Abstract: Southwest China plays an important role in sustaining development of the country and has become one of the most important ecological shelters in China. Regarding the increasingly serious pollution of domestic wastes, 22 villages were selected randomly in the rural area of Southwest China for investigation of status quo of domestic waste pollution, disposal of domestic waste, people’s knowledge of domestic waste and their willingness to pay for domestic waste management by means of questionnaires;features of the domestic waste were investigated by field sampling and laboratory test. Results show that in that region, the domestic waste in the region, generated at was 178 g•d^-1 per capita and composed mainly of kitchen waste, dust, rubber and paper, was 107 kg•m^-3, 37.04 %, 25.73 %, 37.23 % and 8008 kJ•kg^-1 , respectively. These domestic wastes were featured by low content of inert waste, high content of recyclable, low bulk density and high calorie. People in this area primarily learn about contamination of domestic waste from their intuitiveness, and their knowledge of recyclable wastes was greatly influenced by waste recyclers. Moreover, they lacked  recognition of toxic waste. Age, education and annual income of the people significantly influenced their knowledge of domestic waste, but not their willingness to pay for waste management. However, people’s willingness to pay for waste management decreased exponentially with the charge for waste disposal. If the charge for waste disposal is kept less than RMB￥5.00 per month per household, it is possible to implement the waste disposal charging system for management of domestic waste in the rural area of Southwest China.

Key words: domestic waste, waste characteristics, environmental protection awareness, willingness to pay