First and foremost, I want to congratulate the former Vice-president Mr. Al Gore and UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 for their work against global warming. The award recognizes Al Gore and IPCC’s efforts to build up awareness about man-made changes to our climate. The information on global warming was disseminated around the world and that truly the earth was in planetary emergency and in need of our help.

Segregation of Household Wastes
Waste segregation is the process of separating trash from biodegradable ones, recyclable materials and trash that need to be dumped on a dump site. It is an eco-friendly practice to reduce garbage disposal and accumulation in landfills. Thus decreasing the negative impact these wastes produce to the environment. With this in effect, local governments need not to expand or allocate much larger landfills to accommodate the cities garbage disposal needs.

How to segregate trash? It is fairly an easy task to do and for those who need more information on how segregation works, one should inquire to their barangay or local government. Or you can read the rest of my post to get a substantial amount of idea of what segregation is.

To minimize the trash a particular household generates, one should apply waste segregation practices.

The biodegradable wastes are those that breakdown easily by bacteria. Examples of this are peelings of fruits and vegetables, fish intestines and insides, chicken and pork bones, egg shells, rotten foods, manure, grasses, sticks and twigs, ashes and the like. One should keep these wastes on a temporary metal or plastic containers with a cover. To get rid of these accumulated trash, simply dug a deep hole on the ground (depends on how many trash you may put in it), place the waste inside the ditch and cover it with soil. This is an effective way to fertilize the soil as bacteria eats away the waste. Compost is produced by doing this for gardening purposes especially from manure. Animal wastes are also converted into Methane gas to use as an alternative gas to be used in cooking. These method is safe and no harm done to the environment whatsoever.

Recyclable trash are those materials that can be used a hundred or even a thousand times. Examples are paper and cartons, metal and glass bottles and plastic containers.

In the US, scientists have already developed biodegradable plastics made from corn. Common plastics contribute to a number of land pollution issues as these materials cannot breakdown easily by bacteria.

These materials should be delivered to the nearest recycling facility in your area. You can also get some money out of recycling.

Here in the Philippines, men who collect recyclable materials comes with a cart and roams the streets as they shout “Bote, Dyaryo!” (Bottles , Newspapers). You can sell them your used newspapers, plastic bottles and glass bottles. These men will deposit these materials on a junk shop where they weigh it and pay those collectors.

The third ones are those wastes that needed to be dumped on a landfill. Typical examples are sanitary napkins and diapers as these are non-biodegradable and definitely non-recyclable (who would recycle them anyway…eew! haha!). Clothings and rags, ceramics, candy wrappers and other wrappers and Styrofoam. Items should be collected and put in a garbage bag and wait for the garbage collector to collect the trash.

What are the benefits of segregation?
Segregating wastes will drastically reduce the amount of trash being dumped on landfills. Aside from these, local residents can make money out of it by selling recyclable items on junk shops and recycling facilities. Segregation will keep the soil rich in nutrients. Farmers can make their own compost to fertilize their farm to produce good crops. Segregation will limit the effects of land pollution and areas around it will be cleaner and odor free.

Implementation problems of segregation in the Philippines
Last 2000, the government enacted a law in regards to the practice if waste segregation. Republic Act 9003 on the Economic Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 requires each barangay to setup a material recovery facility (MRF). Waste segregation, recycling, composting of biodegradable waste and storing of recyclable materials are the key projects under the MRF. However, most barangays in the country trashed this law due to lack of knowledge and funds.

Under Section 10 of R.A. 9003, barangays play a vital role in carrying out the provisions of the law, because waste segregation and collection are under their jurisdictions.

How sad to think that only a few barangays dedicate part of their duties to waste segregation. The government must alleviate their effort to educate barangay officials of this law. Imagine if 80% of all barangays in the Philippines participated in this project, there will be less land to be allocated for landfills. Angry mobs who oppose these landfills in their area will be reduced.

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