INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the world is facing environmental problems caused by improper waste disposal. People have not realized the possible result of their actions on the environment as well as on health. We are suffering environmental dilemma’s such as global warming due to greenhouse gasses coming from decomposed waste, bad odors, visual pollution, air pollution, soil and water contamination, proliferation of mosquitos and flies and others. Waste is considered as one of the main causes of spread of diseases, damage to nature, animal extinction and death.
A lot of programs where been implemented to lessen the problem on waste, still this dilemma would not able to solve because of the personalities in the community and the continuous growing of population. In order to educate the community on proper waste management, television, radio, internet and newspaper were used as a channel of information. Disasters and calamities happened in the community becomes the reflection of what people done in the environment. But still, people ignore it; they keep throwing their garbage anywhere instead of segregating their waste and dispose them correctly. (Og-oget, Community Reflection 2014)
In the Philippines, waste generation continues to rise with the increase in the population, improvement of living standards, rapid economic growth, and industrialization especially in the urban areas. The National Capital Region (NCR), as expected, generated the biggest volume of wastes for the past five years due to its population size, bigger number of establishments and modernized lifestyle. With an estimated population of 12 million people, Metropolitan Manila generated 9,212.92 tons per day of wastes in 2016. It is followed by Region 4A with waste generation of 4,440.15 tons per day (11.08%) and Region 3 with 3,890.12 tons per day (9.70%). Solid waste management remains a major challenge in the Philippines especially in urban areas like Metro Manila. Improper waste disposal, inefficient waste collection and lack of disposal facilities are among the dominant concerns in the country’s solid waste management.
Republic Act No. 9003, otherwise known as “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, enacted on January 26, 2001, aims to address the growing problem on wastes in the country. It provides legal framework for the country’s systematic, comprehensive, and ecological solid waste management program that shall ensure protection of public health and the government. It also provides for the necessary institutional mechanisms with the creation of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) which shall oversee the implementation of solid waste management plans and prescribe policies as well as incentives to achieve objectives of the Act. To strengthen compliance with RA 9003, and overcoming the challenges, LGU’s should capacitated particularly on understanding the provision of the Act and formulating SWM plans. They assisted in designing innovative financing mechanism to undertake SWM activities instead of merely depending on subsides from national government. They should also be given assistance on how to access facilities offered by government financing institution (GFIs) and in engaging the private sector in order to generate funds for SWM activities. There must be continuing education and public awareness building to inculcate the right attitude among people to actively participate in SWM activities and practices. Hence the integration of Ecological Solid Waste Management (ESWM) in curricula at all level in the school (Senate Economic Planning Office 2017).
In relevance to this, discussion above supports the idea of the problem of the people in the South rural areas of the country. In Batangas, The enactment of the Ecological Solid Waste management Act prompted higher education institutions including state universities and colleges (SUCs) to incorporate ecological waste management in the school system. (Gequinto, 2017)
In addition, the issue mentioned above supports the idea of the problem of the people in the South rural areas of the country. In Batangas, Provincial Solid Waste Management Plan identified the municipalities that who are the biggest generator of waste in the province. Lipa City was the biggest generator of waste with 160,000 kilos per day in 2014 to 2015, next was Nasugbu generating 53,357.12 kilos. However, the province Environment and Natural Resources Office has already developed a ten-year solid waste management plan, but the officials and resident’s lack of discipline and cooperation, as well as challenges that barangay officials face in solid waste management, are major issues. (Luistro, 2017)
Wastes are any discarded, rejected, abandoned, unwanted or surplus matter, whether or not intended for sale or for recycling, reprocessing, recovery or purification by separate operation from what produced the matter (Environment Protection Regulations, 2009)
Project WOW (War On Waste) encompasses all the collection, transport, processing and disposal of wastes materials to reduce the impact of waste on the environment and recovering the resources from wastes materials. In addition, Project WOW involves reusing, recycling, and recovery of wastes materials in order to enhance the current situation on wastes disposal.
On the other hand, the present situation of Nasugbu West Central School, the researcher found out that the general and consolidated verbal responses of respondents in her study showed agree on awareness on waste segregation, the researcher’s attention is to have a larger scope of study targeting one hundred percent 100% of pupil’s full awareness on waste segregation.
In light of this, the researcher aims to encourage schools or academic institutions to be more actively involved in environmental issues at practical and local level and develop positive behavior and understanding among pupils, faculty and school administrators in initiating active responses and increasing awareness and participation in environmental concerns particular to waste management practices. As such, full implementation of proper waste segregation in the school must be mandated.
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