Research Article
Tan Awang Besar Md and Salleh
Abstract
Ten years after its nationwide implementation in the year 2000, many are reluctant to put 3R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle) programme into practice. Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG) has even declared the recycling programme a failure mainly in changing people’s mindset and behaviour. However, only few voluntary community-based associations at micro level have successfully adopted the environmentally friendly practices. How do these associations survive and operateup to more than 10 years after their formation? This study is interested to explore the success factors of four community-based associations in their effort to preserve the environment through their environmentally-friendly community-based activities. The data was gathered qualitatively using a semi structured in depth interview. Based on Positive Deviance approach, results revealed that the success factors were common values and practices (leadership, networking, cooperation, communication) and uncommon values and practices (age, gender, and other PD practices). These factors are crucial for a community-based project to remain active and sustainable. More importantly, uncommon PD practices can be replicated or imitated by others that follow the same footsteps. The result also indicates that only active community-based organizations are able to sustain even without access to special resources.