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Udon Thani City Municipality
Udon Thani City Municipality Muang District, Udon Thani Province
Vision: Udon Thani: Livable city, trade, and investment hub through the collective effort for new developments, good governance, inherited culture under sufficiency economy philosophy Population: 130,572 people (as of 2020) Number of communities: 105 Area: 47.70 square kilometers
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Due to its strategic location that connects to many nearby provinces and is not too far from the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, the municipality is one of the essential travel hubs to the Indochina region. The area also has its domestic airport with an imminent plan to operate international flights. Such qualities contribute to the city’s economic potential and make it an ideal investment destination. The municipal area is also one of the region’s most important trade, investment, and employment hub continually growing population.
Environmentally Sustainable City Management Model
Key of Success
Find and locate the city’s potential, internal and external factors, and push for new developments to happen from the existing assets while improving the city’s efficiency and quality to achieve better results.
Community waste management
From 2013 to the present, Udon Thani City Municipality has operated a project to promote source separation management for a cleaner city with a livable, waste-free community contest held to encourage people’s participation in effective source separation. The activities aim to create greater awareness about waste management as each community takes a different waste management approach such as income generation through efficient waste sorting.
School waste management
There are 12 schools operated under Udon Thani City Municipality. Six of them are chosen as pilot schools, which work to initiate various activities and promote source separation as well as the use of recycled waste to invent learning tools. The schools also advocate students’ participation in waste and environmental management at educational institutions. The approach has successfully reduced the amount of garbage that needs to be sent to the municipality for proper disposal. Ban Lae Municipal 3 School has established a learning center for recycled waste management, in which students learn to generate income from waste trade. The money from the sale later goes to fund the organization of their classroom activities.
Waste management methods
Udon Thani City Municipality categorizes wastes into four types.
Organic wastes: convert into earthworm food, bio-fermented water, and compost.
Recycled wastes: establish a 0 baht shop, 0 baht flea market, 0 baht washing machine, waste recycling fund, and other activities to promote waste management for clean cities. In December of every year, activity is organized to invite people to participate in waste exchange event where people can exchange recyclable wastes with other consumer products or New Year’s gift raffle coupons.
Hazardous waste: Initiate educational campaigns about the classification of hazardous waste among community members and set up drop-off spots for hazardous waste within the community for proper collection and storage.
General waste: Develop innovations from general wastes. Separate and recycle plastic bags while the remaining scraps go under the care of the assigned private operators.
Learning Center for Environmental Management
Learning Center # 1 Source Separation Management Learning Hubs
The waste management resource includes seven learning hubs in different communities within the municipality.
1. Non-uthumphon Community: model community with comprehensive waste management system with operations encompassing recycling, organic waste management carried out through earthworm farming / bio-fermentation / production of compost from weeds, setting up rest points to collect and transport hazardous wastes to the municipality for disposal. The community has developed various innovations/products from scrap materials such as aerated foam bricks, brooms made of recycled soda bottles, water-saving plant pots, etc.
2. Klong Charoen 2 Community: Situated along an old irrigation canal, the community offers an empty plot of land to operate a community organic farming. Recycle wastes can be used instead of cash for 0 Baht washing machines and drinking water. Organic wastes are converted into bio-fermented water using the tobacco formula to produce insect repellent and organic compost for community agricultural plots. The community also promotes the consumption of environmentally friendly products.
3. Sri Chom Chuen 2 Community: A learning hub for waste recycling with activities such as waste exchange program where local trade recycled words beautiful pet fish. Local wisdom is incorporated to convert organic wastes into bio-fermented water and organic compost, while paper scraps become the material for low-relief
image sculptures. 4. Don Udom 3 Community: This waste recycling learning hub organizes activities such as the 0 Baht market and has developed many products from recyclable wastes such as baskets made from aluminum cans.
5. Pichairak Community: a learning hub of general waste management with a community-run shop that buys and recycles plastic bags from local households.
6. Kao Chan 8 Community: a learning center for recycled waste management operated by a local youth group, 3D Youth Group. Every family works collectively as a community to achieve efficient source separation.
7. Kaiprajak Sillapakom 3 Community: this learning hub manages organic waste by turning them into food for earthworms. The compost is used in the production of bio-ferment water and fertilizers for agricultural use. The sale of the surplus products becomes an extra income for the local households. The community also creates products from waste materials such as aprons made of fabric softener containers.
Learning Center # 2 Ecological approach to community development under Sufficiency Economy Philosophy: Klong Charoen Community
The development around the area along the irrigation canals in Udon Thani Municipality is carried out through the promoted role of local organic vegetable growers. The municipality also supports further development of existing and new bodies of knowledge, factors of production, agricultural tools. The area covers Klong Charoen 1 Community 1, Klong Charoen 2 Community, Photisomphon Community and Pho Sawang 2 Community while the initiative enables people to optimize the use of local resources. It also aims to promote an ideal agricultural and urban community that creates income and solidarity among community members. The initiatives focus on bringing together various groups to participate in the household economy’s development to be more sustainable and self-reliant.
Learning Center # 3 Municipal Forest Park 8 Operated by Udon Thani Municipality
This urban nature learning center simulates a miniature forest to be an outdoor classroom for locals and interested individuals. The tree registration database is created to serve as the community’s knowledge resource. Grown and registered according to categories, the medicinal plants in this forest garden have been used in treatments provided by the municipal health service center 8.
The Forest Park T. 8 Learning Station comprises of:
1. Thai massage: volunteer student guides explain the benefits of medicinal plants from the forest garden used in Thai massage.
2. Plant Nursery: Sri Chom Chuen 1 Community 1, Si Chom Chuen 2 Community and Sri Chom Chuen 3 Community work collectively to nurture young plants and operate a community tree bank whose tree exchange program allows visitors to trade different species of trees with the forest garden.
3. Organic Fertilizer learning hub: Provide information and knowledge about the production of organic fertilizer from the weeds, fallen leaves, and branches of the trees growing inside the forest plantation. The fertilizer is used with the trees in the forest plantation and the Municipal School 8.
4. Tree QR Code: The student guides explain the use of QR code to retrieve data and information about different types of trees growing in the forest park.
5. Ruam Jai Rak Urban Forest Pavilion: The last destination of Forest Park T. 8 Learning Station is where viewers listen to the final lecture, which wraps up the entire experience before they are asked to answer a questionnaire.
* English language guides are available for visitors who are foreigners
