According to Figure 1, the largest number of stored used equipment was obtained for cell phone, with a 17% proportion.
According to Figure 2, the refrigerator has the highest amount of used equipment with a proportion of 18%.
In sum, the overall WEEE value in the houses of Yazd citizens was 14 million euros. Regarding scores on knowledge items, individuals attained a mean score of 5.06 ± 2.05 (minimum and maximum scores attained by the individuals 0 and 10, respectively) and a score level of 38.92%, which was moderate. In general, 40% of the people had poor knowledge, 54% had a moderate level of knowledge, and 6% had good knowledge. In the attitude section, individuals attained an average score of 43.37 ± 5.21 (minimum and maximum scores attained by the individuals 22 and 58, respectively) and a score level of 72.28%, which is desirable. In other words, 21% of the people had a moderate attitude and 79% had a good attitude. In the practice section, the individuals attained a mean score of 10.71 ± 2.95 (maximum and minimum score attained by the participants 20 and 3, respectively) and a score level of 51%, which is moderate, with 12.3% people having poor practice, 75% moderate practice, and 12.7% good practice.
In addition, based on Spearman's correlation test, there was a positive correlation between the level of knowledge and attitude (r = 0.382) and practice (r = 0.228) of people. Based on the findings of this study, the level of knowledge (p = 0.043) and attitude (p = 0.001) in the age group of 36-57 years was significantly higher than others, while the age group of 58-75 years had the most practice level (p = 0.00). There was no statistically significant relationship between gender and knowledge (p = 0.555), attitude (p = 0.178), and practice (p = 0.179). There was not a significant relationship between marital status and knowledge (p = 0.159), but marital status was significantly associated with attitude and practice (p = 0.007, p = 0.037, respectively), so that the marrieds attained the highest score. There was a statistically significant relationship between occupation and knowledge level (p = 0.012), so that clerks and students had the highest and lowest levels of knowledge, respectively, while this variable was not statistically correlated with attitude and practice of individuals (p = 0.232 and 0.518, respectively). There was a significant relationship between the level of education of people and their knowledge level (p = 0.001) and attitude (p = 0.007), so that people with master's degree and higher degrees and those with education level under high school diploma had the highest and lowest levels of knowledge, respectively, and the people with master's degree and higher degrees and illiterate people had the highest and lowest levels of attitude, respectively. There was also a significant relationship between household economic status and attitude (p = 0.036), so that people with a good economic situation had the highest attitude, but the association of household economic status with knowledge (p = 0.144) and practice (p = 0.278) was not statistically significant.
Discussion
The aim of this study was to determine the amount of WEEE stored in the residential houses in Yazd and the level of KAP of Yazd citizens regarding WEEE management. Based on the results, the total weight of WEEEs stored in Yazd citizens' houses was 11470 metric tons. The main reason for this finding is storage of WEEE within a few years. In 2009, the WEEE collected in Romania
20 was 38,700 metric tons and in Italy
20, the amount of waste collected was 65,000 metric tons in 2008, and the amount of waste generated in 2011 in Ahvaz, Iran
18 has been estimated at 9552.25 metric tons.
Cell phone
Today, with the advent of technology and the production of various and interesting cell phones and, on the other hand, its short lifespan, author the consumption access of this product and there upon lead high production of its waste. The broken-down cell phones number in Yazd was 149,851 unit, while in Alavi's study
18 in Ahvaz, 250,000 disabled cell mobile were predicted for 2011, and in Rahmani's study
8 , the number of cell phones for Iran in 2014 was estimated at 39 million units and in Kim's study
21 in South Korea in 2010, there was 17 million units obsolete cell phone. The share of used cell phones used per one individual in the houses was 28.27 gr. In the study of Alavi
18, the share of used cell phone per one individual was 25 gr in Ahvaz. The reason for the high amount of this type of waste is the use of the majority of family members, which, due to their short life, increases the use of cell phones that people tend to maintain for various reasons, including maintaining personal information.
Computer
Computers are used by people for ease and accuracy in doing things for a variety of applications, such as: training, business, and entertainment, and after the end of their useful life, they are out of stock and some of their users will store them at home, and the amount of broken-down computers stored in this study was 1,400 metric tons. In the study of Steubing
22 in Chile, the amount of this waste was estimated at 10 and 20 kilotons for 2010 and 2020, respectively.
Fixed-line telephone
The amount of used Fixed-line telephones in Ahvaz
18 has been estimated at 10 metric tons for 2011, while in the present study the amount of this type of waste was 15.6 metric tons. The reason of the high amount of storage is the use of a high number of telephones at home.
Household appliances
One of the major sources of WEEE are household appliances. In this study, household appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, washing machines, and microwaves were studied. Information on the number and amount of these wastes is shown in Table 1. According to Table 1, the refrigerator, followed by air conditioners, accounts for the highest amount of stored WEEE due to its high volume and weight, while in Alavi's study
18, according to the prediction model, the highest WEEE production was related to air conditioner and refrigerator. Most numbers in WEEE stored was radio and tape recorders, and followed by TVs.
Battery
In any house, the number of batteries is high due to the use of remote controls for audio and video equipment, watches, and different types of toy. Alavi
18 estimated the production of worn-out batteries to be 147 metric tons in 2011, while Yazd citizens stored 45.3 metric tons batteries in their houses. This low amount is likely to be due to battery high excrete, and being collected along with MSW and then transferred to the landfill.
Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP)
According to the results, the level of knowledge increased with increasing levels of education, which emphasizes the importance of training and raising the level of knowledge of individuals through educational programs. There was a significant relationship between occupation and knowledge level and the highest level of knowledge was obtained for clerks, which could be due to information interaction between them. The attitude was evaluated as positive in this study, so that 79% of the people had a good attitude and the clerks and the housewives had the highest attitude.
The practice of over half of the citizens in our study was moderate so that the workers and self-employed people had the highest and lowest practice, respectively, and most likely, this high practice score is due to the fact that workers, given their economic status, use the broken-down electronic and electrical equipment after repair, and provide second-hand goods for their houses. However, there was no significant relationship between the practice of individuals and their occupations. In this study, 36.7% of the samples reported that they discarded their electronic wastes as waste, but in the study of Ghorbanpor
4 in the field of electronic waste management, 16.3% of companies said that computers were themselves waste. The high percentage of the study is due to the high number of study samples and the number of wastes. Rahmani et al.
8 concluded in their study that 47.1% of Iranians use a cell phone for up to two years, but in the present study, only 15% of Yazd citizens use a cell phone for a shorter time, representing the good condition of Yazd city relative to the whole country. It is noteworthy that in some cases, practice was not consistent with the degree of knowledge of individuals, including the method of disposal of low-energy bulbs due to lack of collection program for this type of waste.
In this study, attitude and practice of married were significantly higher than those of single
ones, while the levels of knowledge, attitude,
and practice in the men and women were almost equal.
Conclusion
Given the high amount of waste stored in the households of Yazd citizens, it can be concluded that they have stored a high amount of WEEE, and this amount has been stored for several years, and the Waste Organization can inform the people and create certain locations in the city to collect the WEEE and to pay money or discount voucher for these types of wastes, according to their amount, for purchase of household appliances. In addition, given the low level of knowledge and practice of citizens in the management of WEEE and, on the other hand, the threats to human and environmental health, it seems that a training program through mass media, manufacturing companies, and suppliers can be of great help in raising the knowledge and practice of the people, because knowledge about the proper use of electronic and electrical equipment trepan increase the useful life of the products and consequently reduces the production of this type of waste.
Acknowledgments
This article was outcome of Thesis of Master of Science in the Environmental Health Engineering of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. Hereby appreciate the support of Department of Environmental Health Engineering for helping us in carry out this research by valuable guidance.
Funding
The work was unfunded.
Conflict of interest
We have no competing interests.
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use.
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