Elva valla elanike teadlikkus jäätmetest

Käesolevas töös uuriti Elva valla elanikke teadlikkust jäätmete liigiti kogumisel. Töö raames koostati küsitlus, millele said vastata Elva valla elanikud. Küsimused olid püstitatud selliselt, et saaks vastused järgnevale: kas elanike meelest on oluline jäätmeid sortida, kui paljud seda teevad ning millised probleemid jäätmeid liigiti kogudes kaasnevad, kas vald on piisavalt omalt poolt teinud elanike jaoks, et jäätmete sortimine oleks mugav ja arusaadav. Samuti sai vastuste põhjal järeldada milline osa elanikest oskavad jäätmeid sortida ja kui paljudel tekitab see probleeme. Küsitluses osales kokku 275 Elva valla elanikku. Kokku elab vallas veidi üle 14 000 elaniku. Seega ei saanud selle töö tulemusena teada kõikide elanike käitumisharjumusi, kuid vastuste põhjal, mis laekusid, oli võimalik siiski kokkuvõte teha ja anda teavet kuidas 5% elanikkonnast jäätmetega majandamisel käitub. Lisaks tasub märkida seda, et sellist küsitlust varasemalt ei ole Elva vallas läbi viidud, mis tähendab, et varasemad andmed elanike käitumisharjumuste kohta puuduvad. Uuringust selgus, 91% vastajatest on arvamusel, et jäätmete sortimine on siiski vajalik ning oma majapidamises tekkinud jäätmeid sordib 72% elanikest. Sellised numbrid on positiivsed, sest see näitab, et inimesed, kes küsitluses osalesid, hoolivad keskkonnast ja koguvad liigiti oma jäätmeid. Loomulikult oli puudusi, mis elanike meelest vajaksid lahendamist. Enim tekitasid elanike seas probleeme pakendikonteinerid. Küsitluses osalenud elanike sõnul ei ole võimalik nendesse mahutitesse jäätmeid paigutada, sest need on ületäitunud. Kui küsitluses väljatoodud probleemid lahendada, siis võib eeldada, et ka teised, kes on seda harva teinud või üldse mitte, hakkavad jäätmeid sortima. Töö käigus selgus, et vastajad peavad oluliseks edaspidi saada informatsiooni ning sellega seoses oma teadmisi jäätmete valdkonnas tõsta. Läbi selle on võimalus suunata üha uusi elanikke jäätmeid sortima, sest inimesed, kes seda teevad on võimelised jagama õiget teavet neile, kes seda veel ei tee või on teinud seda valesti. Vallal on kindlasti arenguruumi, kuid siiani on loodud nende poolt palju võimalusi elanikele jäätmete sortimise vallas. Edasi peaks mõtlema sellele kuidas veel rohkem inimesi jäätmeid panna sortima ning rohkem propageerima selle olulisust elanike seas. Töö tulemused põhinevad küll viiel protsendil vastajate vastustel, kuid nende põhjal on võimaliksiiski näha olulisemaid probleeme, milleks olid pakendijäätmete konteinerite ületäituvus ning elanike vähene teadlikkus jäätmete sortimise olulisusest ning jäätmepunktide asukohtadest. Suuri probleeme tekitas inimeste teadmatus kuhu saab ära anda ohtlikuid jäätmeid. Inimeste teadlikkuse tõstmiseks peaks neid rohkem julgustama abi küsima ning suunama neid valla kodulehele. Pakendijäätmete mahutite ületäitumise probleemi lahenduseks oleks jälgida probleemseid kohti ning korraldada nende mahutie vedu ümber. Elanike teadlikkust, jäätmete liigiti kogumise kohta, saab tõsta, kui korraldada erinevaid infopäevi ja jagada teavet kohalikus lehes ning valla mobiilirakenduses. Tulevikus võib töö olla aluseks mõnele teisele sarnasele koostatavale uuringule. Tulemusi on võimalik vallal jagada, et vastajad saaksid soovi korral tutvuda uuringu tulemustega ning järeldustega.

The given thesis reflects the research done about how the residents of Elva parish recycle their waste. During the research there was made a questionnaire that was sent to residents of Elva. The questions were built up so the author could get the answers to the following questions: is it important for residents of Elva to recycle their waste, how many of the residents recycle their waste and what problems may accompany with collecting your waste into different categories, has the local government done enough towards making it as convenient and as clear as possible for people to collect their waste into different categories. The conclusion about who among the people know how to sort their waste and how many people have some problems with it, could be made also. In the questionnaire there were 275 participants altogether. In Elva parish there lives a little over 14 000 residents overall. Therefore, this research didn’t give data about all of the inhabitants’ habits of the parish, but from the answers that were gathered, it was still possible to make some conclusions about how this 5% of the residents deal with their waste. It can also be brought up that this kind of questionnaire has never been done before in Elva, therefore there is no previous data about the residents’ waste sorting habits. From the research it came to surface that 91% of respondents find it necessary to sort their waste into categories, and 72% of the residents do sort their waste. This kind of data is positive because it shows that the respondents care about the environment and sort their waste into categories. Of course, there are problems, according to the residents, that would need to be solved. The biggest problems rose among the residents regarding packaging containers. According to respondents, it is not possible to fit packages into these containers since they are overflown with packaging waste. If these kinds of problems could be solved, it can be assumed that even those who do it rarely or do not do it at all, will start to recycle their waste. During the research it came out that the respondents consider that as important to get information in the future about waste and recycling in general and to improve their knowledge regarding to that topic. Through that it is possible to guide more and more people to start to recycle their waste, because those people who do recycle already would be able to spread the correct information about it to people who don’t recycle or who have been doing it wrongly. The local government certainly does have some development space, but until now there have been a lot of opportunities given by them regarding to recycling. Now the attention should be focused on how to get more people to sort their waste into categories and to promote its importance among people. Although the research outcome is based on the 5% of Elva’s citizens’ responses, it is still possible to see the main problems, which were overflowing of the packaging containers, too little knowledge among citizens about waste sorting importance and the locations of the recycling points. One of the main issue was about people’s ignorance about where to put their hazardous waste. To raise people’s awareness, the people should be encouraged more to ask for the information and to guide them to local government’s webpage. The solution for packaging waste containers’ overflowing would be to control the containers and their status more and re-organize the logistics of emptying these containers. People’s knowledge about recycling can be rose if there would be more info-days and if the information could be spread more via the local newspaper and on the local government’s mobile application. In the future this thesis could be the base for some other research like this. The outcome of the research can be spread by the local government of Elva so that the respondents could get to know the outcome and conclusions of this research.