Identification of factors affecting stakeholders’ intentions to promote preparedness in disaster waste management: A structural equation modeling approach

Preparedness in disaster waste management is a critical stage to achieve resilience. Stakeholders in developing countries find it very difficult to formulate preparedness plans because of complex issues and poor management. They perceive that introducing such a program would need special budgeting and efforts that differ from those used for day-to-day waste management, not realizing that the principal factor is their degree on intention. By using structural equation modeling, this study examines the factors that affect stakeholders` intentions. By exploring the waste management program in Banda Aceh following the Indian tsunami in 2004, we find that the factor of awareness of the difficulty running a 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle) program was the most important factor to preparedness with a correlation coefficient of 0.89. Other factors that have a significant effect are awareness of cooperation with other organizations (correlation coefficient: 0.83) and concern about previous experience affecting stakeholders’ intentions (correlation coefficient: 0.78). Other factors identified are awareness of the insufficiency of performance and facilities (correlation coefficient: 0.67) and concern about disaster waste knowledge (correlation coefficient: 0.22). This study suggests promoting preparedness in disaster waste management could start from carrying out simple tasks such as regularly maintaining waste facilities before moving onto complicated issues such as cooperating with private companies and other governments both horizontally and -vertically.