In the rural area of the Tibetan Plateau (RATP), the characteristics of domestic waste, people’s environmental awareness, people’s willingness to pay and their influence factors were firstly studied by questionnaires, field samplings and laboratory tests. The results showed that, in the RATP, the generation of domestic waste was 85 g•d-1 per capita and it was mainly composed of plastics, inert waste, kitchen waste, glass and paper. The waste bulk density, moisture content, ash, combustible and low calorific value were 65 kg•m-3, 19.25%, 44.90%, 35.85% and 10,520 kJ•kg-1 respectively.