Youth-Led Climate Literacy, Waste Governance, and Circular CommunityInnovation: A Participatory School–Village Partnership Program for SustainableLocal Development

Abstract

Community waste problems increasingly reflect interconnected challenges involving environmental
literacy, weak local governance, limited youth participation, and insufficient circular economy practices.
This article analyzes a participatory community service program designed to strengthen youth-led climate
literacy, household waste governance, and circular community innovation in a peri-urban village in Chiang
Mai Province, Thailand. Using a participatory action research and collaborative governance framework, the
program integrated village authorities, secondary schools, youth organizations, women’s groups, university
facilitators, and local recycling actors over a seven-month implementation period. The intervention
combined climate literacy workshops, participatory waste mapping, school-based environmental leadership
training, household segregation campaigns, community composting demonstrations, and youth-led circular
product initiatives. Findings indicate that youth participation significantly improved environmental
awareness, household waste segregation behavior, community dialogue, and institutional coordination. The
program increased regular household waste segregation among participating households from 22 percent to
63 percent and established three youth-led environmental action groups. The study argues that sustainable
community waste governance requires more than awareness campaigns; it depends on participatory
leadership, collaborative institutions, practical innovation, and locally embedded sustainability mechanisms.
The article contributes to community engagement scholarship by developing a social innovation model
linking youth participation, collaborative waste governance, circular learning, and sustainable community
resilience.