Problem overview:

     Policies and measures: Over time, the unsanitary disposal practices, such as open dumping and burning, have affected the quality of life and environment in the municipality and thereby making people wary of government agencies' waste management. To solve the problem, Rayong Municipality has initiated this project to integrate waste management approach: sorting, anaerobic fermenting, generating electric from bio-gas, and landfill.

     Integrating Stakeholder: In 1999, Rayong Municipality has started Waste Management Project with the participation from other development parties to reduce the amount of generated waste in communities by recycling, reusing, fermenting compost and generating energy.

Background in summary:

     Economic growth and environment degradation: During During the past four decades, Thailand achieved higher than average growth rates, measured regionally and on a worldwide basis. On the other hand, the state of environment has revealed a continued natural resources and environment degradation, reflecting conflict between environmental and economic development policy.

     Environmental concerns: In the early stage, the national economic and social development concept has largely been based on the acceleration of economic growth utilizing comparative advantages in term of natural resources and low-cost labour to produce goods and services. This brought about over-exploitation and degradation of natural resources and environment and its impact has given cause for serious concern. It was increasingly recognized that the success in economic growth has various negative effects on Thai society. That concerns are reflected in the Development Plans.

     Environment and the National Economic and Social Development Plan: Earlier development plans incorporated environmental issues, addressing natural resources and environment management as part of development objectives, but they still lacked guideline and operational measures. Later Plans provide clearer workable guideline and procedure to solve environmental degradation and pollution problems. People participation in solving the problems has not been mentioned until the very recent Plans.

     The Ninth National Economic and Social Development Plan (2002-2006): The Ninth Plan adopted a bottom-up participation approach. A large number of interested groups and public sector worked collectively to formulate a workable and implementation plan. The development strategies are to build up "national competitiveness" and to create "a strong and balanced society" based on sustainable development. The concept of community-based management has been recognized to solve the natural and environment problems.

     Implementation Case: Waste Management Project of Rayong Municipality: To tackle waste problem in Rayong province, which is mainly caused by the rapid increase in population together with lack of proper disposal unit, budget, personnel and landfill area, Rayong Municipality has started Waste Management Project with the participation from other development parties, such as; Pol Eak Chartchai Chunhawan Foundation, Development of Environment and Energy Foundation, and the National Energy Policy Office. Many activities have been initiated to promote and persuade people to participate in collecting waste, for example: to separate the reusable and recyclable wastes from home and join in Trading Recycled Waste to Eggs Activity and Waste Bank Activity, to collect organic wastes and join in Hydro-Microorganism Fermenting Activity which produce "Odorless Waste". The odorless waste can be used as liquid fertilizer to replace chemical fertilizer. If the project is successful, 30% of waste is expected to be eliminated by community participation.

     Implementation Case: Produce Organic Fertilization and Generate Energy from Waste Project: After implementing Waste Management Project, the problem of collecting and disposing municipality waste has arisen. Rayong Municipality, with technical and expertise assistances from national government, has initiated this project to integrate waste management approach: sorting, anaerobic fermenting, generating electric from bio-gas, and landfill. The activities conducted under this project include: receiving waste from markets, hotels, restaurants, parks and communities; composing process by Anaerobic Digestion and generating energy from methane; odor filtration system by bio-filter, whirlpool system to protect waste water problem; and improving quality of fertilizer and packaging.

Peer Review Committee Good practice rating: (1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score)
Sustainability		Efficiency
1	Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other.	2	Cost efficient.
2	Sustainable over time (not one-off)	Process
Adaptability		1	Participation of the community
2	Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?)	2	Participation of resource owners/users
2	Socio-cultural adaptability.	2	Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private)
2	Level of development adaptability.	2	Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments.
3	Style of government adaptability.	2	Ability to attract political interest/support
3	Degree of decentralization adaptability.	-	Procedures for feedback and review.
Comments on this example:      This is a good example for generation of income, management of waste and fertilizer at local level.      Policies and measures: This policy can be considered as a form of market based instrument measure. The participation of community is created using the market incentive. The important point is that local community can now see the waste as resource. Sustainability of the project:      Community is now interested in power generation possibility but sustainability of such project should be carefully examined. For example, (i) municipality may be interested in taking responsibility for such plans, rather than leave it to the local community (ii) cost recovery of power generation from wastes may be rather difficult at the small scale. Adaptability of the project to other situations:      The starting point of this example was two poorest communities to which the municipality did not come to collect garbage. In that sense, local communities have more incentive to develop their own waste managements. Local initiatives in this example contributed to find a solution for the waste collection problem at the communities as well as generation of income. Process of decision making and implementation:      Integrating all stakeholders: This is a good example of solving natural resource and environmental problems by using community-based management. The most important factor for the success of the project is the participation and cooperation of local people. Besides that, the cooperation among various development parties, both private and public, is also an important driving force for the success.      Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments: The role of the local/national government is to help people when requested, in particular, technical inputs as local community may lack the expertise to solve certain technical issues such as production of organic fertilizer from solid waste. It would be better to nurture community initiative first while financial support should be provided only if and when it is appropriate. Cost efficiency: