SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: Contributing to Ecological Sustainability
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A Graduate Thesis
Presented to
Professor Ava Clare Marie O. Robles, Ph. D.
Graduate School, Mindanao State University
General Santos City
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In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for
SE 204 – Instructional Strategies in Science & Math Education
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by
Jeselle G. Payongayong
March 17, 2012
CHAPTER I: The Problem
Introduction
Our environment has become a flaming topic of discussions and debates the world over. While we talk so much about it, so much endeavours are also being done to protect and save what we have now for the distant future. However, with the worldwide awareness awakened by several campaigns to save our world, the environment keeps on deteriorating.
All that is around us is our environment. Environment does not only limit to our immediate surroundings. But instead, it means everything that surrounds our home which includes the front yard of our neighbours, the premises of our school, the roads, the malls, the offices, and the playground, to name a few.
Internationally, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that the United States produces approximately 220 million tons of garbage each year. This is equivalent to burying more than 82,000 football fields six feet deep in compacted garbage. There are no statistics readily available for the entire planet, but considering the United States makes up about 4% of the world's population, this is a LOT. In estimation, the entire planet's yearly production of garbage is to be somewhere in the vicinity of 4 to 5 BILLION tons.
Looking closer, at home we may never notice how much garbage is produced by each member of the family. What with the plastic wrappers of processed meats, the opened cans of sardines, tissue papers used in the bathroom, vegetable peelings, dirty and oily water flowing from our drains, and a lot more!
From the home, let us shift our focus and take a round of any market place. The common scene will be huge piles of rubbish, smelly kitchen waste and paper and polythene bags flying all over.
The school is not even exempted from all the blame for having wasted our environment. Heeding the government’s call to protect and save the earth, several schools in General Santos City launched waste management programs.
A concrete example for this is the Lagao Central Elementary School where the researcher teaches. The school launched the Gulayan sa Paaralan and Tree-Planting Program within the school’s vast vacant spaces.
Even the Saguittarius Mines Incorporated through its Environment Manager, Mr. Cameron Pocknee, extended its hand by donating mahogany seedlings to the school which the parents, teachers, and pupils planted.
The City Ordinance No. 8 Series of 2008 has a thrust to bring back the former glory of our environment by saving and protecting our immediate surroundings.
However, the school has a setback in sustaining the environmental programs which were launched. From morning to the late afternoon, the school premises will never be seen free from any trash. Litters of papers and cellophanes come flying about anytime of the day. Whatever effort the school is doing, still, proper waste disposal posts a threat to the environment.
Even with the school policy of waste segregation, still garbage disposal proves to be a problem in school.
It is for these reasons that the researcher decided to pursue this project-based study. Specifically, she would like to develop a practical school-based waste management program by making a home-made/school-made floorwax out of cellophanes, a waste product in school, and find out factors that will sustain this solid waste management program.
Statement of the Problem
The researcher would like to develop a practical school-based waste management project. Specifically, the researcher would like to:
1. develop a practical school-based waste management program by making a home-made/school-made floorwax out of cellophanes
2. and find out factors that will sustain this solid waste management program.
Planning Stage
The following methodology was followed by the researcher.
1. Conducted a meeting/orientation to selected grade six pupils of Lagao Central Elementary School about solid waste management.
2. Elicited suggestions and ideas from pupils as to what measures should be taken in order to sustain the programs launched in school.
3. Introduced the idea of raising fund in school from trash.
4. Assigned a task to pupils to research on how to make floor wax at home and search for practical ingredients to be used.
5. During the consequent meetings, the researcher scheduled trial activities for floor wax-making.
6. Tested the floor wax made by the pupils.
Project Design
1. Collect garbage.
2. Segregate plastics, recyclable, biodegradable, and other non-biodegradable wastes.
3. Clean plastics to be dried.
4. Make floor wax out of trash, especially out of the plastics.
5. Sell home-made floor wax to school teachers.
Results
1. Pupils who joined in the said project-based experiment became more involved in keeping and saving the environment even through the little endeavours they were able to make.
2. Pupils gained savings from the trash they collected.
3. Other pupils in school had been inspired to join in the said endeavour.
Improvement Plan
The researcher would like to suggest and recommend the following measures:
1. Involvement of the whole school and the community through the support of the Parent-Teacher Association
2. Research more whether there are scientifically proven bad effects of using cellophanes in floor wax-making.
3. Consult environmental authorities about other project-studies being implemented currently within their scope of knowledge which are related to the project study of the researcher.
4. Conduct a survey through a questionnaire to get information about the level of involvement of pupils and teachers in school with regard to solid waste management
References
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