The household garbage in the
western coast region of Turkey
and its relationship with the socio-economic characterstics
G. Atasoylu*1, E. D. Evci1,
E. Kaya2, F. Ergin1
, D. Tikir2 and E.
Beser1
1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Adnan Menderes University,
Aydin-09100, Turkey
2Municipality of Aydin, Directory of
Scavenging Service, Aydin-09100, Turkey
(Received:
November 24, 2005 ; Revised received: April 25, 2006 ; Accepted: June 10, 2005)
Abstract: The aim of this study is to detect the
daily amount of household garbage generated from districts within the limits of
municipality of Aydin, the
amount and contents of recyclable materials and to evaluate the effect of
socioeconomic state. In this cross sectional survey, garbage was collected for
one day from all of the districts, weighed both totally and after separation
into groups. The districts were assessed according to literacy, drinking water
sources and toilet indexes. For each district, three indexes were calculated
viz. literacy, water and sewage index. Points between 1-3 were given and by
adding points of each index, socioeconomic development (SED) score was
calculated for each district. The daily amount of garbage produced was 0.91 ?
0.74 kg/person and recyclable material was 0.08 ? 0.13 kg/person (6.4%). A
significant corelation was found between SED point
and amount of recyclable materials (p<0.05). There was a positive, strong
and significant correlation between workplaces in the districts and recyclable
garbage (r = 0.597, p<0.05). In further analysis, number of workplaces
increased the daily amount of garbage by 9.9 times (p<0.001; 95% confidence
Interval : 4.538-15.189), whereas population 0.6 times (p<0.05; 95%
confidence interval : 0.407-0.708).
Key words: Household garbage, Solid waste,
Recycling, Environmental health
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