Circularity of Wastes: Stakeholders Identity and Salience for Household Solid Waste Management in Cimahi City, West Java Province, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper presents the operationalisation of stakeholders identity and salience theory (Mitchell RK, Agle BR, Wood, DT, Acad Manag Rev 22(4):853–886, 1997) with the purpose to classify the stakeholders involved in the household solid waste management in Cimahi City, West Java Province, Indonesia. This classification will benefit circularity of solid waste management strategies that involve diverse actors needing to collaborate. Several studies have been conducted to identify the stakeholders in solid waste management, but none has been carried out yet to classify their salience in the systematic approach described by Mitchell’s theory. Such classification aims to draw a line between the stakeholders who play a vital role in the household solid waste management process and those who have minor contributions towards the process. Hence, the research questions aligned to this aim are: (1) Who are the stakeholders of household solid waste management in Cimahi City? And (2) who are the most salient stakeholders of household solid waste management in Cimahi City? The research utilised a qualitative method approach. Data collection techniques contained in-depth interviews, non-participant observations and reading documentation. Triangulation was applied to validate the collected data. Even further, data was analysed by the Miles and Huberman model. The result of this research has identified stakeholders with important influence and impacts on the household solid waste management in Cimahi City. The identified stakeholders were classified into two categories: (1) formal sector (government, NGOs and private ones) and (2) informal sector (not officially registered waste collectors and recycling entities). The stakeholder salience for household solid waste management depends on their type of activities, which were reducing and handling. In the reducing activities, one of the “definitive” stakeholders affiliates to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Whilst for the handling activities, the “definitive” stakeholder comes from the municipality of Cimahi City. Understanding the identity and saliency of stakeholders will help develop household solid waste management strategies with circular economy principles.