Abstract:
The objective of this research was 1) to study the communitys level of knowledge and understanding concerning waste management 2) to study the characteristics of the waste management practices of the community and 3) provide guidelines to help develop waste management.The sample used consisted of 213 respondents from households in Kubangluang Subdistrict such as moo 3 Ban Klongpoo village and moo 10 Ban Kukwangmon. The tool used to collect the data was a questionnaire. The statistics used to analyze the data were percentage, mean and standard deviation.The findings were as follows :1) The community acquired their information about community waste management from the television and newspapers. The amount of waste per household was currently 5-10 kilograms per day and these numbers were continually increasing. The main types of waste were plastic bags and food scraps. 2) It is the role of the village leader to participate in waste management including information dissemination, counseling the people and the community, doing site-visits and monitoring the waste management. 3) Although the peoples knowledge and understanding of waste management were high, they did not participate in waste management much. The people also did not generally categorize and separate the waste.4) Some guidelines to help develop community waste management were given 4.1) trash collection should only be done at appropriate times 4.2) proper knowledge and understanding of waste management should be provided to the residents 4.3) a law stating that polluters must pay should be instituted 4.4) there should be a campaign to promote public awareness 4.5) activities to support participation in waste management should be setup 4.6) the waste should be separated by type and an SAO station should be built and 4.7) there should be some waste treatment done by burning.5) Some recommendations followed this study 5.1) two bins should be provided to each household so that trash can de divided into wet and dry waste 5.2) activities should be set up to increase peoples knowledge of waste management 5.3) policies strictly enforcing waste management should be formulated 5.4) officers and waste collectors must operate following the set standards and procedures and 5.5) the executives should boost the officers morale and level of motivation.