Adoption of Solid Waste Management (SWM) Practices: Empirical Study of Households in Meerut City, UP, India

This paper focused on the importance and correlation of different ‘Solid Waste Management (SWM)‘ practices as adopted by the households in Meerut City, UP. The research design is exploratory in the first stage and for ascertaining the key variables the research design was descriptive. The sample unit was the females' residents of Meerut City with valid responses of 250. Tabulation, Cross Tabulation & Descriptive Statistics were utilized to demonstrate the information and 'Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis' were processed to derive the results. The output of statistical package revealed that most of the females were quite young with masters' degree and income around forty thousand per month who were prominently adopting the various SWM practices at their homes. This adoption had strong relationship with other relevant practices, out of which most important were ‘Concern while disposing the waste at proper place. Glass, ceramic, needles etc to be disposed separately’, ‘Recycling the products as much as possible’ and ‘Segregation - use of biodegradable waste for plants and animals. The study was practically viable being ‘Solid Waste Management’ practices are the most demandable in current times and every social element was instrumental in managing the same. A household at a grass root level used to contribute a lot towards the same by adopting various practices. The study holds value because of the severe consciousness of entire world towards the environmental and resource conservation issues. The study is original as well being data was obtained from 250 households of Meerut City.