- 會議論文
- OpenAccess
- Ahead-of-Print
Assessing plastic waste management literacy among villagers with low literacy level in rural, ethnic minority context
摘要
Background Solid waste management is a global health issue in rural settings. Literature related to waste management literacy in China is scarce. Nationally promulgated documents do not address enough on waste issues. Only one of the 66 basic health literacy concepts for Chinese citizens addressed environment and health whereas another document published by Ministry of Environmental Protection included one concept (out of 30) on waste management. As illiteracy is common among ethnic minorities in rural communities, the administration of the conventional health literacy tools (e.g. REALM, Newest Vital Signs) is not practicable. The continuum of environmental literacy may, instead, frame the variation of villagers' perceptions and understanding of plastic waste management practices. Methods Household-based longitudinal surveys (at baseline, 1-week after and 7- month after) were conducted between February and October 2017 in traditional Bapa village in rural Guizhou, China. Dong ethnic-group households were randomly selected and followed up at subsequent surveys. Designed with the persuasive health message framework, survey questions targeted localised issues concerning burning, and separate collection of plastic waste. Assuming individuals may continually develop their waste management literacy, four competencies of environmental literacy (i.e. awareness, concern, understanding and action) were referenced. Survey questions were re-classified accordingly for the first three components whereas ＂action＂ was measured by perceived behavioural intention and observable behaviour (i.e. net weight of plastic waste in designated collection bin). For data analysis, Friedman test with pairwise comparisons were used to test for differences at different time points. Results Of 70 participating households (24.6% of all households), 68 were followed up (97.1%) and analysed. Three quarters (76.5%) of participants were illiterate. Regarding ＂awareness＂, statistical significances were noted in the villagers' fear of adverse effects of plastic burning for themselves (p=0.0001) and their families (p=0.0001). Significance was also noted for the ＂concern＂ component where villagers felt worried (p=0.018), perceived the harms of burning (p=0.039), and threats to health (p=0.001). Villagers intended to start separate collection of plastic waste (p=0.001) and selling of recyclables (p=0.0001) in the following month. To validate the competency results, ＂action＂ behaviour was also observed in terms of actual separate collection of plastic waste in the collection bin in the short- and longer-term follow-up. Discussion This study attempted to assess preliminarily plastic waste management literacy among ethnic villagers with limited literacy level. Measuring specific literacy competencies under the environmental literacy framework is feasible and shows potential. Further analyses and research are important and warranted.