Solid Waste Management: Background of the study

Categories: Environmental Issues Manufacturing Recycling Solid Waste Management

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Introduction

In any nation or country, waste management is always part of their equation to maintain their balance, not just environmentally but economically. The Philippines is a country of 85 million people and encompasses 7,107 islands, though only about 2,000 islands are currently inhabited. The Philippines has a total area of 30 million hectares, which is roughly 90% the total area of the nearby country, Malaysia. The Archipelago stretches more than 1,800 kilometers (km) north to south and 1,100 km east to west, and is located between the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea.

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With a rapidly growing population and lack of adequate disposal sites, solid waste has become a major problem for most medium to large-size cities. When Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took office in January, 2001, the first act she signed into law dealt with solid waste management. In recent years, inadequate solid waste management systems have posed serious health risks particularly in densely populated areas. In Manila, for example, the closure of the largest disposal site in 200 combined with the inadequate capacity at the other sites resulted in the disposal of tons of waste along city streets, empty lots, and in the waterways and bays in and around the city.

Scavenging for recyclable material at open dumps is very common throughout many parts of the Philippines. Tragically, excessive open dumping of solid waste combined with the seasonal monsoon rains at the Payatas sire in July 2000 caused a large-scale slope failure that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of scavengers.

Waste management practices can differ for developed and developing nations.

It is the collection, transport, processing or disposal managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term waste management usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is also a distinct practice from resource recovery which focuses on delaying the rate of consumption of natural resources. All waste materials, whether they are solid, liquid, gaseous or radioactive fall within the remit of waste management.

Background of the study

In the United States of America (USA), where over 311 million people live, almost all methods of waste management are being used. A program call Municipal Solid Waste does this. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) - more commonly known as trash or garbage - consists of everyday items we use and then throw away, such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, newspapers, appliances, paint, and batteries. This comes from our homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses.

Each year produces a report on MSW generation, recycling and disposal. In 2010, Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash and recycled and composted over 85 million tons of this material, equivalent to a 34.1 percent recycling rate. On average, we recycled and composted 1.51 pounds of our individual waste generation of 4.43 pounds per person per day. They encourage practices that reduce the amount of waste needing to be disposed of, such as waste prevention, recycling and composting.

Europe, where almost 739, 165,030 people live, make different strategies in dealing with waste. In the United Kingdom, the government is trying to encourage more people to recycle their waste and reduce the UK’s was mountain. Figures suggest 60% of all household waste could be recycled or composted, but the largest nation in the UK, England, appears to be reusing only 17.7%.

In Switzerland, they are proud of its recycling efforts, and with good reason. Glass and paper are just some of the things the average Swiss refuses to simply throw away. But the Swiss do not recycle just because they care about the environment. There is a strong financial incentive. Recycling is free, but in most parts of Switzerland throwing rubbish costs money - each sticker is not just one euro,

Waste is not just a waste. This is what Denmark, one of Europe’s “greenest” countries, believes. For decades, the Danish environment policy has been to regard waste as a resource. Tough standards have been set by consecutive governments, but are held up to the local authorities to collect whatever waste households may produce. Nearly 10,000 Danes are in the business of collecting waste - more than 0.1% of the entire population. The hard push towards a greener Denmark has given the country a proud record.

Every year, one billion plastic drinking water bottles are thrown away in Greece, along with one billion soft drinks bottles and yet another billion plastic containers for cleansing fluids. Almost one-fifth of the entire waste produced by this country is plastic, and yet 1% of it is recycled. Ironically, Athens does have what is believed to be Europe’s largest recycling plant, built next to the landfill four years ago. But the plant has stood idle.

An efficient system for the collection and disposal of waste is critically important in Singapore’s limited land area and dense population. Singapore has an advanced waste management system in place. Their National Environment Agency (NEA) has overall responsibility for the planning, development and management of solid waste disposal facilities and operations in Singapore. This includes the licensing and regulation of solid waste collection and enforcement of illegal dumping.

In this paper, the role of authority in this seemingly unattractive statistics concerning Philippine waste management is put into focus. To be specific, the information dissemination, cooperation, and policies and procedures set for the purpose of implementation of waste management, the factors that cause it and its unacceptable levels that may influence the integrity and performance of Filipinos in how they treat their waste properly. It is for the reason that the researcher hold the belief that what is essential is invisible to the naked eye (Antoine Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince) and that these invisible yet, essential forces are the ones that will make or break the integrity of Philippine authority in the country.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The Study is significant to the following:

1. Department of Environment and National Resources (DENR). The study will help provide information to update existing policies on waste management. Not only will it help in any updates of policies, this study will also help in finding ways of effective and efficient implementation of the waste management program. 2. Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Monitoring of the implementation of the waste management program will make a huge impact on environmental changes. This study will provide some evidences of lapses on the program’s implementation, where the department can study more to ensure a higher rate of obedience of the program. 3. Caloocan City Administrators.

The result of this study will give them insights on the most frequent situations seen in their unit. The study will also provide them with possible programs that will help them cope with the situations and have a better understanding of it. 4. Barangay Officials. This study will provide sufficient data to solve the problems of the implementation of the program. 5. Researchers. This study will give them appreciation and full understanding of the policies, regulations and over-all implementation of waste management program. 6. Future Researchers. This study will serve as reference in conduct of a similar study or research in the future.

Conceptual Paradigm

This Study will use the Input-Process-Output (IPO) model or the Systems Approach. The model is graphically shown below. Figure 1. Theoretical Framework of the Study Entitled “Implementation of Waste Management Program in Three (3) Selected Barangays in District 1, Caloocan City”

The Input will consist of the demographic profile of the respondent, the solid waste management program in the barangays and the law enacted for the topic. The Process will include the questionnaire, oral and written interview and the Document Analysis. The Output will result to a more effective implementation of the Solid Waste Management Program and a clean healthy community.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study will assess the implementation of the Waste Management Program. The respondents will be randomly selected from the three (3) chosen barangays namely Barangay 174 of Camarin, Barangay 175 of Camarin, and Barangay 176 of Bagong Silang located in District 1 of Caloocan City. A total of 150 respondents will be selected where 50 each will come from the three (3) barangays. The period of the study covers from June 2012 to October 2012.

According to a Study on the Overview of Solid Waste Management in Malaysia, there are six elements of SWM: the generation, storage, collection, transportation and transfer, processing and treatment, and the disposal. In changes given during their current system of waste management, their current landfill is approximately 95%. In their given change for a targeted date of 2020, the statistics will change to a 65% landfill, making the 35% for recycling and intermediate processing.

In the United Kingdom, the government is trying to encourage more people to recycle their waste and reduce the UK’s waste mountain. Figure 2 suggests that 60% of all household waste could be recycled or composted, but even the largest nation in the UK, England, appears to be using only 17.7%.

Figure 2. WASTE MANAGEMENT IN THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Even in USA, in 2010, Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash and recycled and composted over 85 million tons of this material, equivalent to a 34.1 percent recycling rate.

Local Literature

Research Method

This segment discusses the research method and techniques and the instrument to be used in gathering to be used in gathering data. The descriptive method of research will be used in gathering data in as much as the nature of the study is such that it aims to describe existing condition tackled. This method is being used because it describes the present status or prevailing condition obtaining in the research venue. Specifically, survey will be conducted which the questionnaire as the primary instrument.

Waste Management Strategies

Waste Management is the procedure of disposing, handling and monitoring of our waste products. These crucial steps help us to lower or get rid of the effects it has on our health and the environment. By practicing waste management we are observing our usage of resources and working to decrease the contaminated materials used. These practices can provide enormous modification in our lives and promise to future generations. We need to promote and execute resourceful recovery practices. These are recycling, composting, energy efforts and healing, waste prevention and many more. The crucial part is to motivate enhancements in our ecological performances which will remove waste. Handling waste is a crucial undertaking that will restore the required balance in our environment.

The majority of our waste products have actually been triggered by our daily human activity. Some example would be the disposal of our waste in land fills or when we burn waste in incinerators. These alternatives, we have discovered, created more ecological problems. These outcomes would be the wind scattering the garbage which then landed in our waterways and environments. Even hazardous liquids would leak through the garbage dump taking in the additional harmful substances and contaminating the environment. Ultimately, all the waste products create major hazardous results on our environment which we have had to execute better ways.

Well, we do have choices, capabilities and yes, some restriction with the various types of wastes management available. We seriously must take much better care to secure our health, lives, and the environment. Steps to promote recycling and reusing have actually been a popular approach to handle our waste. Other disposable choices have actually been on the rise in use. High on the list are composting, open burning, well kept track of incineration, rendering, and other treatment and disposals approaches. Reusing and recycling still stays the most popular waste management practice. It definitely helps in the protection of the environment and the added worth is the conserving of our resources and promoting a cleaner world.

Read more: Proper Waste Management in the Philippines
Prior to World War II, we lived in a world where we used and reused our materials. In the past, we placed much emphasis and value on our resources, tools and materials. It was the norm to return, reuse and recycle materials. It was the norm, necessary and only way to live. But, with the rebuilding of our world came new ideas and new ways to provide resources to our businesses, households and communities. Many found that the quicker and more convenient way to consume products, materials and substances became increasingly popular and available to all. So, the start of using cans and replacing glass bottles had been implemented because of less costs and convenience. Regrettably, along with the returnable deposits declined came the waste problems. Even though companies found the easiness of using cans helped boost their sales in the beverage industry they could not ignore the negative effects of waste.

By 1960, approximately half the beers were distributed and sold in cans but soft drinks were still sold in refillable glass bottles. Gradually the shift from refillable soft drink in a bottle was the way of the past. The use of cans now caught on with the beverage industry. Sadly, this resulted in can being littered throughout the communities and lead to the serious waste problem. Yes, businesses profited from the change. The success was far too good even when the environmentalists with proposing a bottle bills law could not reverse the new trend. This law stated a mandatory refundable deposit on beer and soft drink containers to encourage returns. This bottle bill law required a minimum refundable deposit to insure more recycling or reuse of materials to protect our recourses.

The system was known as the deposit refund system which remains today. The beverage industry did support this bill but wanted a guarantee of the return of their glass bottles to be washed, refilled, and resold for reproduction. This would help to reduce beverage containers being litter and ultimately conserve our precious natural resources. It would help to reduce the amount of solid waste going into landfills and promote recycling. But, quite frankly, it really hasn’t affected overall change because many other industries have created so much waste and have not followed in the footsteps to recycle. We do have more work ahead to remodel the habits and behavior of our world.

The deposit laws for container have been a tremendous success. These initiatives which New York has implemented have created a cleaner and healthier environment. The Environmental Protection Agency funding was estimated to increase to approximately just under $20 million. This will guarantee proceeds to strengthen their ability to enforce the requirements to sell only containers with deposits paid on them. The returnable container act will reduce roadside litter, recycle billions of containers at no cost to government, save over 50 billion barrels in oil, and eliminate hundreds of millions in greenhouse gases a year.

By recycling our beverage cans and bottles we can save energy and protect our environment. It has been noted that recycling aluminum cans saves nearly all of the energy required to make them. Also, recycling beverage containers will greatly reduce the litter and lessens the burden on landfills. We have learned to reduce energy and raw materials consumption means the reduction in pollution.

We know that pollution has been the cause of acid rain, smog, mercury-poisoning in lakes, rivers and stream, and ultimately global warming world-wide. So, to protect our environment we need to implement and encourage ways of healthy more effective, harmonious, product living styles. Some do find that those measure are unnecessary and in effective. We do know that recycling containers with a deposit amount can increase the rates from 75% to 95% but these containers only account for 5% of our waste stream.

The value placed on incentives for containers encourages recycling but the deposit system cost more than the drop off curb side program. The individual finds collecting and depositing containers easier then businesses who find it problematic and burdensome on their storage and transportation expenses. Those who support the container laws find that it does reduce litter but those who disagree believe that a comprehensive litter control program would be more efficient and effective. The opposition confirms that only 8.5% of general litter is actually beverage containers.

Since the bottle bill has been an overwhelming success then to include other non-carbonated drinks would be a good idea. It certainly shows that it takes the same amount of time, money and energy to include other drinks. We have seen additional litter from these non-carbonated drink containers. We have the statistics showing the increased recycling due to the beverage container laws. Yes, the responsibility to provide these programs sits with these non-carbonated drinks. Forcing these laws would be touchy politically but encouraging them would be worth it. Even though some would agree that the price of the non-carbonated drinks would increase due to the added responsibility dealing with these recycling programs. But those who were opposed to the law would agree with alternative legislation that supports all.

In Massachusetts, they are celebrating their 30th anniversary of the bottle bill. From inception, it has been estimated that 35 billion carbonated drink containers have been exchanged through the program. Even the Massachusetts Coalition gave praises on the updates and changed to the bill over the years. It is most definitely agreed that it has contributed to a healthier environment, cleaner and safer communities, and a stronger economy. These programs are an excellent example of corporate responsibility for the beverage companies. They have managed the problems of littering, environmental pollution intern paid to help clean it up.

Much research is being done in developing plastic that is degradable. This exciting possibility could be the key to lowering the environmental impact. Plastic is nearly indestructible and is difficult to recycle and hard to breakdown. Bio-plastic is derived from biomass sources that are mixed with oil base materials. The Oxo-bio has great advantages as it has it can degrade completely without living residue but oxygen is required for the process to occur. This can occur on land and in the water and the oxo-bio will not harm other plastics in the recycling system. Oxo-bio does not have a future in the plastic container industry which will bring great value to the fight against environmental pollution.

Certainly, addressing the solid waste, overall inclusive deposit container law, recycling and litter issues with a comprehensive approach that will emphasize solutions that are effective and efficient will be much better as a whole. Some key areas to address and promote are education and awareness, efficient and effective solutions, curbside recycling program, balance and equitable treatment in all areas for the waste producers, and finally the administration, implementation and enforcement of these waste management laws.

References

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