For school principal Rhodara Sacramento, it is best to teach schoolchildren what they need to learn other than solving math, doing their science assignments or coming up with amazing science projects.
The principal at Mabolo Elementary School in Bacoor, Cavite, Sacramento said they should also learn how to be neat and tidy, including how to make their environment clean and green.
This was how she began her advocacy when she was still a teacher at Real Elementary School in 2016. Sacramento led a project teaching the more than 800 elementary pupils to turn used plastic bottles into bottle bricks.
They collect wrappers of candy or junk food, cut them into small strips and stuff them tightly inside the plastic bottles.
When full, the bottle bricks were used as fence and pathway guides in the school or even at the children’s homes.
Turning garbage into gold
“It’s fun and easy,” she told the BusinessMirror in a mix of English and Filipino on May 17.
Sacramento has been waging War on Waste (WOW) with the help of an army of young public-school students.
She is leading the program to minimize garbage in school by convincing students to stuff plastic wrappers into bottles, giving them eco-bags and persuading them to throw used bottles and cans in convenient wire-framed baskets.
Sacramento said there’s money in garbage if you know how to find them.
She said the collected bottles and cans from school projects can be sold to recyclers.
One time the school’s sales proceeds reached P2,500 in just the first three months of the program, that was enough to fund one of the school organization’s Christmas party.
Construction materials
In one of Sacramento’s school projects, bottle bricks were traded with Robinsons Hypermart Bacoor for canvas eco-bags.
The bottle bricks were used to build homes for the Yangil tribe in Zambales, while the eco-bags were distributed to Cavite students’ use.
Meanwhile, to motivate students to maintain the school’s cleanliness, certificates and prizes were awarded to the cleanest rooms at the end of the school year.
War on Waste
“Our War on Waste has drastically reduced the garbage [the school] has been generating. From around 20 garbage bags a week, they were down to five,” said Sacramento, now the principal at Mabolo Elementary School that is waging its own war against solid waste.
Getting rid of plastic waste prevents them from ending and clogging canals, creeks and rivers—or worse, polluting oceans and breaking down into smaller but even deadlier microplastics.
She said there are more solutions that can be developed and shared by other schools across the country that will lead to a cleaner, healthier environment, which she admitted needs a lot of care.
Advocacy
“When we started our advocacy in Real [Elementary School], there was a river that I really love and want to see it clean. Sadly, I haven’t been there for a while,” she confided.
She added that her transfer from one school to another never stopped her from her advocacy.
Sacramento expressed hope that her campaign in Real will be sustained, and that her colleagues will continue even after they transfer to other schools by teaching the schoolchildren the discipline to help cut down the country’s perennial garbage problem.
However, because of the pandemic schools were closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and the projects stopped, said Evelyn Resuello, a science teacher at Real Elementary School.
Discipline instilled
Nevertheless, Resuello told the BusinessMirror on May 18 that the projects on solid waste in Real instilled in every pupil the discipline that needs replication in schools.
“When we implemented the project, we were very happy to see our students participating in the activities. Sometimes, we could see them racing to fill their plastic bottles [with plastic scraps] and you could see them picking up plastics within the school compound,” she said
“Right now, our face-to-face [classes] is very limited. The [pupils] that are required to go to school don’t go to canteens because they only spend half of the day, then go straight home,” she said. “In case regular [face-to-face] classes resume, we will continue to implement this project,” she added.
‘We need champions’
Sought for comment by the BusinessMirror, Vice Chairman Crispian Lao of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) said the Philippines need more real-life champions in schools to teach the younger generation to learn the value of proper solid waste management.
“By teaching them to properly dispose of their waste, you solve half of the problem already,” said Lao, who sits as a private sector representative to the NSWMC.
Lao said the NSWMC is working closely with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Education (DepEd) in order to integrate a module on solid waste management to be taught in schools.
He added that if every student learns the discipline to dispose of their plastic waste properly, they can also adopt this at home and help to effectively cut down the country’s garbage problem.
Garbage producer
Cavite is one of the biggest producers of solid waste because of its big population.
According to the Environmental Management Bureau, Cavite generated an average of 1,514 tons of solid waste daily in 2018, with 22 percent, or 333 tons, of which could be recycled.
With this huge volume of waste, the threat that some of them could end up in Manila Bay is real.
For one, the Imus River that traverses the highest waste-generating cities in Cavite—Bacoor, Dasmariñas and Imus—has become a conveyor belt for leaked plastic waste flowing out to Manila Bay,
Project Aseano
An international initiative is aiding in making Imus River plastic-free.
Project Aseano that is funded by the government of Norway is being led by the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies Indonesia.
It is in close collaboration with the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (Pemsea) Resource Facility and the Asean Secretariat under the purview of the endorsing Asean sectoral body, the Asean Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment.
Project Aseano promotes the development of sound and sustainable measures to reduce the impacts of plastic pollution and their implications on socio-economic development and the environment.
The project focuses at the local level, with Cavite’s Imus River as one of two sites in Southeast Asia.
The results of the project will be synthesized into knowledge products, such as an LGU toolkit and best practices policy handbook, monitoring tools, and technologies for plastics management that can be used as a reference by local governments across the Asean region with similar priority management concerns.
Reducing garbage
In a news release, Dr. Ed Lineses of De La Salle University Dasmariñas, who led part of the Project Aseano’s series of studies, said residents could do a lot to minimize the trash they generate.
“On the household level, they should start with proper segregation, separating waste from items that can still be reused, salvaged or recycled,” he said.
“Households can also choose not to use plastic. There are many things we can buy without using plastic packaging. Policy-makers should also be more creative in finding ways to incentivize the refusal of plastics by collaborating with sellers, giving them sensible incentives to minimize their reliance on single-use plastics,” Lineses added.
Through the efforts of local champions like school principal Rhodora, Asean waterways might soon become a bit cleaner and clearer, he said.
“If a war on waste is what it takes to clean our rivers, then so be it. Schools are one avenue, apart from households, to educate young people on the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. The youth are destined to inherit the future, but how it looks shall depend on what they choose to do today,” said Pemsea Executive Director Aimee Gonzales.
Image credits: Gregg Yan/Pemsea photo