Assessing the public perception of islanders regarding the implementation of new technologies to optimize the municipal solid waste management system: A Mediterranean case study

One of the most important contemporary challenges for small islands is to make more sustainable human activities as the management of municipal solid waste (MSW). The recent EGADI project involved the realization of two pilot project actions in a small Mediterranean island of Southern Italy (Island of Favignana) with the goal to adapt the current MSW management system to the logic of the 3Rs approach (reduce, reuse & recycle). The actions concerned the installation of a water kiosk to reduce plastic waste production and a community composter to recover material from the organic fraction of MSW. Additionally, non-structural actions as a communication plan and an environmental education campaign were implemented with the intent of increasing public awareness on the addressed topics. In this context, the study was aimed to investigate the public perception and knowledge of islanders with reference to the two pilot actions before and after the implementation of such activities so as to provide guidance for optimizing the MSW management system of the island. A structured questionnaire was implemented and administered to the students of a secondary school and their parents before and after the implementation of the planned actions. The obtained data were processed by using descriptive statistics and Multiple Correspondent Analysis (MCA) in order to achieve a global view on the level of knowledge and public perception as well as to establish as a whole, the rate of satisfaction and the goodness of the project actions. The feedbacks on the implemented actions were critically discussed highlighting both positive and negative aspects. Some drawbacks were to be connected to the adopted communicative plan which resulted to be not so effective in reaching the target since its random character. Islanders perceived positively the new technologies implemented. The water kiosk was perceived positively if it only serves residents. Furthermore, islanders positively perceived the kerbside separate collection preferring at the same time the community composting as strategy for the management of the organic fraction, at least in the most densely populated areas. The social assessment that was conducted during the investigation provided guidance of the optimum MSW management system of the island.