Impact of Residents' Demographics on Their Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices towards Waste Management at the Household Level in the United Arab Emirates

Sustainability in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a critical issue due to the steady rises in population and regional economic growth. Therefore, an urgent need arises each passing time on ensuring efficient resource utilization and waste management in all sectors; industrial, agricultural, and residential. In the residential sector, residents' greenness with a focus on their waste-management knowledge and practices could be impacted by their socio-demographics such as age, gender, educational level, and income. Several studies investigated this impact but reported varying outcomes about its degree. Therefore, this work aims to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) of UAE residents towards waste management in their households and how impacted their KAPs are by their demographics. For this goal, a questionnaire was distributed among 400 UAE residents of different genders, ages, and educational levels, and the collected responses were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed using ANOVA and the t-test. The results showed that the sampled UAE residents were fairly knowledgeable about the three Rs of waste management (reduce, reuse, and recycle) and the impact of waste management on the environment. They were also fairly aware of the impact of their consumption style on waste generation. The results also showed that around two thirds of the residents believed that segregating waste and reducing its generation are their main roles in waste management. Furthermore, one third of the residents considered the lack of environmental awareness among the public as the most common reason for inefficient waste management at the household level, followed by the lack of infrastructure. Regarding the most effective motivator for the residents to manage waste in their households, one third of the participants chose economic incentives, while ethical motivations and awareness campaigns were the second choices. Surprisingly, only 15% of the residents believed that governmental regulations and enforcement would be effective to improve residents' waste management attitudes and practices. Finally, the results showed that the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of UAE residents were influenced to varying degrees by their age, gender, and educational level. These outcomes may provide insight into how the UAE government can address underlying challenges toward efficient waste management at the household level.