Support for the Proper Management of Municipal Waste in Ubon Ratchathani Province‚ Kingdom of Thailand
new!
May 20‚ 2024
Koji TAKAKURA‚ Senior Technical Expert
Image of regional recycling and symbiotic zone
Collection of motor bike parts
Kitakyushu and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) concluded a Partnership Framework on Plastic Waste Countermeasures in 2019. As part of that‚ in FY2023 KITA implemented the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) project “Support for the Proper Management of Municipal Waste in Ubon Ratchathani Province‚ Kingdom of Thailand” with the Bureau of Provincial Natural Resources and Environment (Thailand) and Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University as our counterparts. Participants in this project gained new knowledge and expertise regarding the proper management of municipal waste‚ as well as demonstrating a problem-solving orientation.
Collection of home appliances
•Improving existing collaborations between urban and rural areas as a regional recycling and symbiotic zone (recyclable waste‚ repair parts and reused goods + organic waste)
•Effective enforcement of the current four-way garbage separation system
•Potential recovery of oil from plastic waste
•Proper management of landfill sites
•Greater effectiveness of four-way garbage separation via on-going environmental education
In particular‚ 53% of municipal waste is food waste‚ which is disposed of just as it is in landfills in neighboring towns. Agriculture is the province’s main industry‚ and we carried out a questionnaire survey regarding the use of compost in agricultural households in the rural sub-district of Yang Khi Nok to encourage the use of that food waste as compost.
Interview with farmers regarding compost
Compost is actively used in that region with the aim of achieving sustainable agriculture‚ and increasing the amount of fertilizer applied is expected to "boost soil productivity". On the other hand‚ farming households produce their own compost so the amount of compost they procure is limited‚ in addition to which they want inexpensive compost (market forecast of 2‚000 THB/t in contrast with a market price of 6‚000 THB/t‚ ). It is hoped that a "regional recycling and symbiotic zone" linking urban and rural areas (agricultural communities) will be established through the composting of food waste in order to resolve those issues.
