Appraisal of student’s awareness and practices on waste management and recycling in the Malaysian University’s student hostel area

Urbanization accompanied by mass consumption leads to tremendous waste generation, environmental pollution and public health issues. Tackling solid waste management issues addresses more than half of the sustainable development goals. Low awareness and participation of Malaysians in practicing waste segregation and recycling cause serious threats in managing solid waste. Thus, a new waste segregation program was introduced within university students’ hostel area to measure waste generation, composition and students’ attitude and practice toward waste segregation and recycling. The impact of segregation educational program was measured via survey questionnaires in conjunction with waste measurement and composition analysis. It was found that there was a reduction in waste generation by 24.8% from 0.165 to 0.124 kg/capita/day, reaching recycling rate of 25% and reduction of recyclables entering landfill by 62.6% from 0.091 to 0.034 kg/capita/day. The university students’ awareness increased to 75.3% after the program was implemented. Therefore, cooperation from various stakeholders, namely residents, housing management, educational institute, private waste collectors, local council, retailer, manufacturer and recyclers is utmost needed to grant success of the new waste segregation program.