The UPLB Housing Office (UHO) and the UPLB Environmental Committee (EnviCom) of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs (OVCCA) participated in a Solid Waste Management and Hands-on Composting training on 3 July 2024 at the UP Diliman Environmental Management Office (UP DEMO).

 

Led by Ms. Rosie Dones, head of UP DEMO Solid Waste Management, the training highlighted key aspects of the RA 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 with emphasis on waste generation

control through the 5Rs of waste management: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover. Also, UP Diliman’s comprehensive ecological solid waste management and ongoing waste reduction efforts were discussed during the session.

 

According to UP DEMO’s 2023 data, UP Diliman’s residual waste collected from the academic oval alone

averaged 56 metric tons or 8-arm roll trucks monthly. Meanwhile, food waste from the campus and

surrounding communities averaged 8.25 metric tons per month, peaking in December due to increased waste generation during the holiday season.

 

Concluding the lecture, Dones shared UP DEMO’s best practices and challenges in waste reduction. This was followed by a hands-on workshop, demonstrating the step-by-step process of preparing the activator compost.

 

Also present and showing their full support during the training are UPD Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs (VCCA) Roehl L. Jamon, UPLB Assistant to the VCCA and UPLB Housing Office (UHO) Chief Dr. Benevieve D. Villanueva, and UPLB EnviCom Chair Mark Dondi M. Arboleda.

 

Solid waste management remains one of UPLB’s priority concerns. A waste analysis and characterization study by Palomar et al. (2019) revealed that the campus generates an average of 593.67 kg of waste daily, predominantly comprising paper, food waste, and plastic.

 

Through OVCCA’s Waste-at-Source Segregation (WASS UP, LB!) project, UPLB aims to reduce waste

generation and ease waste collection in the community. In the university staff housing area, UHO facilitated the fabrication, distribution, and installation of garbage bins throughout the staff housing community to

 

Building on the knowledge gained from the training, the UPLB EnviCom and UHO plan to enhance their

composting process and develop a comprehensive ecological solid waste management plan, starting with the UPLB staff housing area. This initiative is part of UPLB’s effort to reduce campus waste and create a greener and more sustainable environment for the entire UPLB community. (𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘐𝘭𝘰𝘪𝘻𝘢 𝘝𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘪 𝘓𝘰𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰)