Appropriate participatory food waste management in the World Heritage Site, the Historic City of Ayutthaya

Abstract

     The waste problem in the Historic City of Ayutthaya is so serious that there are concerns it is affecting the image of the ancient city and may result in its deregistration as a World Heritage Site. An appropriate participatory food waste management system at this site was thus studied employing a quantitative method and Participatory Action Research (PAR) in order to create a decent urban environment and a good image for the World Heritage Site. The findings revealed that the primary barriers to participation in waste separation were the attitudes of the citizens concerning waste management and waste separation. The present study found that the majority of the sample group usually separated recyclable garbage (87.2%) but they did not separate food waste before disposing of their garbage (72.2%). In addition, by employing PAR to address the problem of food waste, it was found that the appropriate participatory food waste management strategy was “to produce bioextract or bio-fertilizer from domestic food waste.” Thus, appropriate waste management and waste separation plans should identify a format for participation in which citizens can contribute to an essential part of the process. Furthermore, participants in the community could apply the process of PAR to solve additional community problems.