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The insufficient waste collection service and scarcity of studies about municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in rural communities from developing countries has negatively influenced how MSW is managed by residents and authorities. This has brought about pollution and affected the quality of life of the residents from those communities. This study aims to determine the quantity and type of household waste generated, as well as to know the perception of the community on MSW management in San Quintin and Vicente Guerrero, two rural communities in Mexico. The MSW study was carried out in both winter and summer, considering one socioeconomic status (low-median) and the waste collected by the Municipal Department of Waste Management (DWM). The social perception study was carried out with 96 residents, considering a confidence level of 95%. Per capita solid waste generation (PCG) in San Quintin was 0.681 kg/capita/day and 1.102 kg/capita/day in Vicente Guerrero. The main components in both communities are food residuals (28.40%), plastics (14.95%), textiles (7.40%) and disposable diapers (11.50%). More than 75% of the residents are dissatisfied with the waste collection service and 25% believe that the problems caused by MSW disappear after these are collected. PCG and composition in San Quintin and Vicente Guerrero differs from the values reported from border rural communities in Mexico and in other small cities in developing countries. As there is no previous study of this kind in rural areas, these findings may be taken as a reference for other rural communities.

Abstract:Globally there is a lack of knowledge about waste generation and composition in rural areas because these types of studies have been conducted mainly in big cities. This leaves the local sanitation authorities without information to properly plan its operations. Generally, characterization studies are carried out by using the technique of sampling taking at home level. This method requires human, material and economic resources that sometimes are limited for local sanitation authorities. This paper presents the results of a characterization study obtained by direct analysis of household solid waste generated in two rural communities in northern Mexico. The research also outlines a procedure for estimating the waste generation rate when financial constraints prevent the development of a characterization study at home level. This study attempts to fill the information gap on the generation and composition of solid waste in rural areas. The results indicate a waste generation of 0.631 kg/cap/day in San Quintín and 1.047 kg/cap/day in Vicente Guerrero. The specific weights of the uncompacted SW were respectively 145 kg/m 3 and 123 kg/m 3 . The specific weight of the compacted SW was 229 kg/m 3 in San Quintín. Statistically, the composition of waste between these two rural communities differs in one fraction.

Certain domestic wastes exhibit characteristics that render them dangerous, such as explosiveness, flammability, spontaneous combustion, reactivity, toxicity and corrosiveness. The lack of information about their generation and composition hinders the creation of special programs for their collection and treatment, making these wastes a potential threat to human health and the environment. We attempted to quantify the levels of hazardous household waste (HHW) generated in Mexicali, Mexico. The analysis considered three socioeconomic strata and eight categories. The sampling was undertaken on a house-by-house basis, and hypothesis testing was based on differences between two proportions for each of the eight categories. In this study, HHW comprised 3.49% of the total generated waste, which exceeded that reported in previous studies in Mexico. The greatest quantity of HHW was generated by the middle stratum; in the upper stratum, most packages were discarded with their contents remaining. Cleaning products represent 45.86% of the HHW generated. Statistical differences were not observed for only two categories among the three social strata. The scarcity of studies on HHW generation limits direct comparisons. Any decrease in waste generation within the middle social stratum will have a large effect on the total amount of waste generated, and decrease their impact on environmental and human health.