Foul-smelling air, contaminated water, deteriorated lands – polluted environment. And no one could survive a day with these things that hinder the existence of harmonious living.
Can you feel the degrading value of Earth? The nature grunts and howls for change. That those deviated from practicing solid waste management (SWM) techniques might someday realize the grandness of doing so. What a wonderful life a person can have if and only if his surrounding seems so pristine and desirable!
Something must be done! In schools, the basis of parents to enroll their children to a certain one does not solely depend on the quality of education and formation opportunities, but also on the level of sanitation and picturesqueness of the area.
Whether calling it as rubbish, dirt, smut, filth, garbage, waste, leachate, sphacelate, skuzz, street sweepings, scraps, junks, refuse or whatever terms you may associate with any chucked out, forsook or waste-like stuffs, solid wastes appear in solid, liquid, semi-solid or even in gaseous forms that scatter everywhere.
It is but a common problem in Ateneo de Naga University that ten to 20 kilograms of wastes daily are being collected from each building while thrice the amount during special occasions like Intramurals and Orgs Fair wherein the supposed refuses discharge in the labeled storage cans are neglected, causing the collection, source separation, transportation, transfer, processing, treatment, or disposal of solid waste to be harder at the point of generation.
According to the Physical Plant Administration's (PPA) Grounds and Buildings Head Manuel P. Nicolas, whenever there's an activity in school, he and his colleagues coordinate with the different offices and organizations to talk about limiting the use of plastic materials, styrofoams and disposable items.
Indeed, the whole Ateneo community itself is a good channel that can be tapped to spread ecological cognizance and protection. However, the process must be a collaborative effort of the students, educators, employees and administrators of the Ateneo to secure the most expedient effect.
The desire of people especially of environmentalists, called for the creation of Republic Act 9003 or Ecological Waste Management Law which states “the integration of SWM, resource conservation and recovery topics into academic curricula of formal and non-formal education in order to promote environmental awareness and action among the citizenry.”
Fortunately, Ateneo Ecological Solid Waste Management Program has been formulated by PPA. As its other contents are being prepared for implementation, it shall cover the education and public information to be incorporated in the Orientation Seminar or Alternative Class Program, environment-related courses and events. Enforcement of this schemes still account for budget from the PPA, with system-wide dictum to assist the instructors.
Aside from aiming to improve the Materials Recovery Facility at the second gate, composing of a solid waste transfer station or sorting station, drop-off center, a composting facility, and a recycling facility; the reform will also engage in trash receptacle improvement whereas machine shredder was bought to fix paper waste troubles.
Nurseries were also contained in program to facilitate seedlings, herbals plants and ornaments and where the product of composting can be utilized. The last section includes lobbying ordinance legislation in the case of packaging, eco-labeling and refilling.
Zero waste, the main target, can be achieved if all would partake, decisions constituted from a consensus of diverse functional berths in the university, in reducing the overall resource usage and using retrieved resources.
Recycling, re-using, source reduction, waste diversion and avoidance, composting, natural farming, proper storage, segregation of wastes and not distorting biological processing of wastes are just some of the possible things that can be done here in Ateneo.
Upon reflection, encamp on the prospects to say no against awry habits of littering, combining biodegradable scraps into nonbiodegradable trash bins or burning waste. The very fact that others lack discipline, like when they just throw their trashes anywhere they love to; a sign of negligence or ignorance? Are they just too lazy not to go to the nearest garbage can and fling the rubbish decorous? Or just too stupid to think that janitors would clean up the mess for them?
Respect for the Atenean milieu has vanished as students made the domain an arena of battling garbage contributors against ethical standards and territorial tidiness. The way people manage their impurities reflect somehow their own personality. Doing right things for the good of the community must be in habituation.
Circumstances such as the disposal of trashes at the corners of the classroom or being concealed on chairs or tables and just tossing away impurities in comfort room bowls or lavatories explicitly show the carelessness of those wrongdoers. Or students who might be blinded by extreme educational discussions don't use the trash barrels anymore; in lieu of carrying out good bionomical functions they would stay nescient about it.
Of course, we don't want those accumulated waste to grow so big in volume that no single strategy is effective and efficient enough to eradicate them. In the worst case, public health, aesthetics and environmental safety will be framed at high risks if inappropriate waste administration procedures like incineration and thermal treatments are will be exercised in the institution.
The time has arrived to convert the school into a greener hub by adapting a simple lifestyle and ostracizing applying sustainable and economically low-priced but practicable precautions. The university will be serving as a training avenue in forming accountable students that would control or prevent unnecessary wastes, coupled with sound supervision and sustenance.
In conformity with the best principles of public wellness, finances, applied sciences, technology, livelihood for garbage pickers, preservation and philosophy, solid waste management must be dealt with meticulously, considering various ecologic consequences to achieve the end goal.
Ateneans, therefore, should commit seriously in the abatement of yielding wastes and toxics as socially responsible individuals to ameliorate the status of enterprises and the community.
