Waste Management In The Philippines

Introduction

Background

Waste management is the precise name for collection, transportation, disposal or recycling and monitoring of waste (Waste Management Resources, 2009). Humans thousands of years ago used to dispose of their waste by simply digging a hole and burying it. However, in the modern world, this method isn 't acceptable because modern people produce more waste which is not biodegradable and damaging to the environment (Dee Mohammed, 2016). It is evident that the Philippines faces problems involving trash seeing that as of March 2016 the Philippines produces 861,967 tons of waste per year; making the Philippines the 3rd highest plastic waste generator.

Metro Manila, alone, is said to produce a fourth of the Philippines '

This problem is not exclusive to Metro Manila, cities like Lipa also experience problems like these. This report shall focus on the waste management of the municipality of San Jose, Batangas.

The Community

The Municipality of San Jose, Batangas is located in Region IV-A of the Philippines. San Jose is where a great number of poultry and piggery animals are grown and sold which is why it is also known as the "Egg Basket of the Philippines". As of the 2015 census, it has a population of 76, 971.

Some short-term problems include injuries from broken bottles and rusted metal objects. On the other hand, the long-term problems that may arise from this problem are more serious and damaging to the health and environment. These long-term problems include reproductive disorders and respiratory problems due to pollution, soil and surface water contamination. The group realized that the barangay hall had a solution to the problem they were facing. The tarpaulin hung outside the barangay hall says "Gamot kong Kailangan, Basura and Pagkukunan" meaning that the barangay hall accepts the garbage of the households in exchange for medications that the people need. However, this project seems to be unsuccessful because the people would still choose to burn the garbage they have. This also seems to be unsuccessful because upon entering one office of the barangay hall, there were many unopened boxes of medications on one cabinet. The students also realized from the interviews that the people do not find their situation with garbage as a problem because of how normal it is to them. Just like the children and parents that the students bumped into, they didn 't seem surprised by the fact that a house was burning garbage in front of their house, unlike the students that found this situation