Behavior in solid waste management of the citizens in Ban Thale Noi community in the southern Thailand

Behavior  in Solid Waste Management of the Citizens in  Ban Thale Noi Community,  Thailand.
                                                                                                Wattana Sripotchanart
The purposes of this study were to 1)  explore solid-waste management behaviors, 2) examine attitude toward solid-waste management, 3)  investigate community participation in solid-waste management, and 4)  assess training needs of community development for being an ecological tour-place of community at Talenoi.  Quantitative data were obtained by interviewing .  Qualitative data were obtained by in-depth interview with key persons in Talenoi community, focus groups, public hearing at a community-monthly regular schedule, and field notes.
                For solid-waste management behaviors, Residents at Talenoi community disposed all kinds of garbage without any treatment into Talenoi lake But now from Qualitative data , they realize those piles of garbage turned to be the community-problem.  There were very few disposal bins in front of each house.  Some used their neighbors’ bins without permission, which consequently caused a conflict among the community.The overall attitude toward solid-waste management was at a moderate level.  The community addressed that a local politician should seriously take charge in waste-management.  The disposal bins provided by the local politicians were inefficient, the current solid-waste management system were not effective yet.  But, it can be improved under the local politicians’ lead.  When considering the community participation, the result showed that the community participation was at a low level.  Community needed a training of waste management for turning their community to be an ecological  tour-place.  Some suggestions from public hearing for improving waste management were as follows: modifying the schedule for taking-away the garbage from each household; having a fine/punishment system for those who still dispose the garbage into the lake, creating a watch-dog by school-children and teachers; providing more bins; designing certain points for placing additional bins; and transforming a local street to be a drainage route.