VOL 1, ISSUE 1

JANUARY 2015

BULAHAN CO RODRIGUEZ VILLALUZ

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Trashy But Classy

Work for Family, Work for Advocacy

TRASH IS

CASHIt’s Not

Just Trash

You don’t know what the MRF is?

Who does all the dirty work?

Segregation and then what?

What do we get?

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8 KASSANDRA KIM CO

“Nature? Environment? I’ve got one word for you: boring!” Does this sound familiar to you?

Every day people – faculty, sta�, and students – pass by a small orange shed going to and fro the di�erent buildings of the Loyola Schools (LS) for di�erent classes. �is shed is in between two greater buildings, the Faura Hall and the PIPAC. If you’re still not familiar, it’s across the place where the new co�ee truck parks. Try looking behind you

when you’re buying your morning co�ee. Yes, the orange one that always seems to be empty – that’s the one. �e shed has a tree beside it, a few plants and some big blue bins in front �lled with di�erent types of recoverable materials. Behind the bins, hanging from above, is a tarpaulin with big bold letters that spell: “Loyola Schools Materials Recovery Facility.” But even with big and bold letters, people tend not to notice it. 2

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“Huh? What’is MRF?” people – including faculty and sta� – ask back after I ask them if they know what MRF is. �e funny thing is that the MRF has been operating since 2009 (“Waste”) – that’s for about �ve years already! It’s not new like the co�ee truck across it, but somehow the truck is more familiar to the LS community than MRF has ever been. If the co�ee truck were the popular kid, MRF would be the wimpy kid that no one ever notices – the one nobody bothers to give attention to. If people do have an idea of what MRF is, they ask me this: “Is this for ES [Environmental Science]?” Should the MRF be of concern only to those in SOSE (School of Science and Engineering)?

�e MRF is one of the projects that serve to make the LS Community a more caring and eco-friendly community. Alongside Bring Your Own Baunan (BYOB), the Vermicomposting Facility, and the �ve di�erent types of trash bin in Ateneo, the MRF is the university’s step towards a greater community leading greener lives.

�e MRF is a segregation site wherein solid waste that can be recycled or recovered is brought to. Here, it is further segregated and then kept for selling or for recovery. It has three rooms for the three di�erent stages of segregation. Twice a day every day – rain or shine – the maintenance sta� collects the trash bins and gathers all the solid waste here.

“Boring!” my cousin chimes in.

When I asked Kuya Manex Varona, an AMPC employee that has been working in Ateneo for 17 years, why he thinks people – especially students – have no clue what MRF is, he told me, “Parang nonsense sakanila e. ‘Pag dinaraanan, parang wala l ang – dedma… Kumbaga wala silang kailangan doon...” (“Well, it seems like it’s “nonsense” for them – pointless. When they walk past it – it’s like they don’t see it. �ey disregard it… In a way, it’s because they don’t need anything from it…”) I smiled at his answer. It made perfect sense.

People tend to take no notice of things that they think do not a�ect them. People don’t prioritize news from other countries as much as local news unless they are particularly interested in the issue; otherwise, we just brush them o�. �is is what Kuya Manex says. Whatever we think has no e�ect on us, we don’t give it our attention. Even if it’s right in our faces, our computer screens, or on the radio, when we �nd no value in it or no relevance to it, chances are, we ignore it. �is is like the students, faculty, and sta� with the MRF. �ey may walk past the orange shed every single day, but because their jobs or interests do not coincide with that of MRF’s, they haven’t given it (enough) attention. To them, the MRF is just another establishment or even some-thing that they haven’t seen before. Because they are not directly a�ected by the MRF, they wouldn’t really care.

“Eh, but [MRF is] boring… I mean, who would want to know about trash?”

But everything a�ects everything. We are a giant web; when one strand moves, everything moves. No matter how many times we tell ourselves that we aren’t a�ected by one action, we still are. It’s life – that’s how it works. Everything is intercon-nected. If, for example, we didn’t have the MRF and all of the trash goes into the land�lls, we would have even more trash in the Earth, which would not be good for the environment. What is not good for the environment is not good for us. We get a�ected; everything gets a�ected. No matter how little or far fetch the connec-tions seem to be, there is still and there will always be connections.

It may not be the MRF’s time to be recognized yet, but hopefully one day, everyone will not think of it as “boring” and just “garbage” instead, everyone will �nally know what that orange shed across the co�ee truck is and what it does – for the environment, and therefore, for us. ***

Waste Management Solutions. (n.d.). Ateneo de Manila University. Retrieved from http://ls.ateneo.edu/system.php?LS=staticpages&id=1248073435120

Work for Family, Work for Advocacy

TheaVillaluz

They’re always there but they’re invisible. They’re not your business, you think, but their business is you. The workers or employees in this, or any,

institution are easily ignored. Most probably because we are too occupied with our own work and endeavors. We filter them from our vision, purposely

or not. We commonly think that they are here to “work for wages” (Merriam- Webster’s, 1995), and for it only. But in the Materials Recovery

Facility (MRF) for sure, the employees mea n to work for more.

The Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is one of the many sustainable projects of the Ateneo. But how was the campus’ waste treatment before the MRF? “[A] green campus produces daily a big volume of yard waste and consumer practices increase the volume of residual waste…” (Cuyegkeng, et al., 2014). This causes the campus’ need of a more efficient waste reduction or materials recovery program. In 2008, students Herwin Jerome Unidad, David So, and Vivienne Erica Zerrudo along with Environmental Science professor Ms. Abigail Favis, presented a proposal in the ASEAN Green Vision Sustainability Forum, “a competition that seeks to find the best environmental projects in South East Asia” (Jurado, 2008) , regarding the sorting of materials in the Loyola Schools

Work for Family, Work for Advocacy

Schools campus.This proposal written by these great Ateneans won against proposals submitted by groups from the University of the Philippines and De La Salle University. The proposal was also passed onto Vice President Ma. Assunta Cuyegkeng, Ph. D, who was also planning of putting up a Materials Facility. They absorbed the students in planning for the project later that year. The Materials Recovery Facility project operated in 2009, under the Ateneo Environmental Management Coalition (Vermicomposting and Material Recovery, n.d.). This program needs cooperation and manpower. This is where the employees come in the scene.

You’ll rarely find an employee on site. They usually go around the campus, while sometimes, they just look too busy to talk to as they are always working. “Tao po!” I called out. Luckily, a man in light blue polo shirt came out of the dim room. It seemed like I interrupted him. He just parked his cart and he was unloading the contents. He smiled at me and asked what I needed. I told him that I was writing an article and that I needed his statement. “Naku! ‘Wag mo akong ipo-post sa YouTube ah!” he said. He’s mood was so light. Though the place smelled of faint wet soil and weed, felt very humid, and was hovered by some mosquitos, he didn’t seem to mind it.

His name is Arnel Alta, thirty-eight years old. He is a contractual/casual employee, which means he is to work in the the MRF for only three months. He started last November 10, and will leave his job on February next year. His original job in the Ateneo was to sweep roofs. He stated that their job was to segregate and collect materials from the bins found around campus. They segregated it in such a way that the dump trucks that collect the wastes will not have a hard time in disseminating the materials - where it is supposed to go for example,

junk shops. Certain employees are desig-nated in their own area in collecting these materials. Kuya Arnel is assigned in the Gonzaga building.

So far, he shared, he finds his job fun because he appreciates the art of segre-gation and that he practices it at home. He finds recyclable materials as treasures and appreciate its’ future uses. While lessening the trash, one can gain money from it. And that is what the MRF does.

I noticed how he kept on repeating that segregation is really important and that it was the best way to manage materials. “Mas maganda kasi talagang ‘pag naka segregate yung mga… [basura] para maayos din tignan”. He also gave examples on how he does it at home. He said that he collects bottles and cartons for his child’s future projects. “Maka-katipid ka talaga”. “Para na nga akong nasa bahay eh!” he said with enthusiasm, talking about his duties and how he does the same at home.

I also asked about his stay in the Ateneo: his relationship with his co-workers, bosses, and students. “Mababait sila!”, he exclaimed. The smile on his face did not withdraw.

Dark was approaching and his work for the day was, as well. Though his duty here in the Ateneo ends at 5pm, it continues when it gets home, in his own household. Saying goodbye and thanking him after our conversation, was not only out of etiquette after an interview, but also an appreciation of the love for his work. Knowing that workers like Kuya Arnel, people who are really concerned with what their job is about, is really inspiring. They want more than earning their wages. They want to see change and order by doing their duties. And by doing it with smiles on their faces.

5Vermicomposing and Material Recovery. Retrieved from http://ls.ateneo.edu/system.php?LS=staticpages& id=1248073435120

The Ateneo de Manila University Sustainability Report for School Year 2012-2014

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What Can I Recycle?. Waste Management. Retrieved from http://www.wm.com/thinkgreen/what-can-i-recycle.jsp.

Evangelita, Paeng (March 16, 2013). Ateneo Bumps Up Its Waste Management And Water Treatment System. Ateneo De Manila University. Retrieved from http://www.admu.edu.ph/news/a teno-bumps-its-waste-

management-and-water-treatment-system

All about the nuts and bolts of AdMU’s LS MRF.

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