In researches conducted in the last fifteen years the concern of Croatian citizens about the problem of the inadequate waste management is a constant. The document entitled The Republic of Croatia's strategy of environmental protection (2002) states that waste management is the largest problem in the cities and the priority within the environmental protection. At the same time, in regard to the Croatian candidacy for the membership in European Union, and Croatian pre-accession obligations the approach has been developed that promotes reducing, reusing and recycling of waste. In that context it is important to observe and examine what kind of attitude its citizens adopt in regard to establishing a sustainable and environment-friendly waste management system. We conducted an empirical research of the attitude toward managing the household waste for the city of Split in February 2009, using the survey method of a random sample (N=500). Then the research results were analyzed first concerning the opinion of the examinees about the current management of the packaging materials (cans, bottles and plastic packages), and then concerning the behavior of the examinees toward waste. Regarding the citizens' behavior we differentiated between the behavior toward: a) packaging ; b) other daily household waste (batteries, paper, medications, and kitchen waste), and c) the frequency of behavior aimed at reducing the production of waste. The survey results and its analysis were then further examined in regard to the socio-economic characteristics of the examinees.

Sociology