Developing a sustainable solid waste management system using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in pondok institutions in Kelantan

Solid waste management is not a new issue in Malaysia. Most of Malaysia's solid waste management sends their waste directly to dumpsite or landfill without any pre-treatment and proper control. This inappropriate technique has resulted in various negative impacts on the earth’s ecosystem. These issues are believed able overcome by implementing the reduction and separation of solid waste generated from the source, for example, the educational institution. These few years, educational institutions began to take proactive steps to work together in addressing this problem. However, most of them were focusing only on higher education institutions. Therefore, this research fills the gap by focusing on the Pondok institution. This research aimed 1) to determine the types of solid waste generated by Pondok institutions, and 2) to develop a sustainable solid waste management system at Pondok institutions using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. This research underlined three alternatives to solid waste management, which are composting, recycling, and both composting and recycling. This research utilized the convenience sampling method, where a constructive questionnaire was used as a research instrument. An online questionnaire with detailed descriptions was distributed to 15 Pondok institutions in Kelantan. After that, an empirical research using the AHP method was carried out to find the priority weights of alternatives to develop a sustainable solid waste management system in Pondok institution. There are two significant findings in this research. Firstly, this research revealed the types of solid waste generated by the community of Pondok institutions that are food waste/ arm waste, plastics, papers, metal & aluminium tin, also glass. The highest types of solid waste generated are organic waste, and the least is glass. Secondly, this research discovered the most appropriate sustainable solid waste management system alternative to be implemented in Pondok institutions, which is composting and recycling. Developing a sustainable
solid waste management system will reduce excessive solid waste generation, reduce the use of space for dumping sites, and also overcome environmental problems caused by inefficient solid waste management system.