Participation in Solid Waste Management of Koh Phithak Community, Lang Suan District, Chumphon Province

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to set the guidelines for partici pation in solid waste management and evaluate solid waste management on Koh Phithak which is famous tourist attraction. Increasing of solid waste from community, tourism and marine debris become a critical environmental problem in this island. The survey and focus group discussion were employed as a research tools. The population of the community solid waste study was 27 households residing on Koh Phithak, while marine debris was studied with random sampling from 3 areas of Koh Phithak coastal line. T-test. analysis was used to analyse the different of solid waste before and after solid waste management process.

The findings of this study are: 1) before the management process; it was found that the rate of solid waste generation was 0.51±0.15 kg/ person/day; 2) the largest proportion of solid waste was organic waste followed by plastic bag, paper, glass and others respectively; and 3) marine debris on the Koh Phithak coastal was found 1.29 kg/m. of coastal line.

Four solid waste management guidelines were set through focus group discussion which were agreed as follows: 1) solid waste separation must be done; 2) recycle solid waste must be used or collected appropriately; 3) organic waste must be landfilled or used as organic fertilizer; and 4) beach cleaning activity should be held. After that, the guideline efficiency was examined. The result revealed that the amount of community solid waste was 49.02 percent decrease and marine debris on coastal line was decrease by 38.76 percent. However, Koh Phithak community should continuously manage their solid waste as solid waste management guidelines for sustainable problem solving.