Social participation in the biowaste disposal system before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A case study for Poznań

The degree of awareness and participation of the city inhabitants concerning biowaste segregation in Poznan has been examined. The assessment was based on a questionnaire survey of a local community, conducted in 2019 and 2020. Within the course of one year, a considerable increase was observed in the number of people involved in selective biowaste collection, at the simultaneous lower degree of acceptance for the operating system, which was evident particularly in the group of surveyed men. Among the respondents, the youngest group, represented by people aged 16-25 years, showed the lowest degree of knowledge and activity in the process of segregation. Regardless of the year of the study the greatest involvement in biowaste segregation was found among older people, individuals with university education, and those living in detached houses. A vast majority of respondents indicated the need to increase the number and scope of educational campaigns as one of the possibilities to improve the current, still unsatisfactory level of public participation. The effect of COVID-19 on social participation has not been directly confirmed; however, based on changes in the attitudes of Poznan inhabitants and growing amounts of biowaste such dependencies may be tentatively assumed.