Study and Develop a Prototype for Reducing Food Waste under the Concept of Circular Economy in Wat Mahathat Community, Nakhon Phanom Municipality, Nakhon Phanom Province

Abstract

This research article aimed to study and develop a prototype for reducing food waste under the concept of circular economy in Wat Mahathat community, Nakhon Phanom Municipality, Nakhon Phanom Province. The project was conducted based on the concept of the hierarchical pyramid of food chain management to reduce food waste. The research was focused on participatory action research among people in the target group of Wat Mahathat community. The target groups were divided into 58 households in Wat Mahathat community, 1 temple and 1 Buddhist school, 1 vegetable plot along the Mekong River, and 15 shop owners. The steps of the project were as follows: 1) studying the problem of solid waste in the urban community together, started from surveying the amount of waste per household, observing the behavior of waste disposal in the community, with the community participating in the activities; 2) there were explaining the project to the community, establishing a committee at the local and agency levels, planning the implementation of the activities, joining experiment with the activities according to the plan specified in the project, evaluating the results, and developing and improving the activities to be appropriate so that the project achieved its objectives and integrated the use of social measures, 3) knowledge was transferred to relevant officials and community committees. The results of the activities found that the total amount of food waste generated during the 10-month period was used for animal feed, amounting to 6,383 kilograms (6.383 tons), resulting in a reduction of 56.41 percent in the amount of food waste mixed with other types of waste at the landfill. From the cooperation of the project and the Office of Natural Resources and Environment, Nakhon Phanom Province, it was found that the amount of greenhouse gases was reduced by 3,245.06 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent. From the project's efforts to reduce the amount of food waste mixed with general waste by adding value from food waste to animal feed, it was successful in reducing the amount of food waste and supporting environmental sustainability by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.