ANALYSIS OF HOUSEHOLDS’ WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT SERVICES IN KUALA NERUS, TERENGGANU

Abstract

Solid Waste Management (SWM) is a multifaceted development issue that municipal authorities face, particularly in emerging nations like Malaysia. The population’s willingness to pay was determined using a double-bounded dichotomous choice approach to obtain responses for a finance mechanism to improve SWM services in Kuala Nerus. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted on 300 households, including all the major towns and villages. According to the bid questions, most respondents (72.48%) said they would be willing to pay RM2 for solid waste management in their area, and 27.52% were not willing to pay RM2. For bid2, 65.74% of the respondents were willing to pay RM4 for the solid waste management. As a result, 30.9% of respondents stated they did not want to pay for solid waste management in their area. The survey found that when the bid was high, the respondent’s WTP value decreased from 72.48% (bid1) to 65.74% (bid2). This research adds to the body of knowledge on a key aspect of the financing mechanism, WTP, for better SWM services. The findings will benefit efforts to build a long-term finance structure for waste management services in Kuala Nerus, Terengganu.