SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

INDIVIDUAL ESSAY
“Environmental Preservation and Stewardship through the Smaller Actions”

Submitted by: Royce Matthew O. Castro

Submitted to: Angelo H. Cabije, Ph.D.

Submitted on: February 03, 2021

Question: How would you practice the stewardship in preserving the environment? What roles would you
like to lead?

For millions of years, the environment has been able to somehow manage itself through a series of
eras, epochs, periods with a few extinction events in between. During those extinction events, several
species disappeared from their respective environments forever, while others were able to adapt and
evolve according to the changes brought about by these events. In the recent times, urbanization has dealt
a number on several natural ecosystems, and it has crippled the populations of the organisms that live in
those ecosystems. While the environment was indeed able to self-sustain in the past, now with the
interference of humans the environment may not be able to do so in the future. The constant exploitation of
the natural resources, contributions to pollution, and the worsening conditions and effects of global warming
may possibly be next extinction event that will be brought to the Earth, and humans are the main culprits of
the event. However, as we are among the more intellectually-advanced beings that walk this planet, I
believe that despite our power to disrupt the natural order or nature and the environment, we have just as
much power to be able to restore it and preserve the environment.

Personally, I am an avid advocate in preserving the environment as well, and I choose to practice
my stewardship through sharing online posts, encouraging my neighbors and family to always segregate
the trash, and recycle reusable materials yet I still have some personal problems about the way I practice
my stewardship, and it is mostly brought about by how some of my efforts seem futile. For an instance, the
garbage collectors only visit our barangay for once a week (they used to visit twice – one day for malata
(biodegradable) and the other for di-malata (non-biodegradable)). As a result of that, the people in
barangay end up piling up their trash on designated areas and there is no control over whether the trash
that is being put on the pile is being sorted out per week, or not. In addition to that, I once was able to ask
the trash collector if they segregate the trash after the collect it – and they said that they stopped doing that
ever since they found out themselves that all of the trash that is collected ends up in one place. According
to Philippines Solids Waste at a Glance, a publication that was posted on the official website of the Senate
of the Philippines in November 2017, solid waste remains a problem in highly urbanized areas of the
Philippines and it is due to improper waste disposal, inefficient waste collection, and the lack of areas and
facilities for the disposal of the waste. In addition to that, it was also reported on the same article that in
2013, 57% of all collected solid waste were from the residential sector – meaning that it was coming from
households. Considering how most individuals are staying or working from home nowadays due to the
pandemic, I can only imagine how much more waste is being produced from every household, and the
problem with solid waste still persists to this day, and it is very evident in the events I have witnessed and
experienced.

Because of this kind of experience – the feeling of futility in your methods of contributions, the role
I would like to lead in is to be somehow able to oversee the overall waste disposal of the country, and to be
able to spearhead a group or institution that delves into optimizing waste management within the country, I
feel that through being able to optimize the waste management , specifically in the most eco-friendly
manner as possible, the efforts of others people who are contributing in preserving the environment won’t
seem useless to them, and it will actually be able to make a difference.

REFERENCES
Downs, A., & Acevedo, R. (2019, February 28). How Our Trash Impacts The Environment. Retrieved
February 02, 2021, from earthday.org: https://www.earthday.org/how-our-trash-impacts-the-
environment/
Senate Economic Planning Office. (2017, November). Philippine Solid Wastes At A Glance. Retrieved
February 02, 2021, from Senate of the Philippines (18th Congress):
http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/publications/SEPO/AAG_Philippine%20Solid%20Wastes_Nov2017.pdf
Waste: a problem or a resource? (2014, June 02). Retrieved February 02, 2021, from European
Environment Agency: https://www.eea.europa.eu/signals/signals-2014/articles/waste-a-problem-or-
a-
resource#:~:text=Air%20pollution%2C%20climate%20change%2C%20soil,gas%20linked%20to%2
0climate%20change.