Diagnosing Household Recycling Barriers and Service Preferences Through SULAM-Based Community Engagement

Abstract

Household recycling performance depends not only on environmental attitudes but also on the accessibility and convenience of local collection systems. This study provides a community-level diagnostic of household recycling practices, perceived barriers, programme awareness, and service preferences in local community conducted through Service Learning Malaysia-University for Society (SULAM) project. A cross-sectional questionnaire was distributed through neighbourhood, community, event-based, and digital channels, yielding 83 completed responses from participants aged 18 years and above. Responses were analysed using frequencies, percentages, descriptive cross-tabulations, and thematic grouping of open-ended feedback. Daily source separation was reported by 15.7% of respondents, while limited access to recycling facilities was the most frequently reported barrier (47.0%). Doorstep/curbside collection was the preferred material handover mechanism (67.5%), while cash payments (55.4%) and e-wallet transfers (39.8%) were the most frequently selected reward formats. Social media was the preferred information channel (65.1%). The findings indicate that access, convenience, programme visibility, and incentive configuration are relevant service attributes in the study setting. The study contributes a community-informed diagnostic pathway that translates reported user feedback into preliminary requirements for subsequent waste-management and engineering interventions. Given the convenience sampling and cross-sectional design, the findings should be interpreted as a localized diagnostic baseline rather than population-level or causal evidence.