Household recycling knowledge, attitudes and practices towards solid waste management

•Recycling behavior significantly relates to household waste demeanor.•Knowledge, attitude, and practice are significant predictors of recycling behavior.•Providing public with MSW infrastructures holds promise for effective public campaigns.•Educational materials which target females may be particularly effective. A questionnaire survey consisting of 2400 householders was performed on Abadan residents to evaluate their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards solid waste (SW) reduction, source separation and recycling, collection and willingness to pay (WTP) for SW services. The study has also covered the relationship between demographic variables and KAP towards SW management. The data analyzed suggests that the studied community had a very positive attitude to take part in SW source separation and recycling plans. However, the respondents not only showed low intimate knowledge of different steps of SW management, but were also weak to take practices about these steps. The KAP of SW source separation and recycling was influenced by demographic factors of age, education level, gender and occupation. It was further found that education level and occupation were two significant factors affecting residents’ WTP (χ2=24.083, p-value