Jonas Lemuel C.

Datu Soc Sci 1

2013- 55241 07/23/28

Research Survey: Proper Waste Segregation at the EEE Institute

Due to the impending dangers of global warming, everyone should be hand in hand in

combatting this deadly environmental problem. One of the things that come into our mind when

we say ‘helping mother nature combat these environmental hazard’ is properly managing our

wastes. This is where the concept of segregation comes into play. To define, Waste segregation is

the separation of biodegradable wastes from non-biodegradable wastes for proper disposal and

recycling.

Improper segregation may cause mixing in landfills. This in turn can lead to toxic release

in the ground and eventual contamination of ground water. Methane gas is likely to be released in

such circumstances, which is one of the most harmful greenhouse gases.

Proper segregation leads to proper recycling. Most of the waste can be reused and recycled.

However, improper segregation process can cause many things to be left out from the recycling

process.

As an undergraduate, studying BS Electronics and Communications Engineering under the

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute of UP Diliman, for 5 years now, I am often amazed

on how keen and sophisticated EEE students are in disposing their electrical wastes. This is to the

point that we have special bins specially made to throw in old, unused, and damaged electrical

things. Due to this fact, I came to wonder if these same students, who are very much strict with

their electronic wastes, also follow a sophisticated implementation of segregation when it comes

to their regular wastes.

 Given these factors, this research survey entitled ‘Proper Waste Segregation at the EEE

Institute’ aims to analyze and establish whether EEE students are aware and educated enough

about proper waste disposal in their institute.

For this survey, we had 30 respondents, all UP Diliman students under the EEE Institute.

Since the act of waste segregation is gender neutral, controlling that variable is unnecessary. Age,

and course, on the other hand, plays a role in determining which courses and batch groups are more

aware of the waste segregation policy. Majority of our respondents are 21 yrs old, comprising

56.7% of our total respondents. We have 6 20, and 22 years old, and a single 19 year old. For the

degree program, 60% of our respondents are under the Electronics and Communications

Engineering degree program, 26.7% are under Computer Engineering, and a minority of 13.3%

are under the Electrical Engineering degree program. The graphs below illustrates the division of

our respondent’s age and degree programs.

For this next part, these graphs show the summarized and tabulated results regarding the

questions presented to our respondents.

 In this section, we’ll try to analyze and debone each question, and what their corresponding

results signify in terms of our goal. Let’s start with how aware EEE students are in the proper

waste segregation policy of EEE. Based on the chart, 83.3% or 25 of our respondents confirmed

that they are, indeed, aware that such policy is being implemented inside the institute while on the

other hand, the remaining 16.7% which comprises 5 of our respondents admitted that they were

not aware of such policy. When asked about it, most of them replied that the information regarding

the segregation policy wasn’t that properly disseminated, and that no one was enforcing students

to the follow the policy. Others stated that they didn’t know that there was segregation taking

place. All they know is that the plastic bottles were being separated from the other kinds of wastes.

Looking at this topic from the EEE’s point of view, every one of our respondents seems to

agree that the institute provides the necessary coded trash bins at every comfort rooms in every

floors. These bins are supported with proper signage and printed materials to educate and

encourage students about segregating their wastes. However, it was evident that the institute do

not conduct orientations and seminars specifically programmed to teach students about this matter.

In my opinion, I think that the institute dismissed this as something that a ‘UP student’ should

already know. Thus, relying on each student’s self-discipline and moral obligation to save the

environment.

Now that we know how many of our respondents are actually aware of the segregation

policy, let us now find out if they have been keen in following the rules. As expected majority of

our respondents really were keen in following the policy. Almost 60% of our respondents said that

yes, they are practicing proper waste segregation inside the institute. When asked why, most of

them talked about wanting to save the environment, or that ‘any act, however small, creates a big

impact’. Others also pointed out that it is actually a matter of self-discipline, and even though there
aren’t some repercussions when the rule is not followed, it is our obligation to take care of our

home planet. Meanwhile, 26.7% stated that they only follow proper segregation sometimes. They

reasoned that they sometimes forget to sort out their trash. Others seem to be discouraged when

the waste are already not sorted- ‘When the current trash are not segregated, I end up not following

it as well. I follow it if the bins are still empty/properly segregated.’ Lastly, the remainder of our

respondents said that they do not practice proper waste segregation simply because they are not

aware of the fact.

When asked regarding whether the proper waste segregation at the EEE Institute is

successful or not, our respondents seem to have mixed reactions, although these reactions resulted

to an above average results. This might mean that although there are some who are out of line,

majority of the people still think that the proper waste segregation policy of the institute didn’t fall

on deaf ears.

Personally, based on the results of the survey, I’d say that the institute didn’t lack in

promoting proper waste segregation among its students. As an EEE student myself, the sufficient

coded bins in almost every corner is enough encouragement for me to practice segregating. It is

only a matter of the individual self- discipline among each students that contributes to how far

they’ll commit to the policy. As an institute leaning towards a future of technology, I suggest that

they set up various cctv cameras in places where the trash bins are located to further enforce the

students to properly segregate their trashes. It might be a bit of a push, but in doing so, each and

every one of the students would feel obligated to commit to the policy.