Evaluation of self-service technology on household waste management in emerging countries: A case of Bangkok, Thailand

Self-service technologies (SSTs) have been exploited to decrease face-to-face interactions between service recipients and service providers, and to allow accurate and convenient services. Incentives have been adopted as a strategy to draw public attention to participate in waste management activities. With respect to municipal solid waste (MSW), applying the concepts of SSTs and incentives to allow citizens be part of the management system has gained much attention from municipalities. Therefore, this research aims to provoke citizens´ attitudes on waste management by letting them put segregated recyclable waste in Automated Eco Machine (AEM), an SST equipped waste bin, to get incentives back as reward. The research studied possibility of applying AEM in communities of an urban city. In addition, possible amount of collected recyclable waste from AEM was analyzed. By conducting questionnaire survey in Jatujak district, Bangkok, Thailand, the statistical analyses showed that 20.7% of respondents conducted waste segregation. Over 88% interested in participating in incentive recycling activities, and cash was the primary preferable incentive. In terms of applying AEM, 86% of respondents agreed that the AEM would increase management efficiency. Possible amount of collected recyclable waste by using AEM would be about 10 - 30% of total waste generation at source.