Improvement of Waste Management Through Community Awareness of Plastic Controlling in Garang Watershed, Semarang City, Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the condition and awareness of community plastic waste management in the Garang watershed to increase institutional capacity in reducing plastic pollution. This study was a sequential exploratory mixed-method research involving 175 respondents from Garang rivers community. Data was collected using observation, open-questionnaire and in-depth interview about community understanding and waste management organization. The respondent answer then converted into number and analyzed statistically using Kruskal-Wallis test. The institutional aspect was identified by interview and scored for AHP analysis. This research predicts more than 66 ton of plastic waste was produced by the communities around Garang watershed that managed, inappropriately. Only less than 40% of the Garang watershed community sells their plastic waste to the waste bank, and the rest were burned or abandoned in vacant land or rivers. Regarding to the waste-management organization aspect, the financial support and community participation aspect should be improved in upstream wather-shed area to enhance waste management communally. In contrast, internal institutions, community participation, and operational institutions are the main aspects that might be enhanced in the downstream areas. A future research needs to be conducted to identify community requirements as a foundation for establishing an appropriate waste management institution.