The Paricipatory Waste Management in Community Ban Plai Laem Municipality Koh Samui District, Surat Thani Province

Abstract

This qualitative research aimed to study contexts and problems in waste management of Banplailaem community, and to study the participation in waste management of Banplailaem community, Koh Samui District, Suratthani Province, by using data collecting from documents, an in-depth interview and a focus group discussion from 30 main samples which were 10 local entrepreneurs, 10 executives and staffs who work in waste management for Koh Samui Municipality, and 10 community members.

The result showed that 1) Banplailaem community is an island with plenty of natural resources. The major occupation of people was farmers. The problem in waste management of Banplailaem community was a lack of waste separation from its inception which may result from the lack of knowledge and understanding in garbage sorting, the lack of waste collecting points, lots of the garbage bins were destroyed, an uncertain time of the garbage trucks in collecting the garbage, and Koh Samui Municipality was still lack of effective guidelines in waste management. 2) The participation in waste management of Banplailaem community could be separated into 4 parts which were a participation from community members in planning and participating the waste management activities such as a Clean Community Project, Beautiful House Project, a participation in applicative waste operation such as making fertilizer, bio- extract, and animal food, a participation in reusing material like drinking water bottles and plastic bags, and also included garbage sorting before selling, and a participation in evaluating and tracking their community cooperation such as an observation in garbage transportation and cleaning after collecting the garbage.