FOREFRONT: Moving Towards a Greener Nation

by Divine Grace Agura, Daniela Chua, Darwin Eugenio, Ciara Jane Roncales, Merryl Marquez

Now on its 40^th year, the University of Santo Tomas Chemical Engineering Society (UST-ChES) has extended its span in reaching out to every community apart from the student body. This year, UST ChES aligns its goals in building environmental awareness to individuals outside the university through their community development project, FOREFRONT: Footsteps towards a Greener Future, a three-day series of activities an workshops held at North Alliance Triangle, Rodriguez (Montalban), Rizal last January 31, February 7 and February 21, 2016. Students, professors and other volunteers participated in this event spearheaded by its project heads Arun Nanda Kumar, Maria Kassandra Tan, Jeth Abisams, Hazil Magpayo, and Paula Bacani.

Day 1

Held at the Kristong Hari chapel by the mountainside, the event was formally opened by Zeny Alzate, the chapel coordinator who praised the efforts of UST ChES and UST Simbahayan (the community development and charity arm of the University of Santo Tomas).

Engr. Mark Emile Punzalan, Chair of the UST ChE Department gave his opening remarks. Afterwards, Mr. Niño Pinalva of the DENR-EMB-EEID, gave a brief lecture on basic environmental education and solid waste management. As he was doing so, student volunteers from UST ChES prepared the trash bins for donations. After the lunch break, a group activity was held in which the community residents, including the barangay captain, were grouped together to discuss the solid waste problems in their community. Free learning materials supplied by the DENR were also distributed to the community.

The first day of Forefront was graced with the presence of the entire executive board of UST ChES.

Day 2

The second day of the event was graced with the presence of enlightening speakers from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and its two branches, the National Solid Waste Commission (DENR – NSCW) and the Environment Management Bureau - Environmental Education and Information Division (DENR-EMB EEID).

The second day was officially opened by the chapel coordinator, Zeny Alzate. Afterwards, an icebreaker game entitled Pinoy Henyo, hosted by Hannah Gohing and Hazel Pulan, was then played to make the atmosphere lively and to interact with the audience – mostly community residents in the area.

The first speaker, Ms. Nelie Dimer, from the DENR NSWC, was then called on to discuss the situation of solid waste management in the country. Her hands-on dynamic approach was appreciated by the thirty-strong audiences. As she was speaking, volunteers and participants took on their painting materials and trooped to the other side of the chapel to paint some newly-donated garbage bins made of sturdy high density polyethylene.

After Ms. Dimer finished her interactive lecture, a lunch break was held while the UST participants were handing out free food to those who joined and participated to the said event.

After lunch break, the organizers decided to have another game in able to get the attention of the residents as they just finished their lunch and were returning to their seats. The game, “Bring Me”, had residents scrambling to give the item asked by the two game masters – Kassandra Tan and volunteer Darwin Eugenio. The winners of the game were given prizes – a tote bag from UST ChES’ sponsor M’Lhuillier and a book on making crafts from recycled materials.

The last guest speaker for day 2, Mr. Niño Pinalva of the DENR-EMB-EEID, presented numerous powerpoint and audio-visual presentations to discuss some of the grievous environmental problems which is relevant to our country. The community members present in the chapel listened attentively as he also discussed on how communities can work together to address such issues.

A roundtable discussion was held among grouped community members and UST participants to discuss on the solutions they promised to do in order to improve solid waste management practices of their community. The fruits of these discussions were then discussed among the entire audience afterwards.

The second day event was formally closed by Arun Kumar, who thanked all the participants for giving their full attention to the speakers. A picture-taking opportunity was then held before the community residents left the chapel.

“Nag-enjoy mga volunteers. Everyone just fell into place, maraming natutunan, at maraming learning opportunities.” remarked Arun Kumar, also the Chair of the UST ChES Community Development Committee.

“Interacting with the community was fun. Even if I’m just a young college student, they listened and had fun sharing their thoughts on how they could mitigate the amount of trash they produce. I felt at home with them, unexpectedly. They also shared, with visible happiness, their contributions in managing solid waste. I really recommend this event as it brings out the inner volunteer in you.” a 5^thyear-level volunteer said. 

Two faculty members, Prof. Edna Quinto and Engr. Rose Ann Tamolang, also participated and observed the event.

Day 3

For the last day of the event, UST-ChES partnered with Let’s Do it Philippines represented by Mr. Anthony Philip M. Robles. This non-government organization focuses mainly on solid waste management and leads mass movements nationwide towards a cleaner country.

“The outside world is just a reflection of man’s inner world,” Mr. Robles said, as he started his series of talks throughout the event. According to him, to fully understand the current situation regarding the environmental status of the country, one must know the value of Mother Earth. He pointed out that we don’t just call our environment “Mother” for nothing and that this endearment denotes for a very personal matter. “What we think, is what we do”, he added.  Apart from these insights, he also mentioned about “Garbage in, Garbage out (GIGO)” which means that a bad input will lead to bad result and is used to describe failures in decision-making due to faulty or incomplete data. This implies that in order to achieve the goals of projects like solid waste management, information and actions must be practical and correct for efficient garbage disposal.

The 3-day workshop composed of different activities which would widen the horizon of all the participants not only about environmental awareness, but also to building camaraderie with each other, student or resident of the community towards attaining the goals of this community development project.  One of the activities for day 3 is a game which tested decision making and cooperation of the participants. This encouraged volunteers to get to know each other while formulating ways on how to escape from being tangled in handcuffs. This was subsequently followed a group activity which highlighted day 3. Mr. Robles termed this as “Upcycling” or a higher form of recycling wherein things are transformed to have better quality and environmental value.

Residents and volunteers were grouped and were tasked to innovate wastes from the household and the streets. This does not only aim to build interconnection with the community but also to see prospects which would have the potential to alter current products which causes the downfall of the environmental sector. Mr. Anthony gave 5 criteria for the upcycling activity.

• ·         Creativity and resourcefulness
• ·         Quality
• ·         Usefulness
• ·         Sustainability
• ·         Aesthetics

Each group were eager to make the best from their gathered materials. Group 1 turned cans into improvised speakers, plastic bottles into flower pots and used hangers to hang the plastic flower pots. They also used old pitchers as their vase. Group 2 used old newspapers in making a basket and used plastics as the beads of their necklaces and bracelets. Group 3 turned scrap woods into a shoe rack and the old water containers into shoe holder and some accessories for it. They also improvised an old chess board into a cork board. Group 4 used the cups (used by the participants from the lunch earlier) into decorative flowers as well as their old candle holder and glass bottles into vases. They also made a picture frame and pencil holder from cartons.

After each group presented each of their product. The chapel coordinator, Zeny Alzate, also discussed their upcoming community projects. These projects include clean up drive and their own environmental organization to which they have proposed names for it. Trash Bins donated by volunteers were also to be allocated to strategic communities. She also added “Itong project na ito ay hindi lang basta basta dahil ito ay isa na nating problema. Ang mangyayari dito ay alam na natin kung ano ang solid waste management pero kung tayo lang ang gagawa, tayong naka-attend sa seminar ay hindi rin natin ito magagawa ng maayos. Kailangan natin ipakalat ito at simulan natin sa ating mga kapitbahay at magkakaroon din tayo ng information drive. Itong proyekto na ito ay mahalaga dahil tayo ang nakikinabang sa lupa. Dahil sa proyekto na ito ay natuto na tayong mag-segregate at ngayon, upcycling. Sana ay maipagpatuloy pa natin ito.”

Residents also pledge to continue the advocacy that the community development committee and UST ChES had started and that they would work and encourage other communities to start doing actions towards a greener society.

According to Mr. Kumar, the preparation for this project took up an entire semester to complete, with many details needed to be settled such as the schedule of speakers, allocation of budgets and the participation of the members. “Everyone was tired, but it’s all worth it”, he concluded.