Assessment of public awareness and opinions toward waste minimization through a survey in the Kingdom of Bahrain

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a country of relatively small size, with a high population density, and a rapidly growing economy. The increasing population is escalating the growth rate of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation. Sustainable management of MSW is an important mission for Bahrain’s policymakers, urban planners, and concerned municipalities due to the rising population, increase MSW generation rate per capita, and limited availability of land for waste disposal. A questionnaire-based survey of 300 respondents has been conducted to determine their understanding of the environmental mindset of the people living in Bahrain and their willingness to participate in waste minimisation strategies in the form of waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. In addition, this survey explored the differences between the educational level, gender, age, nationality, and social class of the participants regarding their level of public awareness and attitude toward MSW management practices. Only 62% of the respondents knew that MSW has been disposed to a landfill site in Bahrain. This relatively low rate indicates the requirements for educational and awareness programmes in Bahrain. 78% of the respondents believe that improvement of waste management is the responsibility of all individuals, communities, companies, and governments. An additional 10% also consider that it is the accountability of the individuals only. Therefore 88% of the respondents showed awareness of their own responsibilities in waste management. Different age groups and levels of education did not show any statistical differences in the willingness of applying waste minimization practices although education showed a strong correlation with the knowledge of the disposal of the generated MSW in Bahrain.