paper entitled: “awareness and importance of wastes sorting and preserving the natural environment” (case study on 22 regions of Tehran city). In this paper they analyzed the two variables of awareness and importance and its effect on sorting of waste and preserving the natural environment in 22 regions of Tehran city.The solid waste of district 1 of Tehran with approximate daily weight of 2678 tons is collected by a contracting company equipped with 24 pickup trucks from door to door. Also 17 recycling Conex have been placed in various locations in district, to receive the solid waste recyclable being delivered by the residents, the approximate daily weight of the solid waste is 103 tons. Table-1 Represents the solid waste analysis of district 1, till 2012 B read % 6 / 4 Plastic % 6 / 3 Plaster % 8 / 2 Paper % 3 / 8 Paper board % 6 / 8 Iron % 7 / 1 Non - iron metals % 1 / 1 Cloth % 6 / 0 Glass % 5 / 2 Wood % 4 / 0 Rubber % 1 / 0 Special % 1 / 1 Others % 6 / 0 Solid waste total 39 % Valuable solid wastes 35 % Research Journal of Chemical Sciences _______________________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X Vol. 3(12), 86-91, December (2014) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 87 There different methods for collecting the solid wastes in district 1 that we mention them below: i.Waste pickers with an improper appearance which are sorting the solid wastes out of the residues and are passing in the district with a sack full of wastes. ii. Illegal agents who buy the solid wastes of residents (usually bread) from door to door with a cart and sometimes three-wheel motor cycle. Sometimes these transactions are in form of exchanging the solid wastes with plastic goods or salt and at the end of the day they receive their wage from the main operator. (figure-1) Figure-1 Illegal agents in district Figure-2 Illegal agents in district iii. The traditional legal agents who are organized by municipality. They trade the solid waste from door to door by paying the monetary value of the wastes to the people and transferring them on carts with municipality logo, they are also equipped with municipality uniform, gloves, boots and big plastic bags. These agents are brokerage and receive their daily wage from the specific operators of municipality. iv. Pickups which have the municipality logo and “sorting from source plan” will go door to door and receive the solid wastes (every kind of solid wastes delivered by families) from families and give them lottery tickets in return. These agents are brokerage and receive their salary from related contractor (figure-2). The procedure for implementing this plan is based on technical and administrative system booklet. The research objectives: The main objective of this research is analyzing the people’s participation in “sorting from source plan” of region 1 and also analyzing the effect of 4 parameters of awareness,recognition, the proper implementation of commitments by administrators and satisfaction level of residents from mechanized system of waste collecting and also trainings, in this field. Research questions: The research questions are divided into 6 groups (15 question) which are as below: Questions 1-3: about the understanding of people toward “sorting from source plan”, solid and wet wastes and the way of their familiarization with this plan. Questions 4-6: about the way and amount of residents participation in collecting and transferring of solid wastes from the houses. Questions 7-9: about the contractor’s commitment in collecting solid wastes and proper distribution of bags and recycling tickets. Questions 10-12: about the satisfaction level of residents toward mechanized collecting system, volume, type of material, and placement of storages. Questions 13-15: about the way of trainings in in “sorting from source plan”, quantity and quality of training courses. Material and Methods This research is done in three parts: studies, field operations and data analysis.The method of this research is survey, the type of studies are practical and data gathering techniques are questionnaire and open interview. The statistical population is consisted of people (man and woman) who are residents of region 1 of Tehran city. Sampling method is random, size of samples are 383 people and date of data gathering is May 2012.Regarding the geographical span, population and resident familiesof region,size of sample was estimated by use ofCochran Formulaand the result was 383 people then the same amount of questionnaire were randomly distributed between residents. Research Journal of Chemical Sciences _______________________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X Vol. 3(12), 86-91, December (2014) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 88 Table-2 The facilities and personnel of region 1 municipality region 1 Area 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  Truck (with driver) 2 Mechanized vehicle (with driver) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 Controlling patrol Pickup (with driver) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 Transportation vehicles with mentors 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 20 Recycling mentors 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 10 Booth atten 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 17 Controlling patrol and supervision agents 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 50 The station guard 4 4 Sorting worker of recycling station 20 20 scale attendance 3 Resident supervisor of recycling station 1 Results and Discussion Age: 119 people in range of 30-45 years old, 111 people in range of 18-30 years old, 98 people more than 45 years old and 48 people were under 18 years old. Table-3 General traits of interviewed people in pilot area GenderAge Male198 -18 48 Female195 18-30 111 Total383 30-45 119 +45 95 Total 383 Gender: totally, 198 men and 185 women. Figure-1 The amount of familiarity and awareness of residents toward the in, sorting from source plan The amount of familiarity and awareness of respondents toward the solid wastes and in “sorting from source plan” as it’s presented in figure No.1 is: 56.7% in average level, 36.6% in high level and 5.7% in low level. This familiarity and awareness is acquired through radio and TV (56.9%), newspapers (13.8%), recycling bureau agents (15.4%) and leaflets and placards (10.7%). Figure-2 Amount of resident’s participation in collecting and sorting of wastesThe amount of cooperation and participation of residents in “sorting from source plan” as it’s presented in figure No.2 is: 58.7% in average level, 29.2% in high level and 9.9% in low level. Among people who participate in “sorting from source plan” 82.1% declared that they sort all solid wastes, 7.1% declared that they only sort the bread (because of religious Research Journal of Chemical Sciences _______________________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X Vol. 3(12), 86-91, December (2014) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 89 beliefs), 4.8% declared that they only sort the paper and newspapers and 6% declared that they only sort the glass and rubber. Figure-3 Contractors and administrators commitment percentage toward, sorting from source plan As its presented in figure-3, 45.2% of respondents has evaluated the proper implementation of contractors in average level, 35% in high level and 17.2% in low level. In case of question regarding the free distribution of blue bags which are designed specifically for collecting solid wastes and also receiving ticket, detergents and money in return of solid wastes, some of respondents declared they have no information which shows the activity of jobbers and opportunist people and more supervision is needed in this case. Figure-4 Satisfaction percentage of residents toward mechanized wastes collecting system and storages As it’s presented in figure-4, the satisfaction level of residents toward mechanized collecting system and storages is: 42% unsatisfied, 12% completely satisfied and 42.6% partly satisfied. In question regarding the storages material: 43.1% of respondents vote for plastic storages, 29.5 for metal storages and 26.1% for other materials (aluminum for its low weight, steel for its water resistance and wash ability and caoutchoucfor its wash ability and its stability to get different colors).The reasons of low satisfaction of residents toward mechanized wastes collecting system are: traffic jam in time of storages loading, noises, low quality of storages’ material, inconsistency between storages volume and produced wastes in some regions, storages are not washed and long distance between storages and houses.Some reasons which result in satisfaction of residents are: the wastes are not accessible for mischievous animals and this prevents the spread of wastes in streets and will beautify the city, low weight, resistance against environmental conditions and the advantage of non-oxidize ability of plastic storages, coloring ability of metal storages, their resistance against impacts, fire and their durability and long life. Figure-5 Training percentage of residents in case of sorting from the source As it’s presented in figure No.5, 56.45% of respondents declared they had no training in case of sorting from the source and 41% declared they are trained. 51.6% of respondents were trained by public media, 19.1% by foundations, mosques and cultural centers, 15.9% by recycling bureau agents and 12.7% by schools. Regarding the residential texture of region 1, face to face training is not considered as a proper method. 71.5% of respondents consider the training content as simple and 23.8% as difficult and boring. The relation between awareness and familiarity of people from “sorting from source plan” and their participation in collecting and sortingthe solid wastes Research Journal of Chemical Sciences _______________________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X Vol. 3(12), 86-91, December (2014) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 90 Table-4 Relation between familiarity and awareness of people with participation People’s awareness and familiarity towards “sorting from source plan” Residents’ participation in collecting and sorting of the solid wastesPearson Correlation 128/0(*) Sig. (2-tailed) 013/0 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) Table No.4 presents the results of Pierson Test, regarding the amount of Pierson Test (0.128) and significance level (sig= 0.013) and with accepting the errors less than 0.05 and reliability degree of more than 0.95 we can say there is a significant relation between awareness and familiarity of people from “sorting from source plan” and their participation in collecting and sorting of the solid wastes. The relation between the proper implementation of commitments by administrators and people’s participation in collecting and sorting the solid wastes. Table-5 Relation between proper implementation of commitments and people’s participation proper implementationof commitments by administrators people’s participation in collecting and sorting the solid wastesPearson Correlation 107/0(*) Sig. (2-tailed) 041/0 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) Table 5 presents the results of Pierson Test, regarding the amount of Pierson Test (0.107) and significance level (sig= 0.041) and with accepting the errors less than 0.05 and reliability degree of more than 0.95 we can say there is a significant relation betweenthe proper implementation of commitments by administrators and people’s participation in collecting and sorting the wastes. It means we don’t accept and reject the null hypothesis (H0) which shows no relation.so we can say the proper and in time implementation of contractors’ commitments has direct effect on participation level of residents. The relation between the residents’ satisfaction toward wastes collecting system and their participation in collecting and sorting the solid wastes Table-6 Relation between satisfaction level of residents and their participation residents’ satisfaction toward wastes collecting system Residents’ participation in collecting and sorting the wastesPearson Correlation 129/0(*) Sig. (2-tailed) 014/0 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) Table-6 presents the results of Pierson Test, regarding the amount of Pierson Test (0.129) and significance level (sig= 0.014) and with accepting the errors less than 0.05 and reliability degree of more than 0.95 we can say there is a significant relation betweentheresidents’ satisfaction toward wastes collecting system and their participation in collecting and sorting the solid wastes, It means we don’t accept and reject the null hypothesis (H0) which shows no relation. So we can say residents’ satisfaction level toward wastes collecting system effects on their participation in collecting and sorting the solid wastes. The relation between the training the sorting from the source and people’s participation in collecting and sorting the solid wastes Table-7 Relation between training and people’s participation Residents’ participation in collecting and sorting the wastes Have you ever been trained in case of sorting the wastes from the source? yes no total low 19 19 38 1/12% 1/9% 4/10% average 77 138 215 49% 3/66% 9/8% high 61 51 112 9/38% 5/24% 7/30% total 157 208 365 100% 100% 100% Chi-Square = 29411, Sig =004/0 ,Cramer's V = 276/0 DF = 2 Based on results of table-7, amount of X2 Test is 11.294 and regarding the degree of freedom (df=2), and accepting the errors less than 0.01 (sig=0.004) and reliability degree more than 0.99 we can say there is a significant relation betweenthe residents’ training in case of sorting from the source and their participation Research Journal of Chemical Sciences _______________________________________________________ ISSN 2231-606X Vol. 3(12), 86-91, December (2014) Int. Res. J. Biological Sci. International Science Congress Association 91 in collecting and sorting the wastes, It means we don’t accept and reject the null hypothesis (H0) which shows no relation. It must be mentioned that regarding the calculated amount of Kramer test, the correlation intensity between two variables is in average level. So we can say the residents’ training in case of sorting from the source directly effects on their participation and cultivation. Discussion: In a research by Sarhadi & najafi entitled as “project of surveying the residents about the performance of mechanized waste collecting system in Tehran city”, the final results showed the 93% satisfaction of residents toward the implementation of mechanized waste collecting system, 77% of residents’ cooperation in proper implementation of this system and 70-80% of municipality success in achieving its objectives in this plan. In another research by Darvish & Falahi entitled as “awareness and importance of wastes sorting and preserving the natural environment” (case study on 22 regions of Tehran municipality), the results showed that regions 9,10 and 19 have less awareness toward the natural environment and regions 7,10 and 22 care the least about the natural environment. Findings of this research as its presented in table 4 to 7 proves the previous hypothesis of this research about the significance of awareness and familiarity, proper implementation of commitments by contractors, satisfaction level of residents toward the mechanized collecting system and storages and also the relation between the training and participation and cooperation of residents.Public media has an important and effective role in training and familiarizing people with “sorting from source plan”. Selection of contractors in this field has not been based on survey and evaluating their background, as a result, the performance of active contractors in implementing this plan is not satisfying and problems caused by their improper performance is covered by municipality personnel in regions. Before implementing the mechanized wastes collecting plan in region, more researches in field of variety of population and geographical condition of towns could be performed, for example, vehicles can hardly cross the narrow alleys, their dredging is not considered and placement of the storages is not based on each building and based on scientific method. The trainings in case of “sorting from source plan” are not sufficient and regarding the cultural and residential texture of region, face to face trainingis not considered as a proper method. Also some other residents declared that they are familiar with “sorting from source plan” through their travels to European and American countries and some other people are informed through websites. ConclusionThis point is very important that awareness and familiarity of people is not solely causing public participation and we can be ensured from implementation of wastes management law by simultaneous and synchronous use of “training and cultivating”, “acting according to law”, “using best technologies and updating them” in field of wastes management. Regarding aforementioned points below suggestion are offered: Placing placards and announcements in regions in order to inform residents about “sorting from source plan” which will cause better cooperation of people with trainers and recycling bureau agents and prevents the activity of illegal agents and jobbers. Persuading and encouraging the private organizations, communities, city and rural councils, schools and universities, group programs of women, youths and interested people etc. to cooperate with local administrators, municipalities and natural environment bureau to attract the society’s support for recycling the wastes through group and integrated activities.Placement of solid wastes storages regarding the texture and amount of commercial, educational and residential places. Reducing the intervals of manual collecting in regions and prevent the activity of illegal agents and waste pickers. Including the educational content in textbooks about recycling or holding the extracurricular programs in schools.Determining a day as “recycling day” as a symbolic movement in country. Establishing the recycle market and trading the recycle able products. Presenting the figures and statistics about the importance of wastes problem and recycling in order to create persuading motivations in society for more participation of people. References 1.Abdoli M.A. and Monavari M., Environmental impact assessment of landfills (case study Andimeshk). Environmental and science technology, 11, 503-513 (2009)2.Behjati A. and Haeripour S., Study of women’s participation in solid waste management using AHP method at Tonekabon, proceeding of sixth international congress on the solid waste management, Mashhad, Iran, 1 (2012)3.Falahigilan R. and Darvish A., Knowledge and importance of sorting the waste and protecting the environment, proceeding of fifth national congress on the environmental engineering, Tehran, Iran, 1 (2011)4.Hassani A. and Monavari M., Survey of sorting the waste in the origin (in accordance with technical norms) from economic of environment point of view, Environment and science technology,11, 117-126 (2009)5.Najafishalmaei. 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