The Perceptive Classification of the Wastes for Recycling and Composting for Sustainable Waste Management

The problem with municipal solid waste (MSW) in Thailand necessitates the well-planned MSW management is important. The perceptive classification of waste is the effective tool to design MSW management and waste separation campaign. It was found that the perceptive classification of the waste was significantly graded in order to the characteristics of the waste. The certain numbers of the wastes were high perceptive classification to the target category. Thus, the perceptual classification of these wastes did not prevent their separation into the designated waste bin. On the other hand, careful attention was required to increase the perception classification of aluminum foil as recyclable waste. The perceptive classification of recyclable waste on aluminum foil was too low, and it was around 37.66%. Misclassification may result from a misunderstanding of the waste type. In addition, some wastes were hardly segregated to a specific category, and there were depending on the implementation process in the MSW management system. For example, the perceptive classification of tissue paper as compostable wastes was low. To design the composting process including the input of tissue paper, the campaign to improve the perceptive classification on tissue papers was recommended. In contrast, the implementation of composting without the input of tissue paper did not need the campaign to modify the perceptive classification on tissue papers. Therefore, the significant findings of this study will be the designing tools to enable the effective and sustainability MSW management.