Greening of a campus through waste management initiatives

Siwaporn Tangwanichagapong,Brahmanand Mohanty,Chettiyappan Visvanathan,Vilas Nitivattananon

doi:10.1108/ijshe-10-2015-0175

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the effects of 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) waste management initiatives on a campus community. It ascertains the environmental attitudes and opinions of the residents and investigates their behavioral responses to waste management initiatives. Practical implications for enhancing sustainable waste management are discussed in this paper.Design/methodology/approachDemonstration projects on waste segregation and recycling, as well as waste a reduction campaign, were set up on the campus to ascertain people’s attitudes and investigate their behavioral responses toward 3R practices. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey, observations, interviews and the project’s document review. A waste audit and waste composition analysis was carried out to assess waste flows and actual waste management behaviors and measure the change in the recycling rate.Findings3R waste management initiatives had positive effects on people’s attitudes about resources, waste management and consciousness of the need to avoid waste, but these initiatives did not affect recycling and waste management behavior. A voluntary approach-only cannot bring about behavioral change. Incentive measures showed a greater positive effect on waste reduction to landfills. Nevertheless, the demonstration projects helped to increase the overall campus recycling from 10 to 12 per cent.Originality/valueThis paper addresses a literature gap about the 3R attitudes and resulting behavior as part of campus sustainability of higher education institutions in a developing country. The authors’ results revealed hurdles to be overcome and presents results that can be compared to behavioral responses of people from other developed countries. These findings can be used as a guide for higher education institution’s policy-makers, as they indicate that voluntary instruments alone will not yield effective results, and other mechanisms that have an impact on people's behavior are required.

Highlights

Consumerism and convenience following a buy-use-dispose system accelerate resource use
3.1 Existing situation of waste quantity and characteristics Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) generates about 1.3 tonnes of waste per day, which corresponds to 0.5 kg per capita
Waste generation rate in AIT and many of Thailand Higher education institutions (HEIs) does not exceed the 1 kg per capita limit targeted by national government, it is gradually increasing as can be noted by comparison with previous studies (Soulalay, 2006; Dev, 2007), due to the increasing use of packaging

Summary

Introduction

Consumerism and convenience following a buy-use-dispose system (or a linear approach) accelerate resource use. There has been an increase in waste generation in most of the developing countries. This has resulted in a large volume of municipal solid waste (MSW) being discarded into landfills (Ngoc and Schnitzer, 2009). Packaging waste in Thailand accounts for a major proportion of municipal solid waste. In 2001, of the 14.1 million tonnes of waste discarded, 3.4 million tonnes (24 per cent) were packaging waste. This number rose to 31 per cent in 2004 (Chulalongkorn University, 2004). It is projected to increase as MSW volumes in Thailand have been rising by about 10 per cent annually (Mungcharoen, 2006)

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