PUBLIC AWRENES AND HAUSHOLD SEPARATE WASTE COLLECTION: A CASE STUDY IN MACEDONIA

Separate waste collection is an important element of sustainable waste management. Separate waste collection provides the preconditions for environmentally friendly performing of waste operations. This collection can significantly contribute to increase recycling and other types of waste recovery. It could enhance faster meeting of the national targets for recycling and handling with the problems caused by waste generation in Macedonia. Besides the numerous of attempts and pilot projects still there is not placed a developed system of household separate collection of different categories of waste. At the first place this involves the collection of plastics, glass, metal, wood, paper, cardboard, biodegradable waste and other waste categories. This situation contributes to the low level of waste recycling. There are many factors which could improve the household separate waste collection. One of the most important factors is strengthening of the public awareness and personal responsibility of the citizens. Increasing of public awareness will produce a base for the improvement of household separate waste collection. The measures and activities for establishing separate waste collection from the households should be more effective. The main goal of this paper is to research the relations between public awareness and household separate waste collection. Also papers aims to find the most effective communication channels for increasing awareness about the need of separate collection. Within the activities of the preparation of this paper a research was conducted with appropriate survey among 600 respondents. The paper also makes efforts to initiate further researching and to give some recommendations.