The Municipal Solid Waste Management Programs in the Residential Sector of the City of Calamba

Abstract

In the past seven decades, the Philippine government has enacted several laws and implemented measures that will protect and preserve the environment and safeguard public health from the adverse impact of improper waste disposal methods. In line with the Republic Act 9003, the City Government of Calamba adopted several measures to addressed these concerns such as the passage of City Ordinance No. 01-273 or the Environment Code of the City of Calamba and City Ordinance No. 10-481 Series of 2010 prohibiting the use of plastic bags on dry goods and Styrofoam as packaging. The focus of this study is to determine the level of awareness of the residents of Calamba on the four subsets of the MSWM Programs of the city government viz a viz, City Ordinances, MSWM Methods, Public Information, Education, and Communication Campaign, and Information Campaign on Mass Media. The disposal behaviour of the residents of their household wastes and the challenges they encountered in the implementation of disposal methods and problems encountered with the MSWM Service of the city government is also taken into consideration. To arrive at the findings, this study used the data obtained from the survey questionnaire consisted of 4 parts with a sum of 60 questions in a 5-point Likert scale distributed to 540 respondents across the 54 barangays of the City of Calamba. The data were statistically treated through frequency distribution, weighted mean, independent sample t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for analysis and interpretation. In conclusion, the respondents’ level of awareness on the four subsets of the MSWM programs was somewhat aware to moderately aware. A significant difference on the level of awareness was evident when the respondents were grouped according to age, educational level and annual household income. Eight out of nine proper disposal methods were moderately practiced while improper disposal methods such as mixing batteries and electronic wastes with general garbage and burning of wastes were somewhat practiced by the respondents. A significant difference on the level of implementation was evident when the respondents were grouped according to age, educational level, size of family, and annual household income. The respondents also perceived that the problems they encountered in the implementation of household wastes disposal methods and with the MSWM service of the City Government of Calamba is on a very serious level.