Villages win royal 'zero waste' prizes

Buri Ram: Two local communities in this northeastern province have won a prestigious environmental award for their promotional efforts to achieve zero waste.

The Department of Environmental Quality Promotion (DEQP) late last month announced the winners of the last Zero Waste Community awards to given by His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej before he passed away on Oct 13.

Moo 6 village at Ban Nong Sakae Kuan community in Non Dindaeng district won the Zero Waste Community award in the medium-scale village category while the Ban Bu Lam Duan Tai community in Muang district received an award in the large-scale village bracket, according to the DEQP.

DEQP director-general, Sakol Thinagul, said the winners were among 700 communities nationwide vying for the award. They won because they showed they could effectively reduce the amount of daily waste they produced and threw away.

Non Dindaeng municipality mayor, Somchai Korchaisirikul, who oversees Moo 6 village in the Ban Nong Sakae Kuan community, said he was delighted his village had won the prestigious award.

Mr Somchai said he entered the village in the competition because its 138 families had an outstanding waste management record.

He said the families took it upon themselves several years ago to reduce waste which was soon recognised by the municipality which promoted the village as a waste management learning centre.

Thousands of visitors each year have come to learn waste management techniques from the villagers, he said.

"The key to their success is they have benefitted from what they do. They get money from recycled products they sell to visitors. The more people who come, the more money they get,'' Mr Somchai said.

"The important thing is they have received a meaningful award from the late King Bhumibol, which should make them proud," he added.

The villagers segregated waste that could be reused and recycled, such as plastic, glass and cans. Some was recycled to make new products to be sold to visitors, while the rest was sold to waste companies, he said.

Meanwhile, organic waste was transformed into fermented fertiliser and organic pesticide for their vegetable farms to replace chemicals. This benefited them health-wise and financially, he said.

Yutthachai Phongpanich, deputy mayor of Buri Ram Municipality, who is responsible for Ban Bu Lam Duan Tai community in Muang district, said he encouraged all people in the village to adopt the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle principle to minimise waste management in the municipality.

Local hotels were asked to do the same.

He said the municipality plans to reduce the amount of waste by another 10% this year, and utilise landfill management more by making Refuse Derived Fuel.

"Effective waste management and a cleaner environment is the municipality's top priority," he said.

According to provincial authorities, 1,597 tonnes of waste is produced in the province each day, with around 150 tonnes going to two landfill sites, and the rest recycled.

However, the amount of waste produced is expected to rise due to growth in sports tourism in the province which attracts around two million visitors a year, officials said. They said they expect each visitor will generate a kilogramme of garbage.

Prapian Rungroj, who owns Rungroj Apartment, a block of 30 rooms rented out to university students in Muang district, said she has put a great deal of effort into waste management for many decades and was proud those efforts have been rewarded with such a prestigious award.

Ms Prapian said most of the 90 apartment blocks in the Ban Bu Lam Duan Tai Community have worked together to segregate their waste with the support from the municipality.

At her apartment block she said she has provided a small plastic bin in each room for organic waste that is later used to make fertiliser.

Plastic bottles, tins and paper are put into a large container and later sold. She gets around one thousand baht a year, she said.