Quarterly Journals of Urban and Regional Development Planning

Challenges of waste management in Mashhad: a qualitative study

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Seyed Ahmad Mir Mohammad Tabar 1
Maryam Sohrabi 2

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Arak University

2 PhD in Sociology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad

https://doi.org/10.22054/urdp.2025.81537.1656
Abstract
With the increasing trend of urbanization in the world, the amount of consumption is increasing. An inevitable consequence of more consumption is the rapid increase in the amount of solid waste that is produced.During the last two decades, despite the activities of the Waste Management Organization and the Cultural Organization of Mashhad Municipality to promote waste segregation and proper waste management, the rate of waste separation from the source in Mashhad city is not acceptable and there is a need to investigate the challenges of waste management in order to identify the problems and reasons for improper waste management in Mashhad city.The main purpose of the research is to identify the challenges of waste management and its reasons in Mashhad. The data of this qualitative study was collected through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data. Twenty-five interviewees were interviewed with purposeful sampling and theoretical saturation criteria, and finally the collected data were coded and analyzed in the form of two overarching themes and eight organizing themes. The results about the problems of waste management in Mashhad show that the four themes organizing the unstable environmental behavior of citizens, legal-structural failure, executive inefficiency and problems related to pilgrims during peak times are the most important challenges of waste management in Mashhad.The four organizing themes of cultural and social gaps, commodity and income view of waste, low deterrence of laws and organizational weakness are the most important reasons for the challenges of waste management in Mashhad.

Keywords

waste management
challenges
reasons
thematic analysis
Mashhad
Subjects

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