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. 2023 Feb;41(2):368-375.
doi: 10.1177/0734242X221117093. Epub 2022 Aug 12.

Clean environment index: A new approach for litter assessment

Mahdi Farzadkia  1   2 , Navid Alinejad  3 , Afsaneh Ghasemi  3 , Roshanak Rezaei Kalantary  1   2 , Ali Esrafili  1   2 , Javad Torkashvand  1   2
Affiliations

Clean environment index: A new approach for litter assessment

Mahdi Farzadkia et al. Waste Manag Res. 2023 Feb.

Abstract

Littered waste is one of the ubiquitous problems in urban environments. In this study, urban environmental pollution was evaluated for the first time using a new developed index. The findings indicated that cigarette butts with an average 58% are the largest share in the composition of littered waste. In addition, the numbers of littered wastes throughout the study area had a spatial variation. According to clean environment index (CEI), the entire study area was found to be in a moderate status. However, 40% of the study areas were classified in a dirty and extremely dirty status. Comparison of the studied urban land-uses showed that residential land use with CEI equal to 3.38 is interpreted in the clean status, while commercial land use with CEI equal to 15.05 can be classified in the dirty status. The application of CEI has a good capability to assess littered waste; this index can be employed to evaluate the pollution of urban sidewalks and other environments such as beaches.

Keywords: Littered waste; clean environment index; environmental status; waste management.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Density of littered waste in studied locations (item/100 m).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Calculated CEI for different locations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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