MODULE

5
ENVIRONMENT

Learning Objective: At the end of the module, the students are expected to be
responsible and learn how to protect our environment.

Methodology: Blended Learning (Synchronous and Asynchronous)

Requirements: Attendance 30%

Individual activity 50%
Participation during discussion 20%
_______________
100%

Learning Content

1. Definition of Environment and Ecological Solid Waste Management

2. Ecological Solid Waste Management – RA 9003
3. Benefits of Ecological Solid Waste Management
4. Objectives of Ecological Solid Waste Management
5. Methodology and uses of five F’s
6. The three R’s of Ecological Solid Waste Management
7. Sources of solid waste in a community
8. Factors that affect waste generation

Time Allotment: 3 hrs

ENVIRONMENT

It is perceived as the immediate surroundings of an individual. In a boarder

context, environment is a complex system which deals with a network of living and non-
living entities.

ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

It is a zero-waste management through total recycling for the community. Its

main objective is to make the community permanently and regularly clean, sanitary and
litter less. It also inspires and elicits maximum voluntary participation from almost all of
the people and various sectors of the community while persuasively challenging the
creativity skills and capabilities for cooperation and unity.

ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT act of 2000 – RA 9003

Republic Act 9003 considers “waste as a resource that can be recovered,”

emphasizing re-cycling, re-use and composting as methods to minimize and eventually
manage the waste program.
This act aims for the reduction of solid waste through “source reduction and
waste minimization measures including composting, recycling, re-use, recovery, green
charcoal process, and others before collection, treatment, and disposal in appropriate
and environmentally sound solid waste management facilities in accordance with
ecologically sustainable development principles”. (Section2-C)
It also sets to “ensure the proper segregation, collection, transport, storage,
treatment, and disposal of solid waste through formulation and adoption of the best
environmental practice in ecological waste management excluding incineration”.
(Section 2-D)
Further, this Act gives strong emphasis on the role of municipal and local
government units (LGUs). It empowers the LGUs to create solid waste management
communities even in the barangay level. This requires the participation of non-
government offices, people’s organizations, church leaders, educators, and other
business and community associations.

BENEFITS OF ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

 Simplified, hygienic, dignified management of household waste

 Maximum and optimum recovery or retrieval of much needed, costly materials
 Enhanced ecological balance of the environment, eliminating open dump sites,
lessening pollution of our soil, air and water resources
  Served as a springboard or starting point for useful, timely household or
barangay level projects to help our people endure or overcome the present
economic crisis such as:
 Food production (backyard vegetable gardens, mini-space, container
gardens, eco-pounds using household waste water for raising kangkong,
gabi, kuhol, tialapia, azola, etc.)
 Cottage industries (handicraft, house-décor, toys) utilizing discarded
materials and generating employment for housewives, out of school
youth and school children
 Herbal gardens, ornamental plant nurseries, fruit bearing, fuel or
firewood supplying trees (like ipil ipil), organic compost-making
techniques, greening and reforestation projects
 Trash-to-cash projects to generate seed capital for health services and
health education projects, and vocational training programs
 Easily accessible/affordable, result-visible projects that can be easily understood
by almost everyone

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF ECOLOGICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT

1. Utilizing appropriate technology in existing dump site to prolong their life

2. Initially reduce volume of waste stream that mix both compostable and non-
compostable waste
3. Reduce pollution by lessening unnecessary burning
4. Reduce the incidence of diseases associated with unsanitary or unhygienic
waste disposal
5. Utilize waste material for income generating projects such as urban gardening
and livestock raising, cottage industry

METHODOLOGY OF THE FIVE F’s TOTAL RECYCLING

The two kinds of solid waste are:

1. Non-biodegradable or non-compostable
- Factory returnable (dry paper, cardboards, plastic rubber, glass,
bottles, mirror, metals, mineral, tin cans, dry fibers or pieces of
clothing, and wood)
2. Biodegradable or compostable
- Feed materials (food leftovers, kitchen or cooking waste, fruit
peeling, vegetable trimmings, egg shells, and fish entrails)
- Fertilizer materials (food leftovers, kitchen refuse, animal wastes,
garden wastes such as dry leaves and other plant parts, sawdust
and wood shavings)
- Fuel materials (saw dust, shavings, wood boxes, rice hull, coco
shells, corn cobs, coffee hull, newspapers, and cardboards)
- Filling materials (porcelain chips and useable plastics)
 What are the most productive/useful/healthful uses of each of the five F’s?
1. Factory recyclables can be used for handicrafts or sold to junk shops
2. Feed materials can be used for house pets, livestock or for composting
3. Fertilizer materials can be used for making compost to enrich the soil
for growing vegetables, medicinal plants and ornamental plants and
fruit trees
4. Fuel materials can be used for cooking purposes
5. Filling materials are unusable or unwanted materials which can be
compactly packed in plastic bags buried low places putting stones and
soil over these filling materials

Why are compostable deadly when not properly managed?

Even if organic compostable are just 10 to 20% per households and with
lesser volume, the potential problems of increasing the density of flies,
cockroaches, rodents (rats) by providing food, harborages and breeding grounds
are really dangerous.
Every minute, three Filipinos die, 80% are most related to filth-borne
associated diseases or poor management of solid or liquid waste. The sad thing
is that most of them are children below 6 years of age.
Compostable or organic biomass when allowed on the surface, water
body would mean reduction of dissolved oxygen due to organism planktons
growth competing with the oxygen. This result to reduction of fish population due
to fish kill bloom is inevitable. Siltation sedimentation caused by organic biomass
will eventually kill the coral reef (hence 70% of corals are damaged) due to
compostable being eroded by rain.

Why dump sites increase ecological problems?

1. To maintain a dump site is very expensive and it lowers the values of
the land plus it attracts household pests and pollution problems
2. Scavengers are difficult to control at dump sites. The practice of dump
site sorting will bring more misery to the poor and will increase the
disease pattern with volume of waste uncontrolled, top soil covering
will be very expensive in both equipment and energy use
3. Pollution will always be the problem in all dump sites, especially during
rainy days. Air pollution will add gases that are highly toxic.
4. The methane generated by methanuric bacteria if uncollected or not
properly use can contribute 20 times more warming than carbon
dioxide in vehicles.

COMPOSTING
It is a biological process in which organic materials such as vegetable trimmings,
fruit peelings, kitchen refuse, dry leaves cut grasses and plant parts are broken down
into a soil-like product. It is a form of recycling, a natural way of returning nutrients to the
soil.

What are the benefits of composting?

1. By composting organic wastes at home, one can produce a soil
enriches which can be used in gardening
2. It reduces the incidence of household pests by minimizing their food
supply
3. It reduces the valuable landfill spaces normally used to dispose these
materials.

What are the types of small-scale composters?

a. Twin pits
b. Paso-paso or clay flower pots compost garden
c. Backyard compost pile

THE THREE TYPES OF Rs OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

1. R is for REDUCE. Avoid wasteful consumption of goods. Begin by asking the

question: “Do I really need it?” in doing so, we minimize waste and conserve
our natural resources. Conservation like charity begin within thyself.
2. R is for REUSE. When practicable reuse items that is still useful instead of
just throwing them away. It would greatly help if we patronize goods that are
reusable rather than throw away types.
3. R is for RECYCLE. Waste can be valuable resource. Items that are useless
or of little may mean great value to someone.

SOURCES OF SOLID WASTE IN A COMMUNITY

1. Household wastes – waste generated at the household level
2. Commercial-Industrial wastes – generated by restaurants, eateries, offices,
markets, talipapa, plant mills, factories (including such as chemicals, paints
and sand)
3. Farm and Agricultural wastes – farm manure and crop residues
4. Institutional wastes – generated by hospitals, schools, churches and prisons
5. Mining wastes – slag heaps and coal refuse piles
6. Miscellaneous and Specialized wastes – residues of sewage treatment
plants, ash from incinerators and residues from the combustion of solid fuels,
debris caused by disasters (fires, typhoons, flood, etc.) large waste from
demolitions and construction rubble, and dead animals.
7. Hazardous wastes – wastes that pose a potential hazard to living creatures
because they are toxic or lethal, non-degradable or persistent in nature, and
may cause detrimental cumulative effects.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT WASTE GENERATION

 1. The state of the national economy – as standards arise, there is a
corresponding increase in the quantity and quality of wastes
2. The lifestyle of the people – reflected in product marketing techniques, such
as the clearly perceptible shift in consumer preferences for pre-packaged
foodstuff, the increase in use of paper lined with plastics for packaging, and
the use of disposable diapers.
3. The demographic profile of the population – the greater the number of
persons per household, the greater volume of waste generated
4. The size and type of dwelling – those who dwell in larger and more expensive
type homes produce more waste per capita.
5. Age – young consumers patronize a set of products different from those
consumed by their elders.
6. Religion – consumer preferences in Islamic countries differ greatly with
predominantly Christian nations.
7. The extent to which the 3R’s are carried out – where the population is more
concerned with the environment in general, there is a concerted effort to cut
down waste at the point of origin
8. Presence of pets and domestic animals
9. Seasonal variations
10. Presence of laws and ordinances governing waste management
11. Company buy-lack guarantees for used containers and packaging

Integrating Activity:

Trash to Treasure: Find a material in your home that is considered waste or not
used anymore. Your task is to transform the material into a useful item. Record a video
on how you transform the material from trash to treasure. / Take a picture of the item
before and after. Your work will be evaluated on the following criteria.
Creativity – 30%
Originality – 20%
Use of recycled materials – 30%
Usability – 20%
___________
100%

______________________________________________________________________
________
References:

Waste Management and Waste Segregation

An Information Pamphlet on RA 2003
The Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000
Dela Cruz, Sonia-Gasilla, National Development via National Service Training
Program (CWTS & ROTC), 2005.