Attitude of Residents Towards Improving Solid Waste Handling in Urban Cities

Management of sustainable solid waste MSW, it is how to deal with sustainable waste through services provided to the community and how to benefit from it as a product that affects the national income. which refers to the collection and treatment of solid waste before final disposal. The Mu-nicipal solid waste management in Dammam is based on generating and collecting MSW from different sources in Dammam, including individual and community bins. The main aim of this study was accessing the generation rate and composition of MSW in different income levels, evaluating the current MSW practice including knowledge, attitude, and satisfaction of residents toward the MSW management services in Dammam as a representative city of other large and important cities in Saudi Arabi. A multi-stage grouping method was used for dividing the population into three soci-oeconomic groups (high, middle- and low-class), and an equal number of participants was selected by a statistically simple random method. Collection of data was conducted by a pre-designed questionnaire for six months. Wood and garden waste represented the highest amounts (38.39 and 33.76 ton/year respectively), followed by Aluminum, paper and plastic (29.31, 28.53 and 27.29 ton/year respectively). Most of the solid waste collected from homes and community gathering places in Dammam is collected by collecting garbage and transporting it to private landfills, then the final stage is where it is buried by companies that fall under the responsibility of the Eastern Province Municipality, but it produces unpleasant odors whether in transportation or burial, which prompted the Saudi government to develop dealing with waste in a better way. Only 10-15% of the collected MSW is recycled including paper, metals, and plastics. Indeed, sorting and recycling sustainable waste has had a significant psychological impact on the community and the residents of Dammam are trying to understand how recycling can improve their income.