Beyond Awareness: How Environmental Knowledge and Maintenance Motivation Shape Household Waste Management Behavior in Urban Makassar, Indonesia

Abstract

Urban residential areas remain critical sites for improving municipal solid waste management because household practices directly influence segregation, storage, disposal, and community sanitation outcomes. This study examines the effects of environmental knowledge and motivation to maintain the environment on household waste management behavior among residents of the BTN Tabaria housing complex in Makassar, Indonesia. The study employed a quantitative survey design with 100 randomly selected residents. Data were collected through a Likert-scale questionnaire and analyzed using validity and reliability testing, classical assumption tests, multiple linear regression, partial t tests, and simultaneous F tests. The findings show that environmental knowledge has a positive and significant effect on household waste management behavior (B = 0.342, t = 3.876, p < .001), indicating that residents with a stronger understanding of environmental issues, waste impacts, and 3R practices tend to manage household waste more responsibly. Environmental maintenance motivation exerts an even stronger positive and significant effect (B = 0.521, t = 5.214, p < .001), suggesting that affective commitment and willingness to protect the environment are more decisive than cognition alone in translating awareness into action. Simultaneously, both predictors significantly explain waste management behavior (F = 42.315, p < .001), with an adjusted R² of .452. These results indicate that behavioral improvement in urban waste management depends on the interaction between cognitive and motivational factors rather than on environmental information alone. The study concludes that community-based environmental education, motivational reinforcement, and neighborhood-level support systems should be integrated to strengthen sustainable household waste practices in urban housing settings.