Look beyond the bin! : Solid Waste Management and recycling at the Asian Institute of Tecnology

Abstract:   The generation of domestic waste is at present less than 1 kg/day per person in Thailand, but generated amounts keeps steadily growing. This trend is closely connected to an increasing population and economic growth, something that is creating waste management issues. The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) outside Bangkok has the potential of being a leader in sustainable development in the Southeast Asian region, however a substantial opportunity is being missed – best environmental practices are currently not prioritized. Only 4 % of the total waste generated on campus is recycled at AIT, 3 % is composted and 93 % is taken to the municipal waste disposal site. Fluorescent light bulbs and other hazardous household waste are disposed on the campus dumpsite. Some measures have been undertaken in order to improve the solid waste management (SWM) at AIT, e.g. a new waste collection facility has been built in the outskirts of campus, where more space is provided in order to facilitate waste separation. The field research for this study was carried out at AIT and the goal was to examine the SWM network, the problems and to analyse the recycling habits on campus. To investigate and visualize the actors involved in the SWM at AIT, the Actor-Network theory (ANT) was applied as an analytical framework. The generation of waste is the macro actor i.e. the reason for the existence of SWM. Other actors are the AIT students and staff (produce waste), the new Campus Environment and Development Committee – CEDC (the controlling part), environmental awareness (attitude towards recycling), and waste collectors. The results from the survey witness of that people have a positive but somewhat cautious attitude towards the sustainability of source separation. Separating waste at source is a key mechanism for solving the SWM problem but people are uncertain of how to separate each waste fraction. There is a strong need to designate a coordinator of the SWM at AIT and as long as there is a lack of leadership, a goal of environmentally sustainable practices cannot be reached. The new CEDC is currently not performing any actions towards an integrated SWM.