Rafia Afroz

Review of air pollution and health impacts in Malaysia

In the early days of abundant resources and minimal development pressures, little attention was paid to growing environmental concerns in Malaysia. The haze episodes in Southeast Asia in 1983, 1984, 1991, 1994, and 1997 imposed threats to the environmental management of Malaysia and increased awareness of the environment. As a consequence, the government established Malaysian Air Quality Guidelines, the Air Pollution Index, and the Haze Action Plan to improve air quality. Air quality monitoring is part of the initial strategy in the pollution prevention program in Malaysia. Review of air pollution in Malaysia is based on the reports of the air quality monitoring in several large cities in Malaysia, which cover air pollutants such as Carbon monoxide (CO), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3), and Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM). The results of the monitoring indicate that Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) are the predominant pollutants. Other pollutants such as CO, O(x), SO2, and Pb are also observed in several big cities in Malaysia. The air pollution comes mainly from land transportation, industrial emissions, and open burning sources. Among them, land transportation contributes the most to air pollution. This paper reviews the results of the ambient air quality monitoring and studies related to air pollution and health impacts.

WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT IN DHAKA CITY, BANGLADESH

We employed the contingent valuation method to estimate the willingness to pay of the respondents to improve the waste collection system in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Our objective was to estimate how WTP differs between respondents who received or did not receive door to door waste collection. The methodology consisted of asking people directly about their willingness to pay an additional waste collection service charge to cover the costs of a new waste management project. The mean value of WTP for areas that received waste collection service areas was higher than for residents of areas that did not but the difference was not statistically significant. The aggregate value of WTP of the respondents in Dhaka city was 7.6 million Taka (USD0.1 million).

Using a contingent valuation approach for improved solid waste management facility: Evidence from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This study employed contingent valuation method to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of the households to improve the waste collection system in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The objective of this study is to evaluate how household WTP changes when recycling and waste separation at source is made mandatory. The methodology consisted of asking people directly about their WTP for an additional waste collection service charge to cover the costs of a new waste management project. The new waste management project consisted of two versions: version A (recycling and waste separation is mandatory) and version B (recycling and waste separation is not mandatory). The households declined their WTP for version A when they were asked to separate the waste at source although all the facilities would be given to them for waste separation. The result of this study indicates that the households were not conscious about the benefits of recycling and waste separation. Concerted efforts should be taken to raise environmental consciousness of the households through education and more publicity regarding waste separation, reducing and recycling.

Factors affecting waste generation: a study in a waste management program in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Information on waste generation, socioeconomic characteristics, and willingness of the households to separate waste was obtained from interviews with 402 respondents in Dhaka city. Ordinary least square regression was used to determine the dominant factors that might influence the waste generation of the households. The results showed that the waste generation of the households in Dhaka city was significantly affected by household size, income, concern about the environment, and willingness to separate the waste. These factors are necessary to effectively improve waste management, growth and performance, as well as to reduce the environmental degradation of the household waste.

A survey of recycling behaviour in households in Dhaka, Bangladesh

This paper examines the factors that might influence recycling behaviour of the households in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Information on recycling activity, socio-economic characteristics, and attitudes of the households towards recycling were obtained from interviews with 456 households in Dhaka. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the dominant factors that might influence the recycling behaviour of the households. The results showed that environmental consciousness, the availability of storage space, and age (25—35 years) are significant positive predictors of recycling behaviour (at the 1% level). Another variable Income 2 (TK3,000—15,000) is also positively correlated with recycling (at the 5% level). Establishment of a recycling programme could be an effective strategy in implementing sustainable waste management in Bangladesh. For this strategy to succeed, however, active partnership between households and the waste management service department is required. The households’ attitudes toward recycling should, therefore, be taken into consideration as should the results of this study, which are important indicators of households’ positive attitudes toward sustainable waste management in Dhaka.

Pro-environmental behavior and public understanding of climate change

The aim of this article is to examine whether awareness, knowledge and risk perception of climate change have significant influence on attitudes and pro-environmental behaviour. The study found that awareness, knowledge and risk perception of climate change positively influence the formation of favourable attitudes future action climate change. In addition, this paper also found mediated relationship through attitudes between awareness, knowledge, risk perception and pro-environmental behaviour. The paper argues that people are more likely to accept pro-environmental behaviours only if they have sufficient understanding of the adverse impacts of no action. This study offers decision makers field data to formulate relevant environmental policies and strategies in Malaysia.

Selected socio-economic factors affecting the willingness to minimise solid waste in Dhaka city, Bangladesh

This paper examines the factors that influence the waste generation and willingness to minimise solid waste in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Information on waste generation, willingness to minimise, socio-economic characteristics, and behaviour of the households towards solid waste management were obtained from interviews with 402 households in Dhaka city. Of these, 103 households regularly practised recycling activities. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression and logistic regression analysis were used to determine the dominant factors that might influence the waste generation and households’ willingness to minimise solid waste, respectively. The results found that the waste generation of the households in Dhaka city was significantly affected by environmental consciousness, income groups, particularly the middle-income earners, and willingness to separate. The significant factors for willingness to minimise solid waste were environmental consciousness, income groups particularly the middle-income earners, young adults mainly those aged between 25 to 35 years and storage facility. Establishment of a solid waste management programme could be an effective strategy for implementing sustainable waste management in Bangladesh. For this strategy to succeed, however, active partnership between the respondents and waste management service department is required. The respondents’ behaviour toward solid waste management practices should be taken into consideration, as should the results of this study, which are important indicators of respondents’ positive attitudes toward sustainable waste management in Dhaka city.

Consumer purchase intention towards environmentally friendly vehicles: an empirical investigation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This paper examines whether attitudes towards electric vehicles (ATEVs), subjective norms (SNs) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) have significant associations with consumer purchase intention (PI) and the purchase behaviour of environmentally friendly vehicles (EFVs). The results from the survey questionnaires are analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings of this paper indicate that ATEV, SN and PBC significantly influence PI. This finding also indicates that environmental consequence and individual preferences do not influence the PI of the respondents. We found that Malaysian car owners are largely unaware of the greenhouse effects on the environment or attach to it little importance, which is reflected in their PI towards EFVs. The outcomes of this study could help policymakers design programmes to influence attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and purchase behaviour to prevent further air pollution and reduce CO2 emissions from the transportation sector.

How individual values and attitude influence consumers’ purchase intention of electric vehicles—some insights from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This article observes how the individual values and attitudes of consumers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia influence their purchase intention of electric vehicles (EVs) using the well-known theory of reasoned action (TRA). This study analyzed the data collected from 200 respondents from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. These respondents were asked about their views concerning their value sets, attitudes and purchase intention of EV using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. Findings of this study indicate that individual consequences relating to cost and convenience of consumers is negatively related to intention to purchase EVs. Environmental consequences are not a significant predictor of purchase intention. Conservation value was found to be positively related to the attitude of the respondents on environmental consequences but less intensely with individual consequences, while both self-transcendence value and self-enhancement value were positively related to individual consequences. Individual consequences and self-enhancement values were negatively related to environmentally responsible purchase intention. This article shows that the extended TRA might be applicable to the Malaysian context. The results of the study also suggest that domestic and foreign manufacturers of EVs should also take into consideration the perceptible easiness and convenience of users to recycle and reuse battery by using special materials that are recyclable and not harmful to the users.

Household’s perception of water pollution and its economic impact on human health in Malaysia

Environmental problems are a major global concern. In this global problem, water pollution is perhaps one of the more threatening causes of environmental problems. Water pollution significantly affects public health. Hence, this paper investigates household risk perception of water pollution and examines the demographic and socio-economic factors that influence their risk perception. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed by SPSS. The findings indicate that gender, age, education, income, AWN and ATT significantly affect household risk perception of water pollution. Upon discussing the water resource policies in Malaysia, we offer recommendations that will be helpful for policy-makers to improve river water quality in Malaysia.