An action research on improving waste management system to address improper waste disposal in Barangay 786, San Andres Bukid, Manila

• Main Author: Sardovia, Rezza M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/4649
• Institution: De La Salle University

The purpose of this paper is to review the waste management process that are currently being used in the area of municipal waste management focusing on Barangay 786 and to highlight some shortcomings of these models. In this study I aim to do an action research on improper waste management. Improper waste management could pause serious threats to an environment. This action research is directed towards affecting change with the active collaboration of the local government unit (LGU), and its community in specific interventions aiming to improve the current waste management of Barangay 786. Waste management is the generation, prevention, characterization, monitoring, treatment, handling, reuse, and residual disposition of solid wastes . There are various types of solid waste including municipal (residential, institutional, commercial), agricultural, and special (health care, household hazardous wastes, sewage sludge) Waste Management (2013). The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Reducing or eliminating adverse impacts on the environmental through reducing, reusing and recycling, and minimizing resource extraction can provide improved air and water quality and help in the reduction of greenhouse emissions. In this paper, I was able to cover cycle 1 of the Spiral of Action Research Cycles (Coghlan and Brannick, 2010, p.10). Using the action research and case study approaches established on the insider action research framework of Coghlan and Brannick, interventions were implemented with a close collaboration with the officials of Barangay 786 and its community to help mitigate the current waste management issue. The interventions on how to properly manage waste were basically to put up two huge all-metal-mobile carts with lid, Barangay ordinance for failed compliance, education and awareness campaign, and community cooperation. The impact of interventions were monitored in terms of the changes that occurred based on the changes related to affected areas, community behaviors, and environmental impacts in general and what the officials of the Barangay intend to do in the near future. Overall, it was surprising to find out the causes and effects which stemmed back to the following: lack of political will, lack of discipline and wrong attitude, inadequate information education campaign down to the Barangay level, lack of implementation of laws, incompetent government officials, prevalence of kaibigan-kamaganak (friend-relatives) system, resistance to change and the list goes on.