The driving factor for raising urban community awareness in waste management, to reduce waste during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Solid waste management is a complex issue, and this was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Several challenges related to this issue emerged because of the pandemic, during which countries with limited resources heavily relied on community participation. This study investigates the factors that contribute to the collective action of urban communities in waste management as a solution to raising awareness. This study adopted a quantitative method that incorporated four independent variables and one dependent variable with a 4-point Likert scale questionnaire. The data were collected through a survey using a purposive sampling method. The data collected are proportional because there is no sampling frame in this study. An analysis of the 200 samples collected in Jakarta reveals that community participation, social norms, social influence, and socioeconomic status impact collective action. However, the result from an ordinal regression analysis only shows community participation and social influence as significant variables with corresponding odds ratios of .263/.379 and .053/.168 for every one-unit increase. This study concludes that higher community participation and social influence will likely affect people’s collective action in waste management. Policies and programs incorporating community participation and social influence can be implemented based on the findings to tackle waste management awareness issues.

Keywords

• awareness
• covid-19
• collective action
• urban communities
• waste management