Legal Culture of Local Community in Plastic Waste Management

Abstract

The buildup of plastic waste is a problem for the environment, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the amount of plastic waste. Despite the widespread implementation of waste management, the effectiveness of such an environmental policy varies in every region. One of the causes is the internal factor covering the local community and its perspectives and values. Legal culture is a part of legal systems, reflecting how the local community perceives a specific issue. Different societies have their legal culture, resulting in varied responses of communities to a particular regulation. This notion becomes the rationale for conducting this research. Relying on the empirical-normative method, the present work explores the legal culture of different communities regarding plastic waste management. The normative analysis employed two approaches: conceptual and laws and regulations. For empirical juridical studies, interviews and focus discussions are opted. The results reveal that each community group has different values and mindsets according to the surrounding environment, resulting in distinct legal cultures from one another. Further, differences in the legal culture of the community contribute to the community’s response to regulations regarding plastic waste management.
 Keywords: legal culture, legal system, plastic waste

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