Environmental perceptions to define a tipology of environmental delinquency in the management of MSW

Resumen

In this paper, we present the prototype of the citizen who handles in an inefficient and neglected way the municipal urban wastes generated at home; behavior that corresponds precisely to the Stage Quo scenario that prevails in the Municipality of Acapulco de Juarez. The aim was to gather information for structuring the design of a typology that would come to describe the typical characteristics of the citizen of the city and port of Acapulco, based on his/her behavior upon municipal solid waste management. We administered a survey to a group of parents with children to learn about their environmental and sustainable attitudes and behaviors. The results we obtained showed incompatibility between what respondents said their attitudes and behaviors were like and the reality that anyone can observe when touring the city, regarding the inadequate disposal of municipal solid wastes, which translates into the proliferation of open dumps, saturation of temporary containers, scrap vehicles and household goods abandoned in public streets and sites. The classification of environmental delinquents, by factors of influence: ignorance, negligence or apathy, arises as a result of this incompatibility. In order to reduce this environmental delinquency, implementing environmental education action plans and programs for sustainability in its non-formal and informal modalities for the rehabilitation of the population becomes an urgent need.